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Signals soldiers help out with gravestone tidy-up

 

REMEMBRANCE activities will sadly be restricted this year with covid restrictions making the usual gatherings and parade impossible.

But work recently carried out in the cemetery has come as a timely reminder that not all the graves with military connections are listed and maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which is responsible for those of 50 British First World War casualties, 20 from the Second World War, nine Germans and six non-world war service personnel.

A suggestion from Lt Col Retd Bob Brannigan before he retired as Garrison SO was followed up by town council staff who searched for any military reference on the gravestones, and in the council database.

During the lockdown a meeting was held with members of the Royal Corps of Signals Junior Command Training Team with 11th Signal Regiment based at Blandford Camp who agreed to carry out some maintenance work and cleaning of some of the stones on the list.

Town clerk Linda Scott Giles said: “We would ordinarily seek permission from the grave owner, but these were clearly not attended for whatever reason. Sergeant Instructor TKQ Raratabu and his colleagues spent a morning working there, focusing on cleaning the headstones which for whatever reason have been unattended for years of those who served their country and did not have a Commonwealth War grave in Blandford. The grounds staff have also fixed the little pillars back on one of the graves.”

The gravestones they worked on included those remembering Reginald Durdle and his parents, Leonard Arnold, and Leo Weldon and his son Julian, who died on active service in Korea in 1954 and is also remembered at St Mary’s School, Marnhull.

Reginald William Durdle was the son of Salisbury Street tailor Robert William and Alice Sarah Durdle, killed in action in 1918 age 25 while serving with The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), and is buried at Epehy Wood Farm Cemetery.

Leonard Alfred Arnold was killed in action age 33, and his CWGC record reveals his number and rank as 1412625 AC 2nd Class and that he died on December 8 1941, and was buried at Whitley Bay cemetery.

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