Step aside Amy Winehouse, Kate Moss, Peaches and Pixie – This is what newspapers are really for
The Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice
Rather than spreading scaremongering stories about our imminent death from stabbing or swine flu, feigning outrage at the antics of radio presenters and subjecting the public to the constant belch of pointless celebrity inanity, the news media should be concentrating on bringing more stories like this to our attention.
In Postman’s Park, between Barbican and St Paul’s, lies The Watts Memorial to Heroic Self-Sacrifice, which for the first time in nearly eighty years is commemorating a new hero.
In 2007, thirty year old Leigh Pitt dived into a London canal to save a drowning boy. The boy was saved, Mr Pitt, unfortunately, was not. But his story garnered only a fraction of the publicity of an Amy Winehouse night out. Now it is publicly recorded forever.
The memorial was the idea of Victorian artist G.F.Watts who wanted to celebrate “stories of heroism in everyday life” in the form of a wall of hand painted tiles recording acts of outstanding bravery. Each tile carries the name, occupation, age, heroic act and date of death of its subject to provide a lasting reminder of their selfless deeds.
The Times has more on the story here.
As Watts himself wrote at the time, “it must surely be a matter of regret when names worthy to be remembered and stories stimulating and instructive are allowed to be forgotten.”
He believed that a lasting memorial to these “likely to be forgotten heroes” would make London “richer by a work that is beautiful, and our nation richer by a record that is infinitely honourable.”
The truth of these words can’t be disputed. Maybe school children and tabloid journalists should be routinely marched over to Postman’s Park so that they can decide for themselves how worthy of their attention news of David Beckham’s latest tattoo or another Kate Moss dress malfunction really are compared to these stories of selfless bravery.
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