This application claims benefit of priority of Australian Patent Application Serial No. 2017900051 filed Jan. 10, 2017, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to memorials and, in particular, to memorials commemorating deceased armed forces personnel.
Since ancient times humans have attempted to commemorate, or keep alive, their memories of their dead. Generally these attempts have involved the construction of memorials, usually of stone, and many fine and enduring structures have been created in this manner. For example, many countries have a tomb of the unknown soldier, war memorials in public plazas, and the like. Australia, Britain and the USA, in particular, have a strong cultural ethos in this connection. For example, in Australia returned servicemen's licensed clubs each evening at sunset call a halt to drinking, dining, entertaining and other activities, all patrons stand, and the Ode to Remembrance is recited.
However, not all memorials are constructed from stone and so memorials can take many and varied forms. U.S. Pat. No. 9,464,454 and US Patent Application Publication Nos. 2014/0136372 and 2016/0253771 exemplify such memorials. Other forms of memorials include groves of memorial trees or, in Australia, the Remembrance Driveway extending from Sydney to Canberra. At spaced apart intervals along this Remembrance Driveway are located vehicle accessible rest areas including various structural amenities such as seats, tables, toilets and the like. These rest areas are each dedicated to the memorial of a specific winner of the highest Australian decoration for valour, the Victoria Cross. The rest areas serve a dual purpose of not only commemorating the Victoria Cross recipients, but also providing road safety “driver reviver” roadside laybys which function to ameliorate driver fatigue. A similar arrangement is in place in the USA in relation to the Blue Star highway network.
The apparatuses described herein build upon this cultural foundation and provide a means of commemorating and/or perpetuating the memory of the very many ordinary men and women who have served their country in a military capacity.
In accordance with a first aspect, there is disclosed a memorial apparatus for perpetuating the memory of deceased armed forces personnel, said apparatus comprising:
a first area of land adjacent a road,
at least one amenities structure on said first area and accessible by vehicles from said road,
a multiplicity of small second land areas each of which is allocated to a nominated one of said deceased armed forces personnel, and each of which carries a marker either visible to an observer or detectable by a portable electronic device with GPS capability,
said second land areas being located adjacent at least one side of said public road and forming a road side steering or guiding means to shepherd persons towards said amenities structure, and
said amenities structure including a publically accessible database containing data relating to deceased arms forces personnel.
In accordance with a second aspect there is disclosed a method of perpetuating the memory of deceased armed forces personnel, said method comprising the steps of: making accessible to vehicles from a road at least one amenities structure on a first area of land adjacent said road,
providing said amenities structure with a publicly accessible database containing data related to deceased armed forces personnel,
providing a multiplicity of small land areas located adjacent at least one side of said road, said small land areas having a configuration forming a roadside steering or guiding arrangement to shepherd or urge persons towards the amenities structure, allocating each of said small second land areas to a nominated one of said deceased armed forces personnel, and
providing each of said small second land areas with a marker either visible to an observer or detectable by a portable electronic device with GPS capability.
A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
As seen in
Turning now to
As seen in
It will be apparent that the number of Medal of Honor winners is very much less than the number of individual military personnel which took part in any given military conflict. Therefore it is feasible to allocate individual memorial rest areas 1 to specific individual Medal of Honor winners. However, each of the second land areas 6 can be allocated to a corresponding one of the very many individual military personnel, in general now deceased, and whose memory it is intended should be commemorated.
A perennial problem for the responsible authority burdened with the construction and upkeep of memorials such as memorial rest area 1, is to be able to have a source of funds sufficient for the necessary construction and upkeep. One way of providing such a source of funds is to offer the second land areas 6 to individual subscribers or sponsors 24 who provide an annual subscription fee and in return are allocated a specific one of the second land areas 6.
Preferably, there is no particular personal connection (such as a parent or grandparent or uncle etc.) between the individual subscribers or sponsors 24 and the military person of their corresponding allocated second land areas 6. As a consequence, a subscriber or sponsor 24 can be driving along the public road 2 in a motor vehicle 30 and passes by their particular allocated second land area 6. (
As a consequence of this activation, a subscriber or sponsor 24 is able to download information pertaining to the deceased military person corresponding to the subscriber or sponsor 24. Such information can include personal details such as a name, a photograph, a short biography, etc. In this way, the interest of the subscriber or sponsor 24 in the sacrifice made by military service men and women is stimulated and the memory of the deceased military person is burnished. In addition, the subscriber or sponsor 24 is induced towards, or shepherded towards, the memorial rest area 1 having had their interest in military service men and women stimulated.
Preferably be hand-held electronic device 21 utilises NFC (near frequency communication) for the purpose of registering or displaying on the digital noticeboard or display screen 14 in the amenities building 3 the “pilgrimage achievement” of the subscriber or sponsors 24.
The foregoing describes only one embodiment of the present invention and modifications, obvious to those skilled in the electronic arts, can be made thereto without departing from the scope of the present invention.
The term “comprising” (and its grammatical variations) as used herein is used in the inclusive sense of “including” or “having” and not in the exclusive sense of “consisting only of”.
LEST WE FORGET
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2017900051 | Jan 2017 | AU | national |