​Face of Peace

 
In the current movie bearing his name, Winston Churchill is shown agonising over the impending D-Day landings.  Churchill has grave reservations about the strategy, recalling the ill-fated landings at Turkey in World War I.  He suffers for the 250,000 troops who lost their lives there, and asks how can he possibly sanction the D-Day invasion when 20,000 young men may be lost in no time at all.
 
A low wall across Caroline Bay carries the names of many of the infamous battlegrounds from the World Wars.  A more recent polished array of pillars commemorates the gruesome history of those battles, as well as the heroic deeds of that special band of men endowed with exceptional courage.
 
However when Margriet Windhausen was approached by the Hervey Arts Trust to add an appropriate piece in this area, the sculptor responded in a different vein.
 
At the unveiling in 2008 Gabrielle Hervey explained that Margriet Windhausen had no desire to sanction the cruel realities of war; rather she wished to celebrate the glory of peace between nations.
 
Sited on one of the diagonal pathways crossing the Bay, and as a counterpoint to the grim history of international conflict, the Face of Peace glows in the afternoon sun.
 
 
David McBride