A Nationwide Installation for the Fallen
Our Tommies and Silhouettes will be touring the country over the coming year.
You can currently see our Tommies at the following locations:
St. Pancras Station in London, Hearts of Midlothian FC Memorial Garden and Museum in Edinburgh, Big Pit Coal Museum in Blaenavon.
We hope to inspire people nationwide to host installations of their own, to bring their communities together to remember those who died from their village, town or city.
“The poppies at the Tower of London captured the start of the national WWI commemoration – There But Not There will be the abiding concluding image.”
General the Lord Dannatt GCB CBE MC DL
PATRON
Help for Heroes is honoured to be involved in this inspiring and innovative project which is a poignant tribute to all those who lost their lives in WWI. The support from There But Not There will help us look to the future by enabling Help for Heroes to empower more Veterans to reach their potential and regain their purpose. We are founded on the belief that those who put their lives on the line for us deserve a second chance at life and this project serves as the perfect focal point to reflect on this sacrifice and do something about it.
Mel Waters – Chief Executive, Help for Heroes
“I do commend this creative and imaginative project very warmly. I hope that many churches will want to engage with this during this next year. As we commemorate the end of the First World War it is vital that we remember and this project allows us to do so in a way that will engage with the imagination and be a real exercise in remembrance.”
The Most Reverend & Right Hon. The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby
Britain, more than any other nation in the world, has always been an amalgamation of many different faiths and cultures; with over 3 million soldiers from across the Empire and Commonwealth serving alongside the British Army during the First World War. There But Not There offers an innovative way to pay tribute to all the brave men and women, from all corners of the world, who have served in the British Armed Forces and also recognises those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the safety and security our country. That’s what this year’s centenary is all about, and that’s why I am very proud indeed to support this inspiring project.
Major Muhammad MBE – Chair, Armed Forces Muslim Association (AFMA)
Throughout the world I see the impact of war and conflict and I am keenly aware of the effect this has on the mental health of some of our Service personnel. I am proud that in the UK we are engaged in working to help them in this field and I really believe that the There But Not There project is a moving way of getting everybody who sees it to understand what veterans are facing.
Levison Wood
“The Royal Foundation is incredibly grateful to be a beneficiary of this profoundly moving and innovative project. Through our Heads Together campaign and our relationship with Contact, the mental health and well-being of the Armed Forces Community is one of our main priorities. Our partnership with the Ministry of Defence aims to change the conversation about mental health amongst serving personnel and to promote mental fitness across the whole of Defence”
Lorraine Heggessey, Chief Executive, The Royal Foundation
“There But Not There reminds us of those who served in WW1 and did not return home. I believe that alongside each symbolic figure stands the spectre of five others who did return and found themselves so changed by what they had experienced that life for them and their families would never be the same again. There But Not There stands as a powerful symbol for us to not forget them too.”
Lt Gen Andrew Graham CB CBE, Chairman of Trustees, Combat Stress
It is very fitting that there is going to be such an extraordinary installation throughout the UK, honouring the Fallen from WWI one hundred years on from the end of that terrible war, with its huge loss of life. People had their futures stripped away, leaving whole families devastated. We must remember those sacrifices and this is is a moving and iconic way to recognise the brave, noble and selfless role our Service personnel played. I am honoured that I have been invited to support this powerful memorial.
Ben Fogle
The centenary of the Armistice marks a defining time in our history. So many people sacrificed so much in those war years and we must remember them. This project is a fitting memory to our forebears and Walking With The Wounded is honoured to be one of the beneficiaries of people’s generosity. While it is crucial we remember the past, we must not ignore the present, and as a charity we will continue to provide support to men and women who continue to serve on our behalf, particularly those who have struggled since they left the Armed Forces. There But Not There will help us do just that.
Ed Parker – Co-Founder & CEO, Walking With The Wounded
There But Not There is a true testament to the commemorative spirit of the commonwealth. We take immense pleasure in joining them in their campaign. With dignity and grandeur, they pay the perfect homage to those lost. As our social enterprise Britain’s Bravest Manufacturing Company, which employs Armed Forces veterans giving them a second chance at life after their service, has been kindly chosen to help with this tremendous project, it is clear that There But Not There not only remember the service personnel of yesterday, but also look to improve the lives of veterans today.
Brigadier Steve Sherry CMG OBE, Chief Executive of Royal British Legion Industries
Each one of the hundreds of thousands of white headstones in Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries around the world reflects a gap left in a community or family somewhere else in the world. Those names that we pass daily, on local war memorials, or on rolls of honour on the walls of churches, railway stations and schools, were all someone’s son, husband or father.
This project is a brilliant reminder of the lives that were sacrificed for their countries, and the loss that was felt then, in places which are familiar to us all today. It’s a great way to keep their stories alive.
Victoria Wallace, Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission
These silhouettes will vividly illustrate the sacrifice of one generation to its successors. In a similar vein Project Equinox will provide a platform whereby younger generations, principally university undergraduates, can learn from and recognise the contributions of successive generations of veterans. Lest any generation ever forgets.
Project Equinox
There But Not There is the 2018 Armistice project for the charity Remembered
Remembered aims to:
- Inspire communities to purchase and install our silhouettes of their local Fallen wherever they are listed for the Armistice Period, 2018, and/or to buy our 6’ Tommy figure for use in a public space at any time through 2018
- Educate all generations about why they made the ultimate sacrifice
- Raise very substantial funds to help heal those suffering from the hidden wounds of war
Our 2 minute film, ‘No Longer A Name On A Wall’ best describes the inspiration for There But Not There
Tommy knew about materials. And an early and primitive material was Perspex.
As a small boy I knew Perspex as the blister thru which our Spitfire heroes saw their war.
And that same; crystal clear; safer & better than glass - it made millions of the artefacts of our lives.
Remarkably it is still with us now and when I saw it in an ethereal role as a still and silent silhouette in a church pew, it was both the appropriate material and fitting in it’s silent perfect message - a brilliant clarity and a telling outline. No placard, no noise, not one word needed.
We all knew that silhouette, it will never fade - it was exactly that: There But Not There.
Sir Kenneth Grange, Industrial Designer
I've been trying to find the right words to describe it. It is impossible because it does that thing that art sometimes does and just stirs the soul a little. ……The spectral echoes of a community's sacrifice. The remembered returned.
Maj (Ret’d) Richard Streatfeild MBE (veteran of Afghanistan)
This was my father’s war, and the installation moved me to tears
Rosemary
It is one the finest pieces of public art I have ever seen. It’s extraordinarily affecting and such a beautiful way for people to access the range of profound emotions and principles that we must find new ways to remember.
James Perry
I just have to tell you that we have all been quite overwhelmed.. What a gift you've given us all. And what a gift you have given these men, posthumously. To encourage remembrance, respect, empathy, warmth and gratitude towards men who mustn't be forgotten. Brave men, who gave their lives.
On our way home, neither of us could speak. We both sat with a soldier and conversed silently. A beautiful experience. Incredibly sad, but incredible at the same time.
Mel Thomas
Thanks to the Installation, every time we go past, my son asks me about the war, why we went to war, about the soldiers. I thought it might be a bit beyond him at the time as he was just 3, but clearly it had a lasting impact.
I believe that every child should be taken to see the war fields at some point, but this seems to be the next best thing to capture the imagination - which is amazing.
Rebecca Rose Reeves, Fordcombe
What a poignant and moving installation. We visited as a family and thought it was quite beautiful as well as saddening. My youngest (age 6) went round the church with a photo of his Great Granddad (…. who was a quiet, proud war veteran).
It really is a beautiful and thoughtful piece.
Vicky Dennett
What an extraordinarily moving piece. Really perfectly evoking those absent friends. I was moved to tears.
I will try and hold in my mind my first impression of those quiet souls seated in the pews. A perfect resonance of all I feel about Remembrance Day.
Bridget Harris
A truly beautiful, moving and evocative memorial. It really brings it home. Wow!
Clare Himmer
I felt as if the souls and spirits of those who died all those years ago had been bought back to life in the church. List of names on a memorial are all very well, but it is the visual impact which is so important.
It makes us realise so many villages in England suffered the same extinction of ancestry, and yet how lucky we have been to reap their gallantry.
Netta Millar
In addition to the life-size silhouettes which will be installed across the nation for November 2018, we have created a limited-edition table-top Tommy figure, based on our logo, to represent every single name from the 888,246 British and Commonwealth Fallen of the First World War.