10 June 2014

Please note: this news article is in our archive. Articles were correct at time of publication, but should not be relied on for accuracy after the passage of time.

AN estimated 2,000 people filled the High Street and the lawn outside Sackville College to see Princess Anne pull the silk from Martin Jennings’ statue of Sir Archibald McIndoe.

It was a perfect day. The sun shone, the East Grinstead Concert band played wartime favourites, and every time a Guinea Pig appeared the crowd cheered.

Above all there was an almost palpable sense of pride in McIndoe, in his achievements and in being part of the town ‘that didn’t stare…’

Actress Amanda Redman was determined to attend, despite a broken foot, and smiled gamely as she balanced on crutches.

A Patron of the Guinea Pigs who was herself treated for burns at the Queen Victoria Hospital, Amanda said she was thrilled to be in East Grinstead on such an historic occasion and that she was looking forward to meeting the Guinea Pigs again.‘They will have me in tears and they will make me laugh,’ she said.

For Jacquie Pinney of the Blond McIndoe Foundation, who – with the Town Council and the EGBA (East Grinstead Business Association) – had worked for three years to make the memorial a reality, the day had dawned in a mixture of joy and relief.

‘This is a very proud day,” she said. ‘It’s been a lot of work over the past three years, but today it is finally a reality.’

Town Clerk Julie Holden agreed. ‘Today is the culmination of two years’ hard work in the planning and a full year of fundraising.  But it is largely thanks to the people of East Grinstead and their generosity, that today is happening.’

While Peter Scaramanga, who is responsible for the Blond McIndoe Research Foundation’s PR simply called McIndoe Monday ‘fantastic’.

‘It is an amazing achievement, and thanks to businessman Dave Brown who underwrote the project we have made it when a lot of people thought it might not happen.

For McIndoe’s daughter, Adonia, it was a day of mixed emotions – she recalled her ‘dear old dad’ with pride and not a little disbelief that 54 years after his death, he was being honoured. But regretted he had not lived to see the statue himself.

“He was a great man, but he believed greatness lay in hard, hard work…and I am sure he is somewhere enjoying all this.”