The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
The names of 24 World War One casualties will be added to Spalding’s war memorial before the coming days’ Remembrance services.
A campaign led by South Holland and the Deepings MP John Hayes and involving Royal British Legion and Spalding and South Lincolnshire branch of Western Front Association is heading for a successful conclusion.
However, due to a timing hiccup, the names will only be stencilled on ahead of Sunday’s service and Armistice Day on Tuesday. They will be made permanent at a later date.
Work to correct a misspelling on another name – which reads J W Sanders instead of Saunders – will be completed at the same time.
John Chester, chairman of the local Western Front Association branch, said: “The names will be on the war memorial in time for the weekend, just not in a permanent manner.
“These are people who have direct links to Spalding.
“We’re confident we’ve got everybody now.”
Branch member Cheryl Arnold carried out painstaking research over a number of years and came up with a list of 50 names. These were whittled down to two dozen for inclusion on the war memorial in Ayscoughfee Gardens as the others’ links were deemed to be too tenuous.
The campaign to get the names added to the memorial started in earnest in June, funded by several means including South Holland district councillors’ ward budgets and street donations from members of the public.
It is hoped that casualties from World War Two will be added next year.
The memorial was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, who designed and built The Cenotaph in Whitehall, London.
