Edinburgh-born Eric Brown is the Royal Navy’s most decorated pilot. He was a test pilot who flew 487 different types of aircraft, made 2407 deck landings at sea and 2721 take-offs — world records unlikely ever to be broken. He witnessed the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp in 1945 and interrogated senior Nazis after the Second World War. He was awarded the MBE, OBE and CBE. As his obituary recorded: ‘Brown flew every major combat aircraft of the Second World War including gliders, fighters, bombers, airliners, amphibians, flying boats and helicopters, and his contribution to aviation research covered transonic flight, assessment of German jets and rocket aircraft, rotary wing flight, and the first carrier deck-landing of a jet aircraft.’

The bronze bust of Brown was made by Jenna Gearing, a young sculptor who knew Brown well.