Saturday 15 January 2011

The recycling way to raise monument funds

News of a memorial to Sir Robert Watson-Watt, the inventor of Radar, comes to us from the Brechin Advertiser:

The Watson-Watt Society of Brechin has teamed up with Reclaim-it to help raise money for a memorial monument to commemorate the life and work for the Brechiner, Sir Robert Watson-Watt, who invented radar which help Britian defeat the Germans in World War two.

The reclaim-it scheme requires people to recycle old mobile phone and empty ink cartridges which the company will then donate money to the Watson-Watt society.

All you need to do is put your phones or cartridges into a pre-paid envelope which can be picked up from the Brechin Advertiser’s office and post it in a post box.

It costs nothing and can help the Watson-Watt Society raise funds towards the Watson-Watt monument.

The memorial has been designed by Alan Beattie Herriot, who has produced work for The National Trust for Scotland and Historic Scotland as well as for organisations and individuals in Britain, Ireland, Holland, France and Norway.

Brian Mitchell, a member of the Watson-Watt Society, said: “Anyone can put the envelopes away. All you need to do it put your old phone, or empty ink cartridges in the envelope and pop it in the post-box.

“The envelopes are prepaid so you do not have to spend any money on postage.

“We get anything from 10p per ink cartridge to over a pound so it will all mount up.

“Currently members of the Watson-Watt Society are approaching companies and charitable organisation and hope to, within the next week or two, be able to announce that they have made some progress with funding.

“We are trying to raise up to £80,000. This may sound a lot but it includes all the preparations, the stone which we are getting in kind and the4 promises of help from a few other organisations.

“The land has to be prepared for the base of the concrete before the monument can be placed upon it.

“The statue, which has planning permission, will be placed at St. Ninian’s Square and will look down towards Union Street where Robert Watson-Watt was born and also towards the Damacre Centre, which used to be the Damacre School that he attended.

“The idea to have a permanent memorial for Watson-Watt was first instigated by the Guildry of Brechin but they did not want to take the project on so it died a death.

“I resurrected the idea when I heard that they were going to have statue for Bamse, the World War Two dog, in Montrose.

“I think that is great but I found it a bit strange that a man who did so much in the defence of the United Kingdom in World War Two did not have a memorial.

“There were three basic things that helped; the Royal Navy helped to stop invasions, the Royal Air Force helped to stop invasions; and Radar as developed by Watson-Watt.

“This is a community project. The idea was born in Brechin and he was born in Brechin.

“We are hoping to have the monument erected by the end of 2011 or start of 2012.

“We are hopeful that it will be 2011 but it may have to be 2012.

“We will have a better idea about the time-scale in the next month when we know more about our financial situation.

“With the help of this mobile phone and ink cartridge recycling scheme we should be in a good position.”

Envelopes can be collected from the Brechin Advertiser office; or you can telephone 01635 876 900 or visit www.reclaim-it.com to request envelopes which will be sent to you free of charge.

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