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Stories of veteran service and sacrifice straight from the people driving today’s most important veterans causes and veterans organizations around the world. The show shines a spotlight on their inspiring projects making a real difference for veterans and their families, and along the way we'll hear the stories that drive them to do their best every day as they work to support veterans and their memory.
00:00:06:01 - 00:00:29:04
Speaker 1
Hey, it's Matthew Cudmore and welcome to Story Behind the Stone. Today we're joined by Philippa Rawlinson of the National Memorial Arboretum in the United Kingdom. This is a site that spans 150 acres. Over 400 monuments, 30,000 trees, tens of thousands of service member names etched in stone. And every November, the arboretum becomes a focal point for remembrance for a national TV audience of millions.
00:00:29:06 - 00:00:46:18
Speaker 1
In today's episode, we explore how Philip on our team ensured the Arboretum remains a personal, meaningful place for every visitor and why remembrance is more important than ever in today's world. Philippa, thanks for the work you and your team are doing to make remembrance accessible, meaningful and lasting. And to our listeners, thanks for tuning in.
00:00:52:12 - 00:01:13:13
Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to Story Behind the Stone Ashari talk, service, sacrifice and story. Connecting to the people, changing the way the world remembers, and commemoration veterans causes. I am Matthew Cudmore and I'm joined today by my co-host Ryan Mullins and our guests Philippa Rawlinson, managing director for the National Memorial Arboretum in the UK, Philippa, so wonderful to chat with you today.
00:01:13:14 - 00:01:16:06
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's great to be here. I'm really looking forward to this conversation.
00:01:16:06 - 00:01:27:14
Speaker 1
The National Memorial Arboretum, for our listeners who may not have visited or are not aware, how would you best describe the purpose and experience of the arboretum that you're trying to deliver for visitors when they're on site?
00:01:27:14 - 00:01:59:13
Speaker 2
So the National Memorial Arboretum is a 150 acre site where right in the middle of the United Kingdom. And that's really important because we were designed to be somewhere where everything was easy, accessible for everyone to be able to get to. So we're in Staffordshire. We are a place where we remember those that have served our country, that could be in His Majesty's Armed Forces, but we also remember people that have served in our emergency services or perhaps in some voluntary organizations.
00:01:59:15 - 00:02:21:05
Speaker 2
But the purpose of the arboretum is to be there to remember groups of individuals who have served our country and to provide somewhere where their family members can come and remember them, and also to educate people in the impact of service and sacrifice. So it's a big responsibility for somewhere, and it's something that we're very proud to do.
00:02:21:05 - 00:02:31:17
Speaker 1
Let's talk a little bit about your background. You have an extensive experience and heritage and attractions. What was it about the mission that inspired you to take on this leadership role?
00:02:31:18 - 00:03:14:16
Speaker 2
I've been pretty stunned since and then moved into heritage tourism, and so I've looked after Winston Churchill's family home, Chartwell. And then I was am looking I was deputy chief executive for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. So, you know, Shakespeare, Rinaldo storytelling. And when I was looking for a role where I could build on what I'd learned in those two particular positions and I think the idea of leading a place and a team where we were responsible for sharing the stories of people that had sacrificed for our country, felt to be really important, and slightly nervous about how you make a visitor attraction that is based on stories of service and sacrifice.
00:03:14:16 - 00:03:37:16
Speaker 2
But actually what I found is it's so emotionally connecting with people. That's what you want is for people to come and to be attracted, but once they're there to find a reason why it matters to them. And we see that time and time again at the arboretum. And when I'm on site, I do like to get out and talk to visitors, and you realize that we gave them a space from their everyday lives.
00:03:37:16 - 00:03:58:12
Speaker 2
We've got our memorials, we've got over 420 memorials on the site now, and each of those is nestled amongst trees and being in nature. And with the memorial seems to give people a reason to stop and to think. And we see tears as people commemorate the lives lost. But then they go on to make new memories. And we talk about celebrating lives lived, that moment.
00:03:58:12 - 00:04:26:00
Speaker 2
That connection is really powerful. It's amazing thing to witness and to have those conversations with people about why we matter. And so I think some that piece of background of trying to connect people with stories and heritage. The Arboretum is somewhere where we have 420 plus different Insta stories, and we've all got connections, and I have a great team on site, particularly of volunteers, and they help people find that connection and it sticks.
00:04:26:00 - 00:04:27:20
Speaker 2
It's it's just an incredible place.
00:04:27:20 - 00:04:44:21
Speaker 1
If you can connect with just one story and have a bit of empathy for that, that individual or that family member, it starts giving you entry into just how big of a sacrifice your nation made during those wars. But I also love the fact that you're looking at first responders, people who have served the nation as a whole.
00:04:44:22 - 00:04:52:04
Speaker 1
What sparked your interest in getting into this? Do you have any connection to the wars or anything like that in your own history?
00:04:52:05 - 00:05:13:19
Speaker 2
One of the things is we all do. It's finding that, and I think one of one things we, we try to do is encourage people to think about how they're connected, because that's how you get an emotional response. My two grandfathers were involved in the Second World War. My mother's father was a fire fighter, so retained service, and my father's father was in the army, and he was a desert rat.
00:05:13:19 - 00:05:34:22
Speaker 2
And I didn't really know much about his service. It wasn't anything like that was part of him being my granddad. I, you know, watching him watching cricket and pruning roses and being slightly gruff was what I remembered of Henry, sadly lost in a good few years ago. But I knew he was a desert rat, and I didn't realize how much that would matter.
00:05:35:04 - 00:05:58:06
Speaker 2
When we had a Desert Rat memorial unveiled and dedicated at the Arboretum, I was invited along to the service. I go to many services, but that we found that really moving to find that connection. And as I place my tribute to my grandad, I had a tear in my eye and I still remember him when I'm out on site and walking into that part of the arboretum.
00:05:58:06 - 00:06:18:19
Speaker 2
And that wasn't even a big part of my relationship with him. So I think that was an eye opener to me in terms of how memorials matter to people and the symbolism, the stopping, the feeling of your family being honored can connect and is important. And at that moment, I had a connection with everybody else attending that service.
00:06:18:19 - 00:06:36:07
Speaker 2
And one thing we talk about is how remembrance unites us and brings us together. And I know it matters to those whose loved ones we are remembering that they are remembered where others who have served our country are in this special place.
00:06:36:07 - 00:06:42:11
Speaker 1
When will you think of this act of commemoration and remembering? Why do you think it's especially important in the world today?
00:06:42:11 - 00:07:21:02
Speaker 2
What's something? There's lots of conflict in the world today around us, and I think that makes it even more poignant that we stop and reflect on the service and sacrifice of those who have served and continue to serve our country. And I think for those who have loved ones who are part of the current armed forces or who have sadly lost loved ones due to their service, the Arboretum gives people a place to come and take that time out and reflect and just be open about the uncertainty and how it's making them feel, and perhaps come together with others so that they're not feeling alone.
00:07:21:02 - 00:07:42:00
Speaker 2
And the moments we've been marking 80 years since the end of the Second World War and paying tribute to our Second World War generation and not this year. But there are still many people who are serving our countries and trying to keep freedoms and democracy safe. I think having places where we acknowledge that we know is ever more important, sadly.
00:07:42:02 - 00:07:53:09
Speaker 1
But when it comes to the next generation, what is the National Memorial Arboretum doing to reach students who may not have experience with maybe loved ones that served or feeling disconnected from the conflicts?
00:07:53:09 - 00:08:32:01
Speaker 2
And one of the things that we do is we look at how we connect with the next generation and through both our formal learning programs. And I say formal, but as much as it's as formal as coming on a day trip out to the Arboretum is we think about how we can connect with we have a national national curriculum in our UK schools, how a trip to the arboretum, the stories that we are telling and the memorials can can connect and puts schools programs together, where schools can come and either go out with one of our amazing learning volunteer team or follow the curriculum led lesson plan themselves.
00:08:32:01 - 00:08:56:16
Speaker 2
And we see over 25,000 young people come through those programs each year. And we're actively working to make sure that we reduce the barriers for people coming to visit. So we have a new bursary where schools who need to can get funding to enable them to come and come and visit us, because we think it's really important not to exclude and to make access as freely available as possible.
00:08:56:16 - 00:09:16:14
Speaker 2
So that's a great thing. We've been able to introduce this year. We also then have some of our volunteers will go out and work in schools. So had a VE day. We had programs going on in a number of schools across the region, and then all the schools came together for a showcase event just ahead of the the day anniversary in May.
00:09:16:14 - 00:09:50:00
Speaker 2
And that was fabulous. Seeing lots of schoolchildren. Of course, you get that parents and grandparents coming and they put on a performance with all the schools working together with some professional actors and our volunteers, and that that was an amazing buzz to see. And we've seen some of those families and children come back again over the year. And alongside our formal programs, every school holiday we will have activities on the are designed to get intergenerational families coming in, engaging with the site in some way, and that can be quite inventive.
00:09:50:02 - 00:10:12:10
Speaker 2
And or it can be as simple as doing the stickman trail and retracing your family tree and exploring the site. But I do know that they attract lots of lots of families, and we get people engaged and interested, and then they start to ask more questions about the sculptures, the memorials. And again, we can bring those stories to life in lots of different ways depending on the age of the family.
00:10:12:12 - 00:10:41:02
Speaker 2
And I think we know one story that sits with me from very early on in my my time at the Arboretum, we had had a trail and it was designed to take families around, I think probably during the summer holiday. And I was out on site and I was at our shot of Dawn Memorial, a really powerful memorial reflecting on the individuals who were shot at dawn in the First World War and for alleged cowardice.
00:10:41:02 - 00:10:59:13
Speaker 2
I mean, now we we would think of it as the trauma of their service. But we have a memorial with a wooden stake for every individual, some 300 or so, who was shot at dawn. And each of them is a is a name. A many of the names and ages are really young or age unknown. And I was at the memorial.
00:10:59:13 - 00:11:28:09
Speaker 2
It's a very reflective place. It's at the most easterly part of the site, so it's where we get dawn first at the Arboretum, I was there and there were a family doing the trail. It was a mum with two teenage boys, and I just remember the conversation that started the names on these young men weren't much older than the lads doing our family trail, and that started the conversation about service and one of the great great uncles in this family had lied about his age so he could join up very young.
00:11:28:09 - 00:11:54:11
Speaker 2
And, you know, thankfully his story was much, much happier. But that family history, that family story may not have ever been passed on. If they hadn't stopped, I'd been at the Arboretum, I'd been exploring on one of our family summer trails, and I felt privileged to be part of that conversation that was really moving, and for me, sort of tells me why we do the trails and the family activities, because they're ways of engaging people and getting them to explain their stories.
00:11:54:12 - 00:12:12:16
Speaker 1
You can see how what you're facilitating at the Arboretum is so much more than just going to a memorial. There's an experience that's happening there, and there's an opportunity for conversation. You've come quite a ways. We were talking earlier about 25 years now. How did it start and what did it look like at that point to where it is now?
00:12:12:16 - 00:12:48:15
Speaker 2
We are coming up for 25 years old in May next year, and we are a millennium project. It's quite scary to think the millennium was 25 years ago, and we are the vision of a gentleman called Commander David Childs. He had served. He'd been on a visit over to your side of the pond, and although in the States and he'd visited Arlington and did visited some memorials, and he had been something sort of bugging him that we needed somewhere in the UK where those had served our armed forces since the end of the Second World War, could be remembered.
00:12:48:20 - 00:13:14:07
Speaker 2
We have lots of war memorials in towns and villages, naming those who have served our country in the First World War, in the Second World War. But what were after that? And so we really pick up after the end of the Second World War with remembering those who have served our country in the armed forces, in emergency services, and voluntary organizations.
00:13:14:07 - 00:13:39:10
Speaker 2
But the idea being that we should have somewhere where those who served our country is remembered, that it should be secular and it should be easily accessible. We are in Staffordshire now. A bit of that is pragmatic, because we're on an old quarry on land that was available. And Infeld and, you know, 25 years ago, we've still got some volunteers that were with us as the arboretum opened.
00:13:39:10 - 00:14:05:19
Speaker 2
And they share photographs of a large, muddy field with some twigs and the odd memorial in it. And it has grown from those very early days with a lot of ambition and vision, to a site now where the trees have grown up. Largely they're still quite young, but they are now nestling the memorials and providing that backdrop and setting of nature.
00:14:05:21 - 00:14:30:07
Speaker 2
And that element of surprise as you sort of go around the trees and you find a new memorial. And that's what David Charles envisaged. He was quite elderly now, doesn't visit very often, but he did come back up a year or so ago and say, you know, Philippa, this is what I wanted. Gone from that muddy field with whips and twigs, in the ground to a maturing landscape where the trees are the backdrop for the memorials.
00:14:30:07 - 00:14:57:13
Speaker 2
And quite often the trees are part of the memorial. So we have an area called the Bates. Well, or the Constabulary's of Union, like police, Constabulary of United Kingdom of Remembered and that's lined with horse chestnut trees because the very early truncheons of the first bobbies on the beat were made from horse chestnut. So I love that, you know, it's quite often that symbolism, the trees are what relates as well.
00:14:57:13 - 00:15:03:05
Speaker 2
And we see that time and time again. So they're not just the landscape, they are. They're part of the memorials as well.
00:15:03:05 - 00:15:12:09
Speaker 1
From the perspective of your volunteer team, what seems to be their greatest source of personal reward or meaning that they're getting from their service at the Arboretum?
00:15:12:11 - 00:15:39:14
Speaker 2
A lot of our volunteers do have a service background, either in the military or the emergency services, but certainly not all. There's probably close to 300 active volunteers. They get a lot from the difference that they can make to those people who are visiting, and they have a lot of pride in what they do. I mean, while we we want them to know the some history, particularly if they're doing a guided walk or talk.
00:15:39:14 - 00:16:01:06
Speaker 2
But what we really want is people that can engage and story tell and understand what's the visitor in front of them needs or wants that any moment in time. And that can be really challenging. At the Arboretum, it could be directing to a memorial on a day that's really important to that individual, where they just need some peace, quiet and reflective time.
00:16:01:10 - 00:16:22:23
Speaker 2
It could be to find, a memorial that's particularly connected to them and their family, or maybe to find a name on the Armed Forces Memorial at the heart of the site that matters to them. Or it could be where to find the playground for the family that they're that they're visiting with. Or it could be a guided walk or talk.
00:16:23:00 - 00:16:58:16
Speaker 2
I think, you know, our volunteers get a lot of satisfaction from having the freedom to engage with visitors on the level the visitor needs at that moment in time, and having the resources to respond and make a difference to the visitors year round. And, you know, our volunteers are great about that. And biking here to summer, and they're out there when it's cold and dark in the winter, and there's not so many people around there with us when we have amazing events like marking 80 with lots of World War Two veterans, His Majesty the King and the BBC making a program that's broadcast to 2 million people.
00:16:58:16 - 00:17:03:15
Speaker 2
But they're also there in the depths of winter, when there were very few people around. So they are they were amazing.
00:17:03:15 - 00:17:22:04
Speaker 1
I think the fact that you've had volunteers stay for 25 years speaks to the meaning that they continue to get from that, going from mud and gravel and sticks to what it is today. And they probably feel a lot of ownership and a sense of service in that. So if I was going to visit, what would I expect as a visitor and where should it go?
00:17:22:05 - 00:17:42:17
Speaker 2
Yes, Google National Memorial Arboretum and go onto a website and and have a look. There's a lot you can do. You can just come and be a wander and find out more about by yourself. You could book to do a guided walk or talk with one of our volunteer team. We're quite a big site and we know that a lot of our visitors find that a bit daunting.
00:17:42:17 - 00:18:15:23
Speaker 2
So you can book a book buggy tour or you can go on the land train. But I think the first thing I would say is have a look at the website before you visit and work out what kind of day that you want. And one thing we hear time and time again is I didn't leave long enough. I need to come back and that's fabulous because we love having repeat visitors, but also plan to spend the best part of the day with us, at least to try and get a sense of the place, the stories that we hold, the breath of fresh air that we can bring, you know, time to sit on the riverbank
00:18:16:01 - 00:18:36:01
Speaker 2
and watch the water flow by with the swans and the kingfishers, and take the nature in, as well as the stories that we hold. And of course, we have an amazing coffee shop that makes fabulous hot chocolates when it's a bit colder or our restaurant where you get a hearty bite to eat as well. And all that is made on site and of course supports the work of the arboretum as well.
00:18:36:01 - 00:18:40:15
Speaker 2
So lots, lots to do and don't cut your time too short.
00:18:40:16 - 00:18:44:21
Speaker 1
What do visitors have to look forward to in 2026, 2027 and onwards?
00:18:44:22 - 00:19:13:12
Speaker 2
Well, I think the arboretum will continue to grow where always having new memorials proposed for the site, and I can think of some really powerful ones that are coming in the future. And every new memorial brings a new group of stories. Just yesterday, our Parliament announced the design for the memorial to parliamentarians. So that's our MPs, but also those that serve in our Parliament who have lost their lives.
00:19:13:14 - 00:19:38:06
Speaker 2
And that will be a really powerful new memorial reflecting the clocktower Tower of Big Ben or Elizabeth Tower. And that will be cited by the river at the Arboretum, just as our Houses of Parliament are cited by the river in London. And that will be some point late next year, so that that will be exciting, but also another new memorial, which we're hoping will go in soon, which is the Muslim World Wars Memorial, which would be a minaret.
00:19:38:06 - 00:20:04:05
Speaker 2
And that will be enough for forest. So so actually both of those will be really important memorials at different ends of the site. And I think, you know, we will have storytelling around those as they come on stream in the, in the future. So I think that's one of the amazing things is we will continue to collect stories and memorials as people wants and choose to place them with us and make sure that we bring them to life for our visitors long into the future.
00:20:04:05 - 00:20:07:10
Speaker 1
What are you most proud of in your time with NMA? So far?
00:20:07:11 - 00:20:33:14
Speaker 2
My team because they make the difference to all of our visitors, whether it be, volunteer team or our staff team. We're all one team and we're all there to play our individual parts in making sure that we really do make sure that the arboretum is the nation's year round place to remember, and that inspires people. And it is welcoming and freely open to everybody all year round.
00:20:33:14 - 00:20:40:17
Speaker 1
And for our listeners that are planning a future visit, want to support, want to learn more? What's the best place for them to go?
00:20:40:17 - 00:20:59:18
Speaker 2
I would direct them to our websites. And so, you know that's for me. Dot org Duke or just search the National Memorial Arboretum and have a look there and plan the visit and find out about what we're up to and how you can support all online from the website. Also very active on Facebook and LinkedIn.
00:20:59:18 - 00:21:08:06
Speaker 1
Such a pleasure to chat with you today and to welcome you on the show to share a little bit more about everything that's going on at the NMA. Thank you so much for coming on the show notes.
00:21:08:06 - 00:21:20:05
Speaker 2
Thank you for allowing me to talk about all the wonderful things that we do at the Arboretum, and hopefully encouraging a few people to find out more, or even come and visit and find out for themselves about those stories that we hold.
00:21:26:06 - 00:21:45:16
Speaker 1
Thanks so much for tuning in. Story. Behind the Stone is available on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, and on the Rise Across America Radio Network on iHeartRadio. Audacity and tune in to search for wreath. We air every Thursday at 10 a.m. eastern on the Red Cross Radio Network. Thank you for tuning in.