Pictured: from left to right: Lord-Lieutenant of East Sussex, Andrew Blackman, Kirsty Chapman (artist) and Lt Col Benjamin Caesar.
An artist from East Grinstead in Sussex has created a powerful painting using the fingerprints of more than 150 veterans and their relatives.
‘Path to Peace’ has taken two years to create.
The painting shows the image of two servicemen supporting each other and walking along a path of poppies. Each poppy fingerprint represents the unique and individual mark each Serviceman, Woman, and Veteran makes upon history.
Artist, Kirsty Chapman, said: “My inspiration came from my Grandmother Anna, who used to work alongside Sir Archibald McIndoe at the Queen Victoria Hospital Burns Unit.
“She helped to cook all of the food for the surgeons and used to tell me stories of the things the military patients used to get up to on the wards.
“She told me never to forget them. My Great Grandfather was a Rifleman in the Royal Ulster Rifles, who sadly died just before the end of the war. My art is for all of those who never came home.”
The artwork was presented to the Chavasse clinic in Brighton by the Lord-Lieutenant of East Sussex, Andrew Blackman on Monday 31 July 2023.
The clinic, which is based in the new Louisa Martindale Building at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, treats veterans and service personnel for musculoskeletal conditions and injuries and is run by Lt Col Benjamin Caesar, Consultant Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgeon.
Lt Col Caesar was inspired to start the clinic in 2016 after he met a veteran who had been waiting 18 months to be seen at an NHS pain clinic and was unable to walk. The Chavasse Clinic is one of only two of its kind in the country.
University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust has since gained Veteran Aware status in recognition of its commitment to improving NHS care for veterans, reservists, members of the Armed Forces and their families.
Lt Col Caesar said: “Having somebody in the military clinic who understands either what they plan to do going forward as serving personnel within their careers, or what they have been through and understand the difficulties that they may have experienced and have an understanding of what it’s like to be in a war zone, to be in a conflict, to be in these difficult training environments.”
Read more about the painting and unveiling on the ITV website.