LETTERS: Worthy to take their place with Nelson

TRAFALGAR Square commemorates what we see as the decisive victory in the wars against Napoleon ("The Battle of Trafalgar Square", Review, 20 August). As a result of this victory, the French navy was destroyed and the threat of invasion was virtually removed. From then on it became increasingly probable that the threat of imperial domination of Europe would be overcome.

Nearly a century and a half later, history repeated itself in the Battle of Britain. Would it not be appropriate to acknowledge the incalculable significance of that victory by mounting on the vacant plinth a statue of an RAF fighter pilot? The statue would be seen not as the glorification of one person but as a representative of us, the people of Great Britain, as the bulwark on which totalitarianism broke and democracy survived. It is that victory which future generations will see as the key contribution of our unhappy century to the progress of civilisation.

Alan McMurray

Loughborough, Leicestershire