“As such the statue to the legendary World War I hero, Hardit Singh Malik, the world’s first Royal Flying Corps (now the Royal Air Force) Sikh, turbaned fighter pilot will be emblematic for the broader Sikh contributions in the British armed forces of World War I and II, with Malik’s extraordinary accomplishments as a ‘touchstone’ for the whole Sikh community and other of its lesser-known heroes,” notes the One Community Hampshire & Dorset (OCHD) organisation behind the campaign for the memorial, which was approved by the Southampton City Council last year.