MP backs campaign to register our war memorials

MP for South Leicestershire Alberto Costa is backing a new initiative to support war memorials.

Launched by Damien Moore, MP for Southport, and supported by the Imperial War Museums (IWM), the initiative calls on the public to help document and verify archives and records of war memorials.

With the help of volunteers, the aim is to complete as many of our national records as possible before Remembrance Day on Friday, November 11.

Everyone can contribute to the War Memorials Register, and the knowledge and interest of individuals, families, and communities helps the team at the IWM to ensure as many memorials as possible are recorded and accessible for future generations

Residents are urged to discover their local war memorial and submit its details to the museum’s online register.

With the help of its dedicated volunteers, the IWM ensures that every name is carefully noted down and memorials are photographed and recorded for posterity.

IWM’s War Memorials Register aims to compile a comprehensive record of all of the UK’s war memorials and to make this resource freely available to the public.

The register currently holds records of 96,000 war memorials across the UK, although there is an estimated 110,000 in total.

Photographs are an important part of the register, but about 45 per cent of the existing records are lacking good images. Many more are simply unaccounted for, hidden away in the backs of converted schools and churches that are now private homes, or overgrown on walls in quiet parts of a village.

Mr Costa said: “I am proud to be standing up for our war dead and supporting this important initiative to ensure that we remember these selfless heroes. We in South Leicestershire are immensely proud of all those who served and paid the ultimate sacrifice in standing up for freedom and democracy.” ■■Centenary: Page 7.