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Nurse’s life of service remembered at national memorial

Family’s tribute to naval nurse Liz Richmond, who served in conflict and disaster zones and at a Nightingale hospital during COVID-19, in defiance of her ill-health
Family of Liz Richmond at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffs

Family’s tribute to naval nurse Liz Richmond, who served in conflict and disaster zones and at a Nightingale hospital during the pandemic, in defiance of her ill-health

Family of Liz Richmond at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffs
Mark Richmond with daughters Alice and Kelsey in front of the Tree of Cherished Memories

A nurse who spent three decades working in conflict zones was the first person to be remembered through a new sculpture at the National Memorial Arboretum.

The bronze Tree of Cherished Memories, unveiled at the Staffordshire arboretum on 29 June, gives the public a chance to commission tributes to loved ones in the form of figures or leaves.

Nurse’s dedication during the pandemic typified her values

The late nurse Liz Richmond
Naval nurse Liz Richmond

Nurse Liz Richmond died in 2021 at the age of 52, having been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019. She underwent a course of chemotherapy but when the COVID-19 pandemic began she was determined to get back to work and took shifts at the NHS Nightingale hospital in Birmingham.

She had served for more than 30 years in war zones and on humanitarian missions with the Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. In addition to a posting in Gibraltar as an intensive care specialist, she completed tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. She supported UK armed forces humanitarian missions in Sierra Leone during the Ebola crisis and the West Indies after Hurricane Irma in 2017.

Ms Richmond’s husband Mark, who visited the sculpture with daughters Alice and Kelsey, said: ‘We all miss her incredible warmth, charm, smile and laughter – she has left a gaping chasm which will not easily be filled.

‘We chose to remember Liz at the arboretum because we feel it represents all the values she upheld in life, inside and outside the military.’

The Tree of Cherished Memories, designed by Jill Berelowitz, is now open to the public.


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