Christmas crowdfunding campaign to complete mine warfare memorial

The Royal Navy’s diving and mine warfare community is staging a festive fund-raising campaign to help complete an ambitious memorial at their spiritual home.

The Royal Navy’s diving and mine warfare community is staging a festive fund-raising campaign to help complete an ambitious memorial at their spiritual home.

They are two-thirds of the way towards the £340,000 target needed to erect the Vernon monument in Portsmouth, but are hoping a crowdfunding splurge over the festive season – encouraging many people to donate a small amount – will raise at least £50,000 towards the goal.

The bronze memorial depicts a diver dealing with a moored mine, both of which are mounted on a plinth. It was designed by Australian-born sculptor Les Johnson – who’s previously sculpted memorials for firefighters, miners and Battle of Britain fighter group commander Keith Park.

The aim is to site the striking monument in Vernon Creek – once a berth for minehunters based at HMS Vernon, the home of mine warfare and diving for more than seven decades until the mid-1990s, now a water feature in the middle of the Gunwharf Quays leisure/shopping complex.

It’s taken half a dozen years for the project to reach this stage. The cash raised by this latest push will help to pay for the plinth supporting the statue under the water. There will also be a large-scale fund-raising event in the capital.

You can make a crowdfunding donation until February 8 2017 here: www.crowdfunder.co.uk/vernon-mine-warfare-and-diving-monument

 And you can follow progress with the memorial at www.vernon-monument.org or on Twitter twitter.com/VernonMonument