Window to mark Danish heroes

Tyneside civic leaders will attend the service

A new window at Newcastle's St Nicholas Cathedral is to be dedicated to Danish sailors based on Tyneside during World War II.

Some 28 Danish veterans of maritime convoys from Newcastle will meet at the cathedral for the ceremony on Saturday.

The Danish Ambassador, Mr. Tom Risdahl Jensen, will be at the service along with 40 crew members of Danish patrol frigate HDMS Thetis, moored in the Tyne.

Danish seamen were based on the Tyne from 1939 to 1945 and from there they played their part in the war effort.

Danish flag

The £20,000 window, paid for by Danish industrialists through the AP Moller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Moller Foundation, links a maritime theme with faith, hope and charity.

The window shows an anchor, a cross, and a heart alongside the Newcastle crest and the crests of three Danish ports.

It stands above a memorial to Danish seaman who sailed from Newcastle during the war, and who lost their lives fighting against Nazism.

The window was designed by Mike Davis, reader in glass at the University of Sunderland.

The service will be conducted by the Dean of Newcastle, the Very Reverend Nicholas Coulton, together with the Danish pastor from London, Lene Crone Nielsen.

Each year a wreath is brought to the memorial by members of the Danish Lutheran Church, and placed beneath the Danish flag which hangs permanently in the cathedral.

'Maritime theme'

Dean Coulton said: "The window stems from a design by Queen Margarethe of Denmark showing the virtues of faith, hope and charity.

"Hope is traditionally represented by an anchor which links with the Danish maritime theme, and faith is shown by the Cross, and charity by the heart."

The service, which will be attended by the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Newcastle as well as civic leaders from Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland begins at 1100 BST.

The lesson will be read in Danish by Mrs Inger Bachelor, chairman of the Danish Church in Newcastle, and a Danish opera singer, Trine Bastrup Moller, will sing.