Liverpool Pier Head Repatriation Memorial

UPDATE: FINAL DETAILS

We hope to host an outdoor service on Pier Head on the day, Saturday 15 October 2011 at 11am.

Marshals (ATC and Joint Forces cadets) will be on hand to guide you to the area for the service, close to the river and in front of the square raised platform which houses several maritime/wartime memorials. (This is opposite the Port of Liverpool Building, adjacent to the new Museum of Liverpool). The service will start promptly at 11am.

Bad weather – if necessary we can hold the service indoors in a nearby building. The decision will be made on the day; the marshals will guide you to where the service is to be held.

Parking – there are 75 free places beside the Liver Buildings as well as on-street metered parking in the roads between the Three Graces, ie the Liver, Cunard and Port of Liverpool buildings. The nearest multi-storey is at Capital Car Park, Fazakerley Street, L3 9DL, just a five minute walk from the Pier Head. Also there is a large Q Park at Liverpool One nearby.

Postcode for the Merseytravel building on the centre of the Pier Head – L3 1DP.

Disabled access (for dropping off only) via Mann Island – go straight on at the mini roundabout on to the paved area (follow paved roadway), to drop off but you are not allowed to park here.

Toilets – the nearest are in the Merseytravel building or Museum of Liverpool.

REMEMBER – we cannot provide seating for the service except for the veterans and elderly disabled. Bring folding chairs if necessary.

Thank you for wanting to be with us to dedicate this memorial, 66 years after the men, women and children returned from captivity in the Far East to the port of Liverpool.

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If you are visiting the area there are many attractions close by including:
http://www.merseyferries.co.uk
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/mol
http://www.albertdock.com
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool

and the FEPOW Bamboo Garden at the University of Liverpool's Botanical Gardens at Ness, South Wirral.

For further help or information, please contact: sarah@researchingfepowhistory.org.uk

UPDATE: Following a successful conclusion to the appeal, we will be unveiling the memorial at a ceremony at 11am on Saturday 15 October 2011 on the waterfront on Liverpool Pier Head. All are welcome but in order to gauge numbers we would be grateful if you could contact us if you are planning to attend. Full details here (121kb PDF).

The organisers of the Researching FEPOW History Group have launched a national appeal to create a permanent memorial to the memory of the FEPOW and civilian internees who returned to Liverpool from captivity in the Far East during the autumn of 1945.

The appeal was launched nationally on 9 November 2010, the 65th anniversary of the docking of the SS Orbita at the Princes Landing Stage in Liverpool. This ship carried more men returning from the Thailand-Burma railway camps, including Lt Col Phillip Toosey and his men from the 135th Field Regiment.

Over 50,000 British forces were captured by the Japanese in the Far East and a quarter of them died in captivity. The remaining survivors (around 37,000 men) finally returned to the UK in the autumn of 1945, with over half of them disembarking at Liverpool. Accompanying them were hundreds of civilians released from internment across South East Asia.

There is no mention of the arrival back home of these captives on any of the many memorial plaques, sculptures and structures situated on the Pier Head. With your support the Group wants to create a lasting memorial to the memory of those who survived captivity. As we know, for many the battle to survive did not end when they were repatriated and returned home.

The proposal has the backing of Liverpool City Council's Planning Department and the World Heritage Site Officer.

It is proposed that the memorial will be a large engraved plaque bearing the names of the repatriation ships which docked in Liverpool during October and November 1945, listed in two columns either side of a central dedication. The plaque would be situated alongside other WWII maritime memorials on a raised Portland stone structure on the Pier Head facing the River Mersey.

For further information, contact:
Mike Parkes
34 Queens Road
Hoylake
Wirral CH47 2AJ
mike.parkes@talktalk.net