On today’s 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings a poignant masterpiece by sculptor David Williams-Ellis will be a major part of the national commemoration at the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer.

The Memorial records the names, inscribed in stone, of the 22,442 servicemen and women under British command who fell on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy in the summer of 1944. This includes people from more than 30 countries.

The site also includes a French Memorial, dedicated to the memory of French civilians who died during this time.

David, who will return to Normandy for the anniversary, said: “I feel deeply indebted to those people who died and those who landed on D-Day. I hope the public have that in drawing of breath, I hope the veterans feel it’s a justifiable Memorial, to them, to their friends who died, to all those who were there in 1944 in Normandy.

“It should be worthy of them and if they feel it is, then to me I’ve achieved what I wanted to achieve.”