Compensation cash is put to good use
COMPENSATION awarded by the courts after a vandal destroyed special commemorative cherry trees at Loughborough Grammar School last year, has been kindly donated by the school to a war memorial appeal.
Last August some of the cherry trees in Loughborough Grammar School’s Quad were vandalised by an intruder.
The action had a profound effect on both the Loughborough Endowed Schools family and the wider community, as the area is dedicated as a memorial to former pupils and staff who lost their lives in conflict.
Following the apprehension of the perpetrator, Loughborough Grammar School was awarded £500 compensation by the courts.
As this amount was not needed to replace the trees, due to the generosity of Coles Nurseries in providing replacements free of charge, the school has since been trying to identify an appropriate way of using the funds.
The total amount came to £700 when combined with other gifts.
And in March, when the Loughborough Carillon War Memorial Museum launched an appeal for funding to create a new memorial, the headmaster Duncan Byrne felt
this was just the perfect solution as to where the compensation money should be used.
The appeal was for a new memorial to honour more than 100 Loughborough soldiers who lost their lives in World War One, but whose names, for various reasons, have not been included on the Carillon Tower.
The target for the museum’s fundraising was £700, so the school’s money was a perfect fit.
Mr Byrne said: “We were delight-
ed to find such a fitting way to use this money for a project linked with the town’s remembrance.”
This sentiment was echoed by Mel Gould, chairman of the Loughborough Carillon Tower and War Memorial Museum said: “We are absolutely thrilled with the generosity of the Grammar School to enable us to go forward and produce a fitting memorial for those men who fell in the Great War but whose names were never added to the Carillon Tower War Memorial.”