Save our memorials to heroes
How you can help
THE plaque is fading and the paint has all but peeled off the rusty collection box.
This sorry symbol stands at the site of a once-grand memorial, which has for 100 years honoured brave souls who gave their lives for our freedom.
Those who fought in the bloody trenches of the Somme in the Great War. Or protected Britain again in World War Two. Men and women who never made it back from the sweltering Iraqi desert and unforgiving terrain of Afghanistan.
More than 100,000 war memorials once stood proudly across the country, including those in tribute to the 1.7 million who perished at war since 1914. But now only 30,000 have been surveyed. At least 8,000 are in disrepair, threatening to erase the heroes’ efforts from the public conscience.
One-off Government funding for the War Memorials Trust (WMT) will be cut off next year and it will be down to the people of Britain to preserve them.
With Remembrance Sunday drawing near and the 100th Remembrance Sunday in 2019, the Sunday Mirror in partnership with TV channel Yesterday is launching a campaign to give those soldiers the respect they deserve.
Yesterday’s Adrian Wills said: “Yesterday is very proud to support this campaign. It is really important we raise awareness of these historic monuments so we can continue to remember those who bravely fought for our country.”
DEDICATED
Sykes and Christina Anne Jessica Cavendish-Bentinck, Sir Mark had a difficult upbringing. A 30-year age gap between his parents created a poisonous atmosphere, with his mother turning to drink to cope.
Mark found solace in the family library, engrossing himself in military history and Shakespeare. When he was struck with a lung condition doctors encouraged his parents to take him to warmer climes. His father took Mark, then nine, to Egypt – where he developed a lifelong fascination with the Middle East.
He studied at Cambridge but would disappear for months on trips to Iraq and other areas of the Ottoman Empire.
DISAPPEAR
Mark wrote three books on the region – one while still at university.
He served with the Yorkshire Green Howards Regiment and saw action in South Africa in the Second Boer War. By 1911 he was Commanding Officer of the 5th Battalion. But as World War One raged in Europe and he prepared his regiment for the front line, he was seconded to the War Office by Lord Kitchener.
His books and travelling experience had earned him a reputation as a Middle Eastern expert and he was tasked with forging the Asia Minor Agreement with Frenchman Monsieur Georges-Picot.
Sir Mark poured his energy into the war effort, travelling between London, France and the Middle East to broker the agreement. He raised 1,000 volunteer