User:DavidScarboroughUK/sandbox
Freddie Gilroy (sculpture)[edit]
(disambiguate Freddie Gilroy, boxer from Northern Ireland)
"Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers" was made by sculptor Ray Lonsdale using weathering steel.
The hollow work shows an old man seated on a park bench, both being double life size.
An integral part of the sculpture is a plaque (behind the right hand) which reads:
"Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers"
They said for king and country
we should do as we were bid.
They said old soldiers never die -
but plenty young ones did.
Sculpture by Ray Lonsdale
in association with Artsbank (Saltburn)
Between 30th Sept - 2nd Oct 2011, seven thousand people saw the piece at The Sage Gateshead and
it was notable that people of all ages were keen to be photographed with it.
The figure then went on loan to Scarborough Borough Council. It instantly became popular and
a Facebook appeal was launched to buy the work. A Benefactor immediately purchased it for the town.
The work is now permanently sited on the sea front at Royal Albert Drive, Scarborough.
For photographs see here.
Gilroy and Lonsdale both lived at South Hetton, where Lonsdale has his workshop.
Gilroy, a retired colliery worker, often visited
the workshop and sometimes spoke about Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp.
Newspapers and the BBC report Gilroy being "conscripted" into the British Army in
September 1939. Gilroy had voluntarily joined the Territorial Army (probably in Summer 1939)
and was mobilized when war broke out. Reportedly he served as a Royal Artillery gun aimer
and later Regimental Policeman, which duties led him to serve at Belsen.
On 15th April 1945 the concentration camp was handed over to Canadian and British forces.
Within a few days the typhus ridden concentration camp was bulldozed and burnt and the survivors
transferred to a nearby Displaced Persons Camp. Gilroy's date of arriving at Belsen is not known
however, he often said he was serving there on his 24th birthday
Lonsdale wanted to have "an ordinary man's name" on the piece as he was struck by how people coped
with the extraordinary wartime situations they found themselves in.
Lonsdale's use of the ode - which is not immediately obvious to the casual viewer - indicates
his intention that the sculpture is also a war memorial.
After the war, Gilroy returned to South Hetton and the village pit, to support his mother and brother.
He never married and died 4th November 2008 aged 87.
During the early hours of Friday 27th January 2012 (Holocaust Memorial Day), the statue
was vandalised with yellow paint. It was quickly cleaned and remains sited on the Scarborough
sea front promenade.
http://www. Jakki Facebook search 'Freddie Gilroy Sculpture Appeal Scarborough'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-16125252. Published xxx xxx 2011. Accessed 4th January 2012
http://www.freebmd.org.uk shows Fred Gilroy born May 1921 XXX