CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT
TV legend Joanna Lumley today backs the sunday Mirror campaign to protect our war memorials and preserve them for future generations.
The Ab Fab star’s Army officer father fought in one of the fiercest and most brutal battles in the Far East during World War Two.
And now she has thrown her support behind the campaign we launched last week in association with the War Memorials Trust and the Yesterday channel.
Together, we hope to honour our heroes and help their legacy live on.
Joanna said: “I love what the Sunday Mirror is doing for our war memorials.
“My father was a soldier and all of us in our histories have got some part of our family connected with something that requires remembering in this way.
“To keep those memorials going as a memory to men and women who fell is hugely important. I love our country for having a day of remembrance. It’s important we can be proud of the contribution of our ancestors.”
Major James Lumley fought in the battle for Mogaung in northern Burma in June 1944 with the 3rd Battalion of the 6th Gurkha Rifles. That conflict cost more than 100 lives, making it one of the bloodiest battles in the entire campaign against the Japanese.
GALLANTRY
Two men were awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military honour possible, for their exceptional gallantry during the assault to retake the town.
Major Lumley survived the battle and lived to see his comrades receive their medals. He died in 1999 after moving to Kent.
His daughter has became a prominent champion for Gurkha veterans. Her campaigning led to the 2008 ruling that all Gurkhas who served for four years or more in the British Army before 1997 would have the right to settle in Britain.
Remembrance Sunday in November is hugely important to national treasure Joanna and she has appealed to the next generation to keep the flame alive.
She said: “On Remembrance Sunday I always go to a service or watch A fire-damaged memorial from Dulwich, south London, was returned to good as new. it on television, standing at home for the two minute silence, because memory goes on. “Just once a year we need to take five minutes and think of people the world over who unwittingly were made to be part of wars they didn’t love. Our soldiers as well signed up and did the right thing. There’s almost no one alive from that era any more.
“These were people just like us who had to do unbelievably brave and horrible things.
“Some of them lost their lives, some The weatherbeaten Eastergate Lion memorial in Eastergate, West Sussex, was a sorry sight until it was cleaned and returned to its former glory. of them were scarred physically or mentally by what they had to see and do. War has casualties of all kinds.
“And so it’s important for people like us to remember and put flowers on the graves, remembering the day.
“It’s terribly important to keep those memories alive. It’s also important to Shortlands Memorial in Bromley, south London, was completel destroyed when a car ploughed into it. After a campaign by local residents it was rebuilt so the heroes it commemorated would never be forgotten.