Battle of Britain Campaign Case for Support
The Battle of Britain is largely regarded as a great story of young men, beautiful aeroplanes and heroic patriotism. Yet it was fought not only by pilots but by ground crews, radar operators, anti-aircraft gunners, navigators, factory workers, telecommunications engineers, drivers and the hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who changed their lives in the national interest. In the ranks of the pilots alone, more than fifteen nations are represented, from North America to New Zealand; India to Italy; Poland to Rhodesia.
The Battle of Britain Beacon will tell the stories of the pilot in his cockpit, the firewatcher in his lonely vigil over London, the mother waiting at home in fear of a telegram. It will show how the experience of the Battle of Britain and the Blitz brought people together through adversity, dislocation, hardship, fear, and necessity. With the famous Spitfires and Hurricanes dramatically suspended and creating breathtaking vistas of the aircraft in flight, it will be a celebration of British and German engineering and the ingenuity born of conflict.
This is hugely ambitious. Yet the pressing need is paramount. Our archives are in dire need
of conservation and we need to capture the remaining stories of 1940 in an oral history programme before they are lost to the nation.
There are other, important reasons. It is the role of every museum to teach its visitors about individual and collective histories and, in so doing, new ways of seeing the world. But great museums do something more: they offer the opportunity to conceive all sorts of possibilities for our futures. To provide a suitable environment for the entire story of 1940 and of its impact on aviation history to be told and displayed, together with the technological possibilities for the future, is a huge and challenging task. But we are not afraid to tackle big projects; indeed, we believe our background and context means we are especially placed to do so.
Then there is our Collection - the archives, the aeroplanes and the photographs which comprise the collective memory of a nation beleaguered, defiant and ultimately victorious. This is currently stored, as it were, with a brooding stillness, awaiting the opportunity to be seen in proper light so that it may unfold its stories for the students and enthusiasts who come to learn here. Some of what we hold has not been seen in a generation.
We also wish to play a more vital and approachable role in the life of our local community. A renewed and extended Museum will bring economic benefit, but it is the role we can play in enhancing the area's cultural and social life that we have in our sights. The activity inside the Beacon - our displays, interpretation, archives, learning zones, exhibitions and simulated fighter plane flying experiences - will create an energy between our Collection and its visitors which is one of excitement, familiarity and inspiration.
The construction of the Beacon is therefore of abiding importance: for the conservation and display of our Collection, for the celebration of one of the most momentous battles the world has witnessed, for the benefit of the local community, but also for the sustainability of the RAF Museum itself. What we can do will be transformed, creating imaginative and far greater space for our Collection and exhibitions, and vastly increasing our capacity for teaching. We will stand alongside some of the great museums of the world, extending and expanding our appeal and broadening our audiences for generations to come.
This, then, is how we have extended our creative capacity and imagination. The Beacon will stand in a long line of continuity, nourished by what has gone before but propelled forward into, as Churchill said, the 'broad, sunlit uplands'. We want the RAF Museum in London to be a model for museums worldwide, well into this new century. Most importantly, we want it to be a place of pleasure and discovery, where people of all ages and backgrounds learn on a site that is penetrating in its breadth and exciting in its diversity.
To meet our ambition, we call on the full support of the British and international communities to help us build the Beacon. This is worth fighting for. Please join me in giving to the Battle of Britain Beacon and in supporting the Royal Air Force Museum's future.
