FIELDS WE PROTECT

Harefield Village Green has been registered as a common since 1813 and includes a children’s play area, pond and informal open areas.

The Green is home to the village’s war memorial, a stone obelisk which commemorates 113 local people who fell during World War I. Victoria Cross medals were awarded during World War I to two men born in the village - Cecil John Kinross and Robert Ryder and the centenary commemorative paving stone for these two VC recipients are to be placed adjacent to the World War I memorial.

The Green also has a globe on a pole indicating the long-held association of the village with Australia originating in World War I. In November 1914, Mr and Mrs Charles Billyard-Leake, Australian residents in the UK, offered their home, Harefield Park House and its grounds, to the Minister of Defence in Melbourne for use as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers of the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF). The offer was accepted by the Commonwealth Defence Department and the property became the No. 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital in December 1914. The village holds an annual memorial on Anzac Day.