Talk of the town hall - salute the vital work of our Armed Forces

Nov 7 2008

By Cllr Marcus Jones, leader of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council

OVER the last few weeks I have written about a number of events that have taken place recently in our borough all with one recurring theme, the Armed Forces. Over the last few weeks we have seen the dedication to Old Bill in Riversley Park, the launch of the poppy appeal and last Saturday I was privileged to attend the rededication of the war memorial at Exhall. The war memorial at Exhall was originally erected to carry the names of those from Exhall who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. For some reason which is quite a mystery there were a number of names that were never engraved on the memorial, in fact more than 40 names of those who died in the two World Wars were not recognised. One of my colleagues, Councillor Barry Lobbett, was contacted by a local historian who explained the discrepancy on the war memorial, to his immense credit Cllr Lobbett has since spent a vast amount of time over the last year or so organising the funding, kindly donated by local business people and councillors. And after 60 years the memorial was engraved with the missing names. Saturday’s dedication ceremony organised by Cllr Lobbett and the Royal British Legion was a fitting tribute to those who had been forgotten. It was great to see some of the families of the forgotten soldiers who must have been so proud that the sacrifice made by their family members all those years ago has finally been recognised. This Sunday remembrance services will be taking place in Nuneaton, Bedworth and Bulkington to commemorate those who have been lost in military conflict from the First World War right through to those who we have lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Tuesday on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month we will also be holding the unique Armistice Day parade in Bedworth, this year we will also be welcoming the Duke of Gloucester as a guest to the borough. Over the last few weeks I have unashamedly written about this series of events connected with our armed forces. Our armed forces are vitally important and considering the work they do they deserve far more recognition than they sometimes receive. Finally on behalf of the borough I would like to thank the members of the Royal British Legion and all the other ex-service organisations we have in the borough, while the council certainly support and facilitate the events in recognition of our forces. Without the work of the ex-service community I don’t think these events would be possible.