Lady in the Park

After food shopping for dad, we went for a walk to our local park. It was still quite cold and very grey. 

This statue in the park was created to mark to 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. It's a life-sized sculpture, and depicts a woman reading a letter sent from the Armed forces informing her that a family member had died in battle.

The inspiration for the statue was Vera Brittain who was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme and worked as a Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse for much of the First World War.

A plaque beside the sculpture has a quote from Brittain’s Testament of Youth:

‘I sat in a tree-shadowed walk called the Brampton and meditated on the War. It was one of those shimmering autumn days when every leaf and flower seemed to scintillate with light, and I found it very hard to believe that not far away men were being slain ruthlessly. It is impossible, I concluded, to find any satisfaction in the thought of the destruction of men whether they be English, French, German or anything else, seems a crime to the whole march of civilisation.’