A FAREHAM man is planning to travel around the UK to raise money for plaques honouring those who did national service.
Former national serviceman Michael Homer, 84, will travel to 50 county towns as part of his “plaque-a-thon”, including Winchester, Aldershot and Truro. The campaign will start on June 27, and will take 12 days, ending on July 10.
Michael, who was a national service ambulance driver from 1958 to 1960, explained that he wanted to undertake the fundraising challenge to raise money for more plaques to commemorate national servicemen. He said: “I’m, obviously, a national serviceman. 2.2m men did national service, unfortunately quite a few of them never came home, and others like myself have problems, I have hearing and balance problems.
“I’m the chairman of the National Service Veterans Alliance, and there are only seven plaques in the whole of the UK to commemorate national servicemen and we think that is not right. So, what’ve planned is to do the plaque-a-thon.
“I thought right, if I try and visit 50 county towns, Winchester being one, and also towns of what I call ‘military importance’ - Aldershot, Portsmouth, Plymouth and other places.”
The plaque-a-thon, which took Michael more than six months to plan, will see him travel to the different towns by train, accompanied for parts of the journey by fellow ex-national serviceman Roy Hunt and representatives from the different branches of the armed forces. Upon arriving at each town’s train station, a representative will sign a document confirming that Michael arrived before he heads to his next destination.
The campaign will raise money through donations, before approaching the councils of the visited towns to petition for plaques to be erected.
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Michael explained: “I’ll have to see how things go, but once I’ve done the challenge and hopefully the money will go in, because it’s going in through Gofundme. So subsequently, once that money is in, then I’ve got to approach the towns to ask them if they would care to have a plaque up.
“I’ve dropped hints to various councils about what I’m doing and again they’ve said ‘Oh, that’s interesting Mike’. So, hopefully, we can get all the ones done. We have seven and I would love to see 70 if I’m being honest with you!”
To find out more about the plaque-a-thon or donate, visit gofundme.com/f/wrhzy-plaqueathon.
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