Keith Park - Assessments

Assessments

Park retired and was promoted to Air Chief Marshal on 20 December 1946 and returned to New Zealand, where he took up a number of civic roles and was elected to the Auckland City Council. He lived in New Zealand until his death on 6 February 1975, aged 82 years.

One of the top Allied air aces of the war Johnnie Johnson said of Park “He was the only man who could have lost the war in a day or even an afternoon”. This was an echo of Winston Churchill's description of Admiral Jellicoe in the First World War.

Another ace who fought in the Battle of Britain, the RAF pilot Douglas Bader, said that “the awesome responsibility for this country’s survival rested squarely on Keith Park’s shoulders. British military history of this century has been enriched with the names of great fighting men from New Zealand, of all ranks and in every one of our services. Keith Park’s name is carved into history alongside those of his peers.”

Although Park has not received widespread public recognition, either in Britain or his native New Zealand, Park has a claim to be one of the greatest commanders in the history of aerial warfare. The decisive tactical victories he achieved in the Battle of Britain and again at the Battle of Malta not only demonstrated his leadership qualities and deep understanding of air operations, but were both strategically significant in determining the course of World War II.

There has been much analysis of the Battle of Britain and Park's role over the intervening decades. Many issues on air-tactics which were not clear at the time to most in command have been researched, analysed and some clarity has been obtained through the mists of time. Keith Park though had such a clear grasp of air strategy that even with the benefit of this hindsight from decades of research little could be done to improve on his performance.

Park was made a Commander of the American Legion of Merit in 1947.

Keith Park Crescent, a residential road near the former RAF Biggin Hill, is named after Park, as is Keith Park Road within RAF Uxbridge.

A Southern Railway (Great Britain) West Country Class/Battle of Britain Class locomotive, no. 21C153 / 34053 was named after him in 1948. This locomotive carried Park's name and the RAF coat of arms on plates mounted either side of its boiler. The locomotive has survived into preservation, and is in the final stages of restoration from scrapyard condition. The locomotive is owned by Southern Locomotives Ltd, and the overhaul is taking place at the Swanage Railway's Herston Works, Swanage. Once complete, the locomotive will provide a roving memorial to Sir Keith Park, although it will be based on the Severn Valley Railway.

Park was portrayed by Trevor Howard in the 1969 film Battle of Britain.

Sir Keith Park is commemorated by the Sir Keith Park Memorial Airfield, the aviation section of the Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland, New Zealand, the gate guardian of which is a replica of Park's Hawker Hurricane, OK1. The machine is not accurately painted, as it has a stripe around the rear of the fuselage in duck-egg green, which was not introduced until the spring of 1941, by which time he was commanding Training Command.

In 2008, London financier Terry Smith and others initiated an international campaign to erect a permanent statue of Park on the Fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, in recognition of his work as commander of No. 11 Group during the Battle of Britain. London Mayor Boris Johnson is on record as saying that devoting the plinth permanently to Park, while certainly worthy, might not be easy to facilitate.

On 8 May 2009 Westminster City Council agreed to a put up a 2.78 m (9 ft) statue in Waterloo Place. A temporary 5 m (16.4 ft) statue was unveiled on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square on 4 November 2009. The fibre glass sculpture was in place for six months, until it was temporarily moved to the Royal Air Force Museum in London in May 2010. Finally, a permanent bronze version of the sculpture was installed at Waterloo Place and unveiled there on 15 September 2010, Battle of Britain Day, during the 70th anniversary commemorations of the Battle. Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, said that Park was "a man without whom the history of the Battle of Britain could have been disastrously different. He was a man who never failed at any task he was given."