James Gray calls for War Memorials to be recorded
“I am very concerned that disgraceful metal thefts from War memorials across North Wiltshire will lead to those who are commemorated on them being lost for all time,” said North Wiltshire MP James Gray after raising the matter in the House of Commons yesterday.
Mr Gray asked Tony Baldry, who is the MP responsible for the Church Commissioners: “[Are you] aware that one of the greatest tragedies about the loss of metal from war memorials, whether they be on Church property or elsewhere, is that there is currently no central record kept of the people whose names are recorded on them?” He went on to ask, “Will [you] undertake to ask the Church Commissioners to work with the Imperial War museum, and indeed the Ministry of Defence, to provide a central register of those whose names appear on war memorials?”
Responding, Tony Baldry MP, Church Estates Commissioner, said “I would hope that in the run-up to 2014 to 2018, the centenary of the first world war, churches across the country will not only work on updating, conserving and repairing war memorials but give thought, as many communities are, to updating the records of those who lost their lives in the first and second world wars.” Concluding Mr Baldry said, “the theft of inscriptions from war memorials is a detestable offence, and a further example of the need to tackle the theft of metals as urgently as possible.”
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HANSARD
