History of the King George's Fields Foundation

 Introduction

On 30^th January 1936 upon the death of King George V, the then Lord Mayor of the City of London set up a committee to consider what form a national memorial to the King should take. In March 1936, the committee decided that there should be a statue in London and a philanthropic scheme of specific character which would benefit the whole country and be associated with King George V’s name. As a result in the November of that year, the King George’s Fields Foundation was constituted by trust deed to give effect to the scheme. The urbanisation of the twentieth century in Great Britain was bringing home to many public-spirited people the fact that lack of open spaces must restrict the rising generation physically.

The aim of the Foundation was "to promote and to assist in the establishment throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of playing fields for the use and enjoyment of the people every such playing field to be styled 'King George’s Field' and to be distinguished by heraldic panels or other appropriate tablet medallion or inscription commemorative of His Late Majesty and of a design approved by the Administrative Council."

The trust deed defined a 'Playing Field' as "any open space used for the purpose of outdoor games, sports and pastimes."

The project was to be a flexible one, focusing on urban areas, but not exclusively so, and carried out in each locality according to its requirements. It would enlist local interest and support, gratefully accepting gifts in the form of monies or land. Each field would have a distinctive uniform tablet as an appropriate visible commemoration of George V.

This was considered to be as the King would have wished, particularly in the service rendered to youth through providing for them an environment and opportunity for open air exercise, for the benefit of individual well-being and the general welfare of the nation.

There are 471 such King George Playing Fields, all over the country, owned by the National Playing Fields Association and managed on their behalf by either the council or a board of local trustees

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Memories  of  King  George’s  Playing  Fields

 The railings were in place along the Eastern Avenue in 1938, as we walked to school I remember them well.

Mounds of small hillocks had been scattered all over the complete area of the field ready to be raked flat.

The war starting in 1939 probably put a stop to this work.  It became overgrown and became a great place for mushroom picking.

Roughly where the bowling green is, a round hole had been dug out and concreted.  In the middle of this was a round pillar of concrete with an iron rod for an anti-tank gun to be fitted in the event of an invasion taking place.

At the end of the war, thousands of corrugated Elson shelter parts were dumped over the back of the fields, which we found great for making camps and mazes.

 I can’t tell when it was levelled off but it was probably in the early 50s when I was serving on the Royal Navy

 Colin T Payne

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We were in contact with the trustees of The King George’s playing fields asking if they had any details of the memorial gates that were fitted when our playing fields were first planned, unfortunately our gates mysteriously disappeared after some road works had been carried out on the Eastern Avenue which borders our park. The trustees searched their archives for us and have sent the original plans from 1920 and these below:-