The Blitz Memorial, St Paul's Churchyard, London

This memorial is to the 1002 fire-fighters who lost their lives during the London Blitz which lasted from September 1940 to May 1941. In all there were 71 attacks on London, 57 of them being on consecutive nights. More than a million homes were damaged to a greater or lesser extent and 20,000 people were killed.

The toll of death and destruction would no doubt have been considerably greater were it not for the efforts of the London Fire Brigade, and it is therefore fitting that the sacrifice of so many of their members is recognised in this way. The bronze, by John W Mills, shows three fire-fighters in action, two of them pointing a hose and the third directing operations. The statue was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother on 4^th May 1991.

The location of the monument is entirely appropriate. It is in Old Change Court, which is on the south side of St Paul’s Cathedral (on the other side of St Paul’s Churchyard). One of the iconic images of World War II is of the dome of St Paul’s rising out of the smoke of burning buildings on all sides. Although St Paul’s did not receive a direct hit from a high explosive bomb, many incendiary devices landed on its roof and were dealt with by firemen and cathedral staff, despite the difficulty of getting water up to that level (sandbags and water pumps were used to good effect).

Winston Churchill had decreed that St Paul’s must not be allowed to burn, given the boost to morale that saving the Cathedral would provide. The fact that the second St Paul’s survived the second “Great Fire of London”, whereas the original building perished along with much of London in 1666, is down to the heroics of the men commemorated by the memorial in Old Change Court.

© John Welford