基思·帕克爵士
9 月 15 日星期三，我们在伦敦滑铁卢广场为基思·帕克爵士的雕像揭幕，以此庆祝不列颠战役纪念日 70 周年。
On Wednesday 15th September we celebrated the 70th anniversary of Battle of Britain Day with the unveiling of the statue of Sir Keith Park in Waterloo Place, London.
正如玛尼便士夫人在她 9 月 11 日的专栏中指出的那样，这场运动正是在三年前的当天在该专栏中发起的：
As Mrs Moneypenny pointed out in her column on 11th Sept, the campaign was launched in that column three years to the day prior to the unveiling:
查看《金融时报》上的完整文章。
View the full article on The FT.
我基本上是用了点小伎俩来发起这场运动，但目的是正当的。玛尼便士夫人的专栏刊登在《金融时报》周六杂志上（如果你阅读的是英国以外发行的《金融时报》版本，则刊登在生活与艺术版块），而 2007 年不列颠战役纪念日——9 月 15 日——正好是周六。我鼓励玛尼便士夫人写一篇关于基思爵士缺乏适当纪念物的文章。随后我以“滕布里奇韦尔斯的厌恶者”的口吻给编辑写了一封信，主张伦敦市中心应有基思爵士的雕像，然后静观其变。玛尼便士夫人、我本人以及《金融时报》（该报不得不为这些来信单独开辟一个信件专版）收到的信件的分量，给了我发起纪念基思爵士运动所需的鼓励，这场运动最终于 2009 年 11 月在特拉法加广场第四基座上揭幕了他的雕像。
I basically used a ruse to launch the campaign, but it was in a worthy cause. The Mrs Moneypenny column is in the Saturday FT magazine (or the Life & Arts section if you read an edition of the FT published outside the UK) and in 2007, Battle of Britain Day, the 15th September, fell on a Saturday. I encouraged Mrs M to write a piece about the absence of a suitable memorial to Sir Keith. I then wrote a letter to the Editor in the vein of "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells" arguing that there should be a statue of Sir Keith in central London and sat back to see what transpired. The weight of the postbag which was received by Mrs M, me and the FT (which had to devote a separate letters page to the correspondence) gave me the encouragement I needed to launch the campaign to commemorate Sir Keith, which culminated in the unveiling of his statue on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square in November 2009.
我一直对无名英雄情有独钟，而帕克无疑就是其中之一。第一次世界大战期间，他在加里波利与澳新军团并肩作战。随后他志愿加入英国陆军，参加了索姆河战役，在那里他被炮弹炸下马背，因伤退役，被宣布不再适合服役。然而，他随后又志愿加入了新成立的皇家飞行队，并获得了飞行员资格。他驾驶布里斯托战斗机击落了约 18 架敌机。到战争结束时，他已获得军功十字勋章及勋章条、杰出飞行十字勋章和十字战争勋章。战后他留在了新成立的皇家空军。
I have always had a soft spot for unsung heroes, and there is little doubt that Park was one. He fought with the Anzac Brigade in Gallipoli in World War One. He then volunteered for service in the British Army and fought in the Battle of the Somme, where he was invalided out and declared unfit for service after being blown off his horse by an artillery shell. However, he then volunteered for the newly formed Royal Flying Corps and qualified as a pilot. He was credited with some 18 enemy aircraft downed whilst flying his Bristol fighter. By the end of the War he had been awarded a Military Cross and Bar, a Distinguished Flying Cross and the Croix de Guerre. He stayed with the newly formed Royal Air Force after the War.
在第二次世界大战酝酿期间，帕克是战斗机司令部司令休·道丁空军上将的参谋军官。道丁信任帕克会执行他制定的战略，1940 年 4 月，时任空军少将的帕克受命指挥第 11 战斗机大队，该大队负责保卫伦敦和英格兰东南部，即将承受即将到来的不列颠战役的主要冲击。帕克对战斗机的调度堪称完美，他在逆境中赢得了这场战役。然而，正如帕克这样谦逊的人所常遇到的那样，他在和平时期失势了。战役结束后，他和道丁因所谓的“大机群”理论支持者——由第 12 大队队长特拉福德·利-马洛里领导——的政治内斗而被排挤。这种不公正的对待导致帕克被调往训练司令部。在一个令人羞耻的事件中，官方的战役史甚至没有提到他。然而，帕克太出色了，不会沉寂太久，1942 年 7 月，他被任命领导马耳他的防空作战，在那里他扭转了战局，再次击败了德国空军。
In the build up to World War Two, Park was a staff officer to Air Chief Marshall Sir Hugh Dowding, the head of Fighter Command. Dowding trusted Park to follow the strategy he had devised and in April 1940 Park, by then an Air Vice Marshall, was given commmand of 11 Group Fighter Command which guarded London and the South East of England and was to bear the brunt of the forthcoming Battle Of Britain. Park's handling of his fighters was impeccable, and he won the Battle against the odds. However, as so often with unassuming men like Park he lost the peace. After the Battle, he and Dowding were cast aside as the result of political infighting by the adherents of the so-called Big Wing theory. led by Trafford Leigh Mallory, the head of 12 Group. This travesty of justice led to Park being consigned to Training Command. In a shameful episode, the official history of the Battle did not even mention him. However, Park was too good to languish for long and in July 1942 he was appointed to lead the air defence of Malta where he turned the tide of the battle and defeated the Luftwaffe once again.
帕克赢得了历史上最伟大、最具意义的空战，并两次赢得防御性空战，这是独一无二的纪录。
Park had won the greatest and most significant aerial battle in history and had twice won defensive aerial battles, a unique record.
尽管取得了这些成就，在特拉法加广场的雕像竖立之前，帕克没有任何重要的纪念碑，当时雕像被临时安放在第四基座上。现在，滑铁卢广场有一座帕克的永久雕像，于 2010 年 9 月 15 日——不列颠战役 70 周年纪念日——揭幕。如今，基思爵士可以永远凝视着他曾经保卫的城市。
Despite these achievements, there was no significant monument to Park prior to the erection of his statue in Trafalgar Square, where it was temporarily installed on the fourth plinth. Now there is a permanent statue of Park in Waterloo Place which was unveiled on Battle of Britain Day, 15th September 2010 - the 70th anniversary of the Battle. Now Sir Keith can forever gaze over the city he defended.