WWII hero honoured
He led the air defence of Malta in 1942
A statue of Battle of Britain hero Sir Keith Park was unveiled in Trafalgar Square yesterday.
A Royal Air Force Spitfire and a Typhoon aircraft flew through the slate-coloured sky to begin the ceremony attended by veterans and London Mayor Boris Johnson.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith led the RAF forces over London and the south east of England throughout the Battle of Britain. He went on to lead the air defence of Malta in 1942.
The memorial comes after lobbying from the Sir Keith Park Memorial Campaign and it will remain on the Fourth Plinth for six months.
A permanent memorial statue of Sir Keith will be unveiled next September in Waterloo Place to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle.
Mr Johnson praised campaigners for their "dogged persistence and a refusal to accept defeat in the face of seemingly overwhelming odds", which he compared with the Battle of Britain.
Mr Johnson also joked that it was wonderful to have the noise of a Spitfire which still seemed capable of setting off car alarms. The mayor said he could not believe how much Sir Keith had done on behalf of this country "and how little this country knew about what he had done".
He said that if it had been down to him, he would have renamed Hyde Park Keith Park "or possibly Park Park" in his honour.
He continued: "In helping to save Britain, he helped to save Europe from tyranny... he saved the love of democracy, the generosity, the tolerance, the refusal to back down before bigotry... Sir Keith - your plinth has come and high time, too."
Sir Keith was a New Zealander, who fought in the First World War at Gallipoli and then the Somme, where he was wounded and evacuated to England. Medically unfit to continue with the artillery, he joined the Royal Flying Corps, remaining there when it was re-formed as the RAF. He commanded 11 Group of Fighter Command.