THE WORCESTER Branch of The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association will be holding a Rededication Ceremony of a Memorial Bench in Gheluvelt Park.
The bench in question is to honour men of the Worcestershire Regiment that paid the ultimate sacrifice whilst serving in the Malaya Emergency. The Worcestershire Regiment saw active service there during 1950-1953.
There is a Memorial to the men of the Worcestershire Regiment in St Georges Chapel, at Worcester Cathedral where the wording and Roll of Honour is copied on two brass plaques and the other brass plaque is inscribed with the names of the 21 men who died whilst on active service.
This Rededication project started on November 11 and the bench in question was formerly sited at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire along with two Sherwood Forester Memorial Benches.
Not long after the NMA opened in 2001, they allowed volunteers to maintain memorials and benches. As the NMA grew they put a stop to this practice some years ago, meaning the benches fell into disrepair.
Three volunteers from Worcester Branch WFRA collected the bench, with transport donated by Pinches Transport Ltd of Worcester, and driven by one of the two branch members that work for Pinches.
Due to falling numbers of veterans, a lot of Regimental Associations are no longer in existence and the NMA have ended up with benches and memorials where they cannot contact Associations or people about getting benches and memorials maintained.
This project has been made possible with the help of all those that have given to the Go Fund Me page that was set up to help finance this effort.
The memorial bench was in a bad state of repair and is now fully refurbished, with the help of Scott Francis Welding, of Hallow who shot blasted and painted the three cast iron support panels to the city parks specification.
The rotten wood has been replaced by high quality recycled plastic, giving the bench a long life before any further restoration is needed.
Bob Train and members of Worcester Men’s Shed, who are based in the crypt of St Clements Church in St Johns Worcester asked if they could be involved in this WFRA`s Veteran community project.
Their contact came at a very fortunate time, as the drilling of the heavy slats and manoeuvring of the cast iron panels would of been very hard and heavy work, especially as most of Worcester Branch WFRA veterans are elderly.
The bench will be installed on Saturday April 18 at 11am, there will be a short address by Chairman of Worcester Branch, Nigel Fish followed by Worcestershire Regiment Branch President, Lt Col (Retd.) Mark Jackson OBE.
Then there will be the unveiling by the Deputy Lord Lieutenant.
The religious part of the service will be conducted by the Revd Peter Davies County Chaplain, Royal British Legion, Worcestershire, containing the Roll of Honour being read out by 2Lt Alistair Budden, Mercian Regiment, laying of wreath and crosses.
