A bid is to be made to restore Marlborough’s “drab and dreary” memorial to those who died in the First World War to commemorate next year’s centenary of the outbreak of the conflict.
Deputy Mayor Councillor Marian Hannaford-Dobson, who is due to become Mayor in 2014, has identified a £6 million Heritage Lottery project that provides grants of up to £10,000 to help communities to commemorate the centenary.
A joint application is now to be made with Marlborough British Legion for a project to restore the war memorial at the New Road/Barn Street roundabout.
And the town council has decided to set up a committee, chaired by the deputy mayor to co-ordinate a series of local events due to take place up to 2018 to mark the centenary.
Its members will include Councillor Andrew Ross, who chairs the council’s finance committee, who is a known historian of Marlborough’s involvement in the war.
He told councillors that the plinth on which the memorial stood was made of inappropriate slabs of concrete that needed to be replaced.
“If we are going to restore the memorial then let us go the whole hog, clean it up and replace the plinth. It looks so drab and dreary at the moment,” he declared.
A report by Shelley Parker, the town clerk, revealed that the war memorial is “badly stained” and can be restored only by a company specialising in cenotaph cleaning.
“Only one company has been identified which undertakes this work,” she reported. “It uses a super-heated hot water system that does not damage the stone.
“It would include a copper stain remover and cleaning would include the plaque and work to the enamelled lettering. An initial estimate shows that the work will cost in excess of £2,000.”
British Legion stalwart Alec Light, a newly co-opted member of the council, said there had been proposals to clean the war memorial 20 years ago.
The council might need to go “half and half” in providing the funding for the restoration project.
Councillor Nick Fogg said it was essential that the word commemoration and not celebration was used as the world war was a deep tragedy.
He referred to a speech by Harold Macmillan who had said “the sun will never shine again” following the loss of so many soldiers on the Somme.
“I would like to think we can do something to make the people of Marlborough, especially the young people, aware of the nature of this tragedy, and that we still live with it,” he added. “We would be remiss if we didn’t.”
