Monument to the Women of World War II

Monument to the Women of World War II
United Kingdom
Monument to the Women of World War II (looking west)
For the women of the Second World War
Unveiled	9 July 2005; 19 years ago (2005-07-09)
Location	51°30′13″N 0°07′34″W / 51.5035°N 0.1262°W / 51.5035; -0.1262 (Monument to the Women of World War II)

The Monument to the Women of World War II is a British national war memorial situated on Whitehall in London next to the Cenotaph at the end of Downing Street. The sculpture represents the wartime contributions of over seven million women, including 650,000 who joined military services. It is a 6.7-metre (22 ft) tall hollow bronze resembling a coat rack representing Winston Churchill's call 'Let the Women Come Forward',^[1] the idea being that women left their normal lives to fight for survival in any role necessary. The monument was sculpted by John W. Mills, himself a wartime evacuee when his mother joined the fire service.

The bronze was unveiled by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in July 2005, the 60th anniversary of VE Day. The Queen was a teenage mechanic and driver in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the women's army service. Fundraising was conducted by the Memorial to Women of WWII charitable trust, the patron of which was the Speaker of the House of Commons Baroness Boothroyd. Anne Princess Royal was a vice-patron, as was wartime singer Dame Vera Lynn. The National Heritage Memorial Fund paid for most of the project. Boothroyd also raised money and public support on the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Only two of the original charitable trustees are still living. Journalist Peri Langdale followed the campaign for eight years, making two programmes for ITV Tyne Tees about the project.