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War Memorials

A memorial in the form of a wooden wall plaque in the Lady chapel in that church records the names of the many, many men who lived in north Cleethorpes—it was called New Cleethorpes at the time—who lost their lives in the first world war. Many of them were trawlermen—hundreds of men from that community died when trawlers were hit; the number is phenomenal. One of the names on that memorial is S. Wheelhouse. He lived across the road from the ground and St. Aidan’s was his local church. That is one of the memorials where the names are fading away—some of them are barely legible now. It is those sorts of memorials that I want to see restored. They sometimes do not fit the criteria to get grants, because they are not necessarily in listed buildings or in conservation areas. This Remembrance Sunday, we will all be reading our prayers and we will remember these people. If we can bring all our memorials up to scratch by getting them all restored in advance of the 100th anniversary of the first world war, that would be a fantastic tribute not only to those people but for the future. I would hate it if, at some point in the future, the names that are now being recorded on war memorials—those of people who have died in Iraq or Afghanistan—were to have faded away. That is what is happening to these first world war names, and I would not want it to happen to our forces who are currently serving in Afghanistan, either. We owe that to all our forces and to all the people who have fought for our country.