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Visit to The National Memorial Arboretum (November 2010)
![Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College (DSFC)](javascript:PopupPic("/military/images/nma1.jpg");)
Spread across two Military Leadership Training (MLT) afternoons the whole of 09e visited The National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) in Staffordshire, with half of the year group attending on Tuesday 2nd November and the other half on Thursday 4th November. Created in 1997 and covering 150 acres of the National Forest, the NMA is a place for Remembrance including a tribute to all who have served and will continue to serve in the Armed Forces.
Upon arrival students were welcomed by Royal British Legion guides who were to escort us around the site, pointing out memorials with particular significance. Visits were made to memorials for the RAF, the Royal Navy and the four technical corps of the Army. Here, students had the opportunity to lay a poppy for those lost in their chosen career path.
We commenced our tour by visiting the Far East Prisoner of War museum. After spending some time learning about the horrendous conditions the POWs were kept in we moved on, walking past several memorials. We stopped briefly at a memorial dedicated to women during WWII and every conflict since then. After learning that women played a big part in helping the war effort for WWII we moved on to a more recent conflict.
Our next stop, after a brisk walk across the Arboretum, was the Basra Wall which details every name of service personnel that died during OP Telic. We found out that it was originally built in Basra and transported here after the war had finished.
We moved on to visit more service specific memorials to the Army Medical Corp and the Royal Corp of Signals, finished off with a visit to the Polish memorial as they helped hugely during WWII.
After refreshments in the cafe we were put into groups and told to find a memorial which represented one of the 6 core values. My group were tasked with finding a memorial which showed 'loyalty'. After talking to some of the tour guides we were told of a memorial that represented this, so after visiting this memorial we then had to explain to our group leader why we had chosen this particular memorial.
![Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College (DSFC)](javascript:PopupPic("/military/images/nma2.jpg");)
Finally, we visited the Armed Forces memorial where the name is inscribed of every soldier that has died on active service post WWII. It was quite a breath taking experience as there are around 16,000 names on the wall and space for 16,000 more. We had a small ceremony at the memorial where we observed a minute’s silence after which we laid a wreath.
On behalf of 09e we would like to thank the Adjutant for organising what turned out to be a thoroughly informative and moving trip.
Mitchell Cole, Trenchard 09E and Natalie Davies, Portland 09E
