Tree

D-Day Tree

Erection date: 1994

Inscription

{On the two plaques to the north:}
D-Day, 6th June 1944, 50th Anniversary, 1994, City of Westminster

{On the two plaques to the south:}
Operation Overlord

These 4 plaques, each about 7" (we didn't actually measure them) are laid into the 4 corners of the metal tree-pit cover around the Ginkgo biloba, Maidenhair tree. We've created a composite image showing the plaques as arranged when viewed from the east, with your back to North Audley Street. The symbol used on the Operation Overlord plaques is the SHAEF insignia.

Erected in 1994, while not grand, this is an unusual memorial so we have studied it. Two puzzles: We can see no reason for this particular arrangement of the plaques; for example why put the 2 D-Day plaques to the north? Secondly, we need to go back and check with our fingers, but it seems that in each pair of plaques one has the text in relief and on the other the text is incuse (sunken). Perhaps all these binaries are symbolic of the two countries that achieved the victory, UK and USA. Or is this too fanciful?

Site: D-Day Tree (1 memorial)

W1, Grosvenor Square

This tree, so close to the US embassy, celebrates the US involvement in WW2 victory. We can find no record of the planting of this tree. In contrast we have found a record of the unveiling of a stone to commemorate D-Day but we cannot find the stone.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the subjects commemorated on the memorial on this page:
D-Day Tree

Subjects commemorated i

Normandy Landings / D-Day

The landings, also known as Operation Neptune, were the landing operations in...

Read More

Operation Overlord

The allied campaign in WW2 for the liberation of North West Europe including ...

Read More

Nearby Memorials

John Carswell

John Carswell

NW3, Church Row

This tree was planted by the Heath and Old Hampstead Society in its Centenary Year in memory of John Carswell (1918 - 1997) former chairm...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator
850th anniversary

850th anniversary

EC1, Cloth Fair, St Bartholomew the Great graveyard

The millennium tree (in 2008 still a sapling) is in front of the half-timbered wall. The two yews commemorating the 850th anniversary ar...

1 subject commemorated, 2 creators
TS Eliot tree

TS Eliot tree

WC1, Russell Square

The tree is just inside the entrance to the garden at the south-east corner.

1 subject commemorated, 3 creators
Sir Edward Muir

Sir Edward Muir

WC2, Lincoln's Inn Fields

This Silver Maple tree (Acer saccharinum) was planted in 1973 in memory of Sir Edward Muir (1906 - 1973) President of the Royal College o...

1 subject commemorated
Reginald & Daphne Goy

Reginald & Daphne Goy

N6, Waterlow Park

When we visited in 2004 the tree was not there. The park was undergoing some major Lottery-funded work so we thought that perhaps the tre...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator