November 2025
Regular contributor Robin Stapleton marks Remembrance Day with a visit to an inspiring place commemorating the lives lost in war…
The 150-acre National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire honours those – military and civilian – who have served and continue to serve the nation. Planting began in 1997 and there are now around 30,000 trees, both native and from temperate zones overseas. There are also nearly 400 memorials as well as dedicated trees. Buildings include the Millennium Chapel of Peace and Reconciliation, three exhibition galleries, a restaurant and coffee shop. Entry is free.
The Armed Forces Memorial is sited prominently on a mound and records over 16,000 names from 50 operations since 1948. A gap in the two southern walls allows a shaft of sunlight into the heart of the memorial on the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month.
There are memorials for the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force plus commonwealth, foreign and civilian losses. Almost any visitor will find something relating to their family. I found memorials for National Service, the Royal Hampshire Regiment and the Korean War; others in the Royal Navy, Gibraltar and Women’s Land Army sections; a tree dedicated to the 7th Royal Fusiliers (my great-grandfather’s regiment) and another to the Gloucestershire Regiment (the ‘Glosters’) in which I did my National Service.
The Devonshire & Dorset Regiment has an impressive memorial in three sections: a soldier at the Battle of Kohima represents Dorset; Devonshire is at the Somme; and the combined regiment is in Northern Ireland.
Many National Servicemen (1948–60) were deployed in war zones, guerilla wars and riots, often with inadequate training, in Malaya, Korea, Kenya, Cyprus, Suez and elsewhere. The Armed Forces Memorial bears the names of 395 killed.
Around 68,000 British civilians were killed in WW2 (compared to 2,000 in WW1), 43,000 of them during The Blitz in 1940–41. The British-German Friendship Garden remembers citizens of both countries killed in bombing. There is also a woodland area in memory of the Merchant Navy.
Every day at 11am there is an Act of Remembrance with two minutes’ silence preceded by the Last Post and followed by the Reveille.
It is impossible to do justice to this special place here; there is just so much to see and take in. Arriving for the first time it can seem rather overwhelming, but plenty of help is available as well as maps to guide visitors to the locations they want to see. There is rather lot of walking, although there is a land train for a guided tour. If you have a number of particular interests you will probably need a whole day, especially if it is your first visit.
Local coach firms offer tours to the arboretum as an alternative to driving there. Our recent visit was our second, while others in our party had not been before. A typical reaction was “way beyond expectations”. Our coach driver had been on HMS Coventry, sunk during the Falklands War, for which there is a memorial area.
www.thenma.org.uk