Women of World War II

The Memorial to the Women of World War II is the result of an open competition. It was won by John W. Mills. The brief asked for a monument to all the women of World War II, not individuals. John W. Mills’ winning design from an entry of 12 sprang from his own memories of the war and his mother’ s work in munitions.
It depicts the contribution of all women to the war effort through their clothing symbolically left hanging on pegs after they had returned home at the end of hostilities with their job well done.

The judges for the memorial competition were: Professor Phillip King, president of the Royal Academy of Arts (1999-2004), Dr Judith Collins, former head of modern sculpture at the Tate, and James Butler, the eminent sculptor.

Another of his works in the same genre as the Memorial to the Women of World War II is Blitz, the National Fire-fighters Memorial outside St Paul’s Cathedral. Among many other sculptures from his studios have also come The Memorial to William Blake at William Blake House in London, a magnificent 12ft-high bronze, St George, at Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, and a statue of Jackie Milburn, the Newcastle footballer at Ashington, Northumberland. After many machinations that germ of a dream came to fruition as The National Firefighters Memorial ' BLITZ '.

On 9 July 2005 Her Majesty The Queen unveiled The Memorial to the Women of World War Two. The bronze sculpture stands next to The Cenotaph in Whitehall one of the most important ceremonial routes in the nation. The Memorial is a permanent tribute to the contribution made by more than seven million women during 1939 – 45 and it took seven years of campaigning for a hope to become reality. Significantly, almost every family in Britain knows a woman this memorial represents.


Sculpture of Women of World War II being completed at the Bronze foundry in Essex

• Gallery Events
  2011
  
  
  
  
  
  Different
  Strokes
  Mix artists exhibition
  12 Dec - 26 Jan