Mother of killed soldier wants support for memorial art

Feb 24 2009 by David Whetstone, The Journal

THE grieving mother of a young woman killed in Iraq has spoken in support of an art work commemorating the fallen.

Elsie Manning, from South Shields, learned on Remembrance Sunday 2006 that her only daughter had died.

Staff Sgt Sharron Elliott, of the Intelligence Corps, was in a patrol craft that was hit when a bomb went off under a bridge. Three others were also killed.

An inquest heard the deaths might have been avoided if the vessel had been fitted with an electronic blocking device.

Now Sharron’s photo, along with those of 135 other British service personnel killed in Iraq, features in Queen and Country by artist Steve McQueen. McQueen, who won the Turner Prize in 1999 and was awarded the OBE in 2002, was an official war artist in Iraq and afterwards had the idea of commemorating those who died by putting their photos on stamps.

Facsimile sheets of stamps are displayed in a cabinet going on show at mima, the Middlesbrough art gallery. But the artist feels the project won’t be complete until the stamps are adopted by the Royal Mail.

In Elsie Manning’s flat it is clear that remembrance is an everyday affair.

“Sharron is remembered in every room,” says Elsie. “She was the best daughter anybody could wish for.”

A framed sheet of Steve McQueen’s facsimile stamps featuring Sharron hangs on the landing.

Elsie says: “Steve wants people to buy stamps and post letters so they’ll drop onto doormats and it means these young people will be remembered. I think it’s a wonderful idea.”