In my area the War Memorials Trust has given excellent information on renovation of memorials, has used powers of persuasion to get local authorities to maintain memorials and provided grants for renovation and moving of memorials so I thought I might be allowed a 'plug' for membership. The War Memorials Trust is a registered charity dedicated to the care and preservation of war memorials in the UK. You can become a member of the trust for £20 per year and that doesn't commit you to doing any work at all but you do receive 4 great colour bulletins per year. I guess if you are reading this you have an interest in war memorials? If so, why not join to support the work of this charity and get some inside info? I hope that has not transgressed the rules of the forum but I guess that I will hear if it does. \Spoons
Hi Spoons, Don't think you have transgressed any rules, personnally i think its a great post and goes with the theme of this section. Are you doing any work for them? Here in Didcot the town council put up a new memorial which looks like a pile of bricks on a concrete base with some brass plates on it, its ruddy horrible and modern looking. Good luck to the War Memorials Trust. Sniper [Mike]
After becoming a member of WMT I became a Regional Volunteer so work with the full time professionals of the trust to represent them locally. I attend unveilings, give talks, help with research, inspect memorials and identify memorials at risk, helping to advise on resiting them in case of closed churches etc. Life as an RV is interesting and varied and you can do as much (or as little) as you like. I also help to update UKNIWM records. \Spoons
That is very interesting and i've not heard of them before. One of my mates is researching the KSLI from WW1 and he has managed so far to have around 20 men added to the CWGC casualtiy lists and had them added to their town memorials. Sniper
Check out the website at War Memorials Trust expecially the FAQs and factsheets. The patron is Prince Charles 'other half', Camilla. \Spoons
I can safely say his thread has not transgressed any forum rules. does the trust try and photo all memorials as well? and do they help to resite the lost plaques to the Memorial Arboretum, as i know there are quite a few re-homed here.
The War Memorials Trust has no great plan to photograph and document all war memorials as this work is already the aim of UKNIWM. As it happens I do photograph and document memorials and pass this to UKNIWM who have aspirations to put all this online but that will depend on funding which they do not have at present. The WMT has a policy that decisions regarding memorials should be taken by those local to the memorial but if memorials have to be relocated, they have a preference that they should be relocated as close as possible to the original site. I was not aware that plaques have been relocated to the memorial arboretum and I would be interested to know if any have found there way there from Scotland. The trust does make grants towards relocation costs and I see no reason why a move to the arboretum should not qualify. Mostly the trust is an excellent source of information of all kinds with regards to memorials, whether this is technical aspects of renovation, legal issues or adding names to existing memorials. Being a registered charity with a famous patron, they can be quite effective at reminding local authorities of their obligations with regards to upkeep and maintenance. A number of us here in Scotland could not wait for UKNIWM to put all the memorials online so we are currently doing this for Scotland which you can see at scottishwarmemorials.co.uk \Spoons
