The Christmas Truce of 1914 will be commemorated forever with the unveiling of stunning bronze sculpture in Flanders.
The first ever full-scale bronze statue commemorating the famous ‘football game’ true between British and German soldiers is to be unveiled in at 2.00pm on Tuesday 22nd December.
The stunning work, featuring a football with a solider from either side in full uniform, is to be given pride of place in the square of
Messines, the closest town to where the legendary Christmas Day truce took place in No Man’s Land.
The ceremony is to be attended by Geert Bourgeois, Minister President of the Flemish Government, together with the British and German Ambassadors.
Interest in the Christmas Day truce has grown in the past year as the world commemorates the centenary of World War One.
Sculptor Andrew Edwards, from Stoke-on-Trent in Britain’s Potteries region said: “We’ve created this piece of sculpture for the love of peace. To end violence in the world, we all have to do something however small, to extend our sharing and start learning that all friends were once strangers. We must be able to trust each other and remember that war is over if we want it. My hope is the sculpture will make people think of what really is a simple message, that we really must – to quote John Lennon – give peace a chance.”
Chris Butler from the Castle Fine Arts Foundary where the sculpture was struck said: “We hope through our wider project to raise funding for two copies of the statue, one for Britain and the other for Germany. Our hope is that the ‘Truce statue’ will stand as a symbol of peace and reconciliation, as well as a monument to a moment of bravery which still resonates in our minds 100 years on.”
Butler is working with Britain’s National Football Museum in Manchester to raise the funding for two further bronze copies of the statue. Limited edition quarter scale copies in bronze are also being offered to football clubs and other organisations.
