Last year, a huge art installation – For Your Tomorrow, the People’s Tribute – popped up in Normandy in honour of D-Day’s 80th anniversary. A total of 1,475 life-sized silhouettes of soldiers were erected next to the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, one for each British serviceman who was killed during the battle, and now they’ve moved across the Channel just in time for Remembrance Day.
The cut-outs, which were all handmade by volunteers from recycled materials, are now on display at the Royal Armouries Fort Nelson just outside of Portsmouth in what is ‘a symbolic homecoming for those who made the ultimate sacrifice’.
Fifteen-hundred is such a big number that it can be difficult to actually understand the scale of the lives lost on D-Day, which is why Standing with Giants, the charity that created the installation, hope it will be ‘a meaningful space for visitors to pause, reflect, and honour the fallen’.
Dan Barton, the founder of Standing with Giants, told the BBC that visitors are often incredibly moved by the tribute, saying: ‘I’ve had so many people cry in my arms and I can’t even begin to tell you what that feels like. It’s life-changing’. He added: ‘It’s a way of telling youngsters to be mindful of where their freedom came from’.
Due to high levels of interest, Royal Armouries, which runs Fort Nelson, has said that For Your Tomorrow will stay in the Portsmouth coast for longer than initially expected – the installation will run all the way until January 25 2026. It’s free to visit, but you need to book in advance and tickets have already run out for October and November.
A spokesperson for Fort Nelson said that the team has been ‘overwhelmed by the number of people wanting to come and see the tribute,’ adding: ‘We hope as many people as possible will be able to see this poignant tribute and we are asking visitors to book their tickets in advance’. You can do just that on the Fort Nelson website here.
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