Private Shilton was remembered

IN response to the letter in the Hinckley Times dated 14th November from Ian Shilton, we, at Burbage Heritage Group, would like to say that Pte Leslie Shilton who is inscribed on Burbage War Memorial was remembered on the anniversary of his death on 4th November 1918.

Over the past four years we have been remembering all the men who died from Burbage by lighting a candle on the anniversary of their death. Children from each of the three Burbage primary schools have attended the War Memorial and heard about the soldier and taken a biography back to school to share with their teachers and friends. Pte Shilton was among the final four soldiers to be remembered on Thursday 1st November 2018.

We know that Pte Shilton was fighting near to Wilfred Owen and died on the same day just one week before the Armistice was declared. They are both buried at the small Ors Communal Cemetery in France where they are two of the 59 soldiers also buried there.

This year in collaboration with Burbage Parish Council, commemorative blue plaques have been fixed to the homes of fallen soldiers where those homes still exist and Pte Shilton is remembered with a plaque on Britannia Road, formerly Balls Lane.

If Ian would like to contact either Sylvia at Sylviawhitworh@hotmail.com or Ann at annandbobcrabtree@sky.com we would be grateful to learn more about his relative. Does Ian have a photograph of Pte Shilton?

‘Dulce et decorum est, Pro patria mori’ - Wilfred Owen

Sylvia Whitworth, Ann Crabtree

THE politicians who initiated, lied and got us into this Brexit mess are a disgrace. David Cameron is sitting with his feet up in the South of France, Nigel Farage is still drawing his euro MP salary and doing nothing, Boris Johnson is waiting to fulfil his personal ambition.

They all have property, land and book deals worth millions while ordinary citizens are seeing house prices falling, jobs at risk and an uncertain future as the whole world laughs at us for what we have done - to ourselves. The country deserves better than this.

Alan Hughes, Burbage