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Public Statues and Sculpture Association

Vera Brittain

Photo: © Jonathan Hutchins CC BY-SA2.0

Sculptor: Artworks team, Andy Edwards (b.1964), Phil Brown, Callum Marchese (b.1998; apprentice )

Designer: Andy Edwards

Unveiled: 11 November 2014

Vera Brittain

Vera Brittain (1893–1970) was a feminist and socialist. In WWI she was an English Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) nurse, her wartime experiences and subsequent pacifism are recounted in her moving memoir Testament of Youth (1933). Mother of the politician, Baroness Shirley Williams, Vera Brittain was born at Newcastle-under-Lyme, where this sculpture is located. Entitled The Lady in the Park, it was commissioned by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and funded by the charity Realise to mark the WWI centenary. Made from a mixture of recycled metal and 200 pieces of sheet steel, it was then treated to resemble bronze.

Location: Brampton Park, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire.