16-Dec-2025
The Chairman's Christmas Message
Chairman of the Trust, Lord Richard Dannatt reflects on the last 12 months and looks ahead to 2026.
We have had another busy and successful year at The British Normandy Memorial and The Winston Churchill Centre. Visitor numbers have once again been in excess of 200,000. If you were one of those visitors, thank you and I hope you found the experience to be a fulfilling one.
On 6 June we marked the 81st anniversary of D-Day with a Service of Remembrance attended by six Normandy Veterans and Britain’s Secretary of State for Defence, John Healey and the French Minister for Veteran Affairs. We have also enjoyed concerts at the memorial by military bands and the choir of Norwich Cathedral.
We look ahead to 2026 with confidence. The Trust has commissioned the engraving of the final “Addenda” names on the Memorial. These are the names of 99 servicemen from the United Kingdom and several other nations who, until now, have been uncredited as a group for their sacrifice in the Normandy campaign.
The Trust is also working on an ambitious plan to erect a statue of Winston Churchill on a newly created space, ‘Churchill Court’. Before we can go ahead we must of course find the funding, but there could hardly be a more fitting final element to the memorial’s construction than a statue of Britain’s revered wartime leader saluting the Normandy Fallen.
We have, in addition, plans to enhance the Trust’s important educational work. We hope to develop this further in 2026 with imaginative ways in which to engage with young audiences. The education project has been generously supported by The Post Office Remembrance Fellowship and BAE Systems.
We were delighted once again in 2025 to welcome the giant silhouette figures of ‘Standing with Giants’ to the wildflower meadow of the Memorial and I should like, once again, to express our thanks and compliments to Dan and Janette Barton and their volunteers for their tremendous hard work in creating and installing the Giants. The 2025 installation was made possible thanks to the generous support of BAE Systems, KPMG and Teledyne with logistical support from the Gold Beach Tourist Office.
We hope to welcome Standing with Giants again in 2026.
Standing with Giants credit: PA / Gareth Fuller
Our dedicated team of gardeners from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission have once again kept the grounds of the Memorial looking immaculate. Our head gardener Myles Hunt retires on 31 December after 49 years with CWGC. Our warmest good wishes and thanks go with him.
The Trust’s team at the Memorial, led by our Founder and Managing Trustee Nicholas Witchell with our Site Manager Sacha Marsac have once again worked long hours, supported by the team in the Churchill Centre. My thanks to them and to the other key figures in the running of our operation, Finance Manager Steven Dean, Director of Development Julie Verne and Head of Communications Talin Chakmakjian.
My gratitude finally to all of you who support The British Normandy Memorial through our excellent Guardian scheme or in the many other ways in which I know that support manifests itself. Thank you so much. We really do value and appreciate your commitment and generosity.
With every good wish for Christmas and for 2026.
General Lord Richard Dannatt GCB CBE MC DL,
Chair of Trustees,
The Normandy Memorial Trust.
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