The British politician William Ewart is a man who the vast majority of the public have never heard of. Born in 1798, Ewart entered parliament in 1828. His wide ranging political career saw him serve as MP for Bletchingley in Surrey, Liverpool, Wigan and then finally for Dumfries Burghs in Scotland.

Ewart was instrumental in establishing free public libraries, for legalising the metric system of weights and measures, and he fought unsuccessfully for the abolition of capital punishment. Of all his achievements, the one he will be remembered for, was that he conceived the idea of a Blue plaque installed in a public place to commemorate a link between a famous person or event.

The first two of these plaques appeared in 1867, when the Society of Arts had one to mark the birthplace of the poet Lord Byron placed in Cavendish Square, and the other at King Street in Westminster in a previous home of French President, Napoleon III.

From those early days, there are now more than 900 blue plaques all over London. The diverse list of individuals whose name appear on these plaques includes literary giants Evelyn Waugh and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, athlete Harold Abrahams and footballer Bobby Moore, aviator Amy Johnson, women’s suffrage campaigner Emily Pankhurst, astronomer Sir Frank Dyson and composer Gustav Holst.

The criteria for the recipient of a blue plaque starts with the requirement that the person proposed must have died at least twenty years ago, and that the building genuinely has an association with them. Apart from that, members of the public are encouraged to make nominations from all walks of life.

Despite the many potential people who could end up with their name on a Blue Plaque, there are millions more whose contributions to our world will end up forgotten. Men who struggled to bring up a family on their own. Women who gave their lives to feed the homeless. Children who befriended the friendless.

God does not forget. The bible tells us in the Psalms that he knows us fully and intimately – from even before we were born. He loves us unconditionally, and doesn’t need us to have any kind of celebrity or public recognition. If there was a plaque that sat on the walls of heaven with our names on it, it would say ‘Child of God, loved completely.’

(November 2016)