Arthur Louis Aaron - Memorials

Memorials

He was an 'old boy' of Roundhay School, Leeds (headmaster at the time was B.A.Farrow). There is a plaque in the main hall of the school to his memory incorporating the deed that merited the VC. (Genealogical research proved many years ago that Aaron's father was a Russian Jewish immigrant even though the family denied it after Aaron was killed, and he boasted of this to members of his air training colleagues in the mess in Texas on many occasions; see material in "We Will Remember Them" by Henry Morris and Martin Sugarman, published by Valentine Mitchell, 2011). He is commemorated at the AJEX Jewish Military Museum in Hendon, London, one of three Jewish VC's of the Second World War (the others being Tommy Gould, Royal Navy, and John Keneally, Irish Guards). Aaron also belonged at school or University to 319 ATC (Jewish) Squadron in Broughton, Manchester, where his photograph still hangs; this fact was researched by Col Martin Newman DL from the HQ Air Cadets archives. Aaron's Victoria Cross is displayed at the Leeds City Museum.

To mark the new Millennium, the Leeds Civic Trust organised a public vote to choose a statue to mark the occasion, and to publicise the city's past heroes and heroines. Candidates included Benjamin Latrobe and Sir Henry Moore. Arthur Aaron won the vote, with Don Revie beating Joshua Tetley and Frankie Vaughan as runner-up. Located on a roundabout on the northern edge of the city centre, close to the West Yorkshire Playhouse, the statue of Aaron was unveiled on 24 March 2001 by Malcolm Mitchem, the last survivor of the aircraft. The five-metre bronze sculpture by Graham Ibbeson takes the form of Aaron standing next to a tree, up which are climbing three children progressively representing the passage of time between 1950 and 2000, with the last a girl releasing a dove of peace, all representing the freedom his sacrifice helped ensure. There was controversy about the siting of the statue, and it was proposed to transfer it to Millennium Square outside Leeds City Museum. However, as of 2012 the statue remains on the roundabout.