Freddie Gilroy

Freddie Gilroy a study

Wednesday 2nd December 2015

As it was a lovely morning, we decided to go through to Scarborough and have a walk around the Marine Drive, south to north. As we approached the North Bay, we came upon the metal sculpture of a very large man with walking stick sitting on a seat. This sculpture is entitled; 'Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers' and is by the artist Ray Lonsdale. It relates to Freddie, who was an ordinary soldier caught up in the war, who was present as part of the 11th Armoured Division at Bergen Belsen concentration camp in 1945 when they took the surrender. Thousands of rotting bodies were discovered and the stench, plus the emaciated bodies of 50,000 inmates had a massive effect on his life there-after. His birthday was spent in the concentration camp and he confessed to having cried on every birthday since then. He died in 2008. I find the sculpture moving and whilst most people want to photograph the complete sculpture, I decided on a portrait. The reason was that the strong side lighting made all the sculptured lines stand out. The background sky was blue, I wanted the image black and white so I converted it, chose a red filter to darken the blue sky and then on a separate layer, brought back in the red of the poppy, showing him in reflective mood.