SEE SEA FREDDIE

Freddie looks out to sea - to see what ? No doubt he will have many thoughts in his head, especially given the life he lived.

The sculpture Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers is based on a retired miner, who died in 2008, and also turned out to be one of the first soldiers to relieve the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the end of World War II. This piece of art is not just about Freddie Gilroy but represents all the normal people that were pulled out of an ordinary life and forced into a very extraordinary and dangerous one during the World Wars.

Created by Ray Lonsdale, a steel fabricator and sculptor from County Durham, this wonderful piece is almost a war memorial as it depicts the lives of all those who suffered during the World Wars.

The sculpture was originally loaned to the town of Scarborough in autumn 2011, but proved so popular that local pensioner Maureen Robinson paid £50,000 in order to keep it there.

This has been blipped before - so I chose a very different angle. Hope you like it.