Feature: Months of work in preparation for Swanmore war memorial

Community spirit is once again at the centre of village life as the finishing touches are put to the Service of Rededication for the refurbished village war memorial. 

The service is the culmination of a year of effort that the village as a whole has undertaken in several stages.

Central to those efforts was Community Safety Officer Gary McCulloch who was asked, a little over a year ago by a resident, "Who is responsible for the upkeep of the memorial because it was looking a little tired." 

Gary, a Royal Navy veteran, could see that the memorial was in need of some work and so he approached St Barnabas, the village church, and asked to become the War Memorial custodian. It is a voluntary role and covers, not only the War Memorial itself but also all the memorabilia as well.

Dave Pidgely (Image: Contributed)

This was agreed by the church committee and Gary set about the task at hand. 

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He spoke with Vicar Nick Whitehead and his team of volunteer mowers who undertook the cutting back of the overgrown hedge. This had the immediate effect of brightening up the area but also showed that the surrounding fence was in a bad way. Realising that this was going to have a monetary cost Gary asked for donations from the village and the surrounding area, for the work required he very quickly reached his target. Two of the largest donations were from former city councillor Hugh Lumby and the village coffee shop Barnaby's with the rest made up from personal donations. While the money was coming in the flag pole was lowered and with the help of the village it was repainted and the stay wires replaced.

After a few weeks the money was in the bank, Gary asked villager and fabricator Dave Pidgely to effect the repairs. They knew that this wouldn't be a simple solution because the fence is 103 years old and nothing is available off the shelf anymore but the challenge to keep as much of the original as possible was accepted. A few weeks later when the first part of the repaired fence was replaced, Dave said: "It is a pleasure to work on such and important part of the village history. Hopefully this will last another hundred years."

With the plan for the remaining fence in place Gary turned to the memorial itself and how best to clean it whilst respecting its symbolism, a simple blast with a pressure washer wouldn't be appropriate, so Gary bought the same solution that is used on the White House in Washington. With the help of resident Paul they set about the spray, agitate and rinse directions on the bottle and the results were almost instant with many residents passing commenting as they worked. When asked why he was helping Paul said: "It's something that I can relate to as my uncle Ben left our village in Newlyn to drive a tank in Normandy. He was killed on the June 26 1944."

The extent of the lichen growth in the WW2 memorial stone (Image: Contributed)

All through the works Gary had been asking residents for their opinion on the ground around the memorial and how best to tidy it up for future generations and a shingle base was agreed so it is in keeping with the rest of the churchyard. The hardest part of the restoration was picking a dry day to do the works and luck was on their side. Work started early in the morning preparing for the delivery and several residents stopped to help with shovels and wheel barrows. Gary with the help of Paul, Carl, Damian, Glen and Jon set about the task of moving two tonnes of hard core and pea shingle which was all completed with excellent teamwork.

In the background and while all this was going on Gary had been spending his spare time researching the names on the War Memorial and the Roll of Honour. He was trying to find out as much information about the people behind the names as he could. In such a small village it wasn't surprising to find so many of those remembered are related to each other in a multitude of ways including family, sports teams, church choir, school chums and marriage. 

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In the days running up to next Sunday's service there will be information boards with some of the information about the men and women including where the thirteen men and women, both service and civilian are both buried and commemorated in the churchyard. Each of these graves and headstones will be marked with a poppy for the week running up to the service to help residents and visitors to see their locations.

The final part of this chapter in the village history is the service itself and once again Gary has asked the village to help. The St Barnabas campanologists are going to sound the church bells in the hour before the service to call the villagers to the service. The local branch of the Royal British Legion Womens Section will be parading their standard. 

Mostly finished (Image: Contributed)

The uniformed youth groups, including the village guides and beavers, will also be parading their standards and will give an impressive flash of colour to the event. The readings, poem, blessings and words of thanks will be read by villagers, both serving and retired from all three branches of the Armed Forces, and civilians who play an important role in the community. At the end of the service, and weather providing, there will be a short procession to the stone memorial itself where a rededication prayer will be read by resident and former Royal Corps of Transport Officer Mike Maunder who said when asked to read: "That would be an enormous honour. Having had a small touch of active service I still think of (the) losses 51 years ago." The procession will finish back at the church where the local Women's Branch of the Royal British Legion have kindly offered to host a reception with tea and cakes. 

The date chosen for the service is Sunday, August 4 because it marks the 120th anniversary of the declaration of War on Germany in 1914. 

The service starts at 6pm and seating is limited and by RSVP only to acso@swanmorepc.org.uk.