Week 4 of the 52 week challenge of a photo a week.
This is the memorial in Gunnersbury Cemetery, west London to the thousands of Poles murdered by the Russians at Katyn in 1940. I’ve inset the inscriptions as otherwise they are unreadable. Click on the picture to get a larger version.
The cemetery itself is rather interesting, if not a little OTT with competing acreages of black, white and brown polished marble. It is owned by the London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, although it is actually in the LB of Ealing. Consequently it is the final resting place of many from the Polish and Armenian emigré communities. Many of the Armenian graves are written in Armenian script; and not all have a simultaneous translation. You will also find members of the Chinese community, at least one member of the French nobility and the expected English including architect Aston Webb. There is also a grave commemoration a number of members of the 24th Polish Lancers and a small group of twenty WWII war graves.
It is immaculately maintained and well worth a visit, even on a cold January day; it’ll look really pretty in the Spring when all the cherry blossom is out.
Thanks for this, never really knew of it, will go to see it next time I am in London. Maybe in fact this photo could be included in the 2011 AP conference program leaflet for obvious reasons?
Thanks, Nick! We only found out about this by chance. I've not had time yet to post it to AP interest groups, which I will later in the week. And yes I was thinking about using it for the conference. Sadly it is too far out of central London to make it feasible to add it to the conference London bus tour which is being planned. And I'll happily take you there when you're over here, if you wish.