WALES has the first war memorial anywhere in Britain to commemorate the fallen, officers and other ranks alike, by name “the Royal Welch Fusiliers Crimean War Memorial in Carmarthen” so I am not surprised at the level of support for the petition to add the name of the late Marine Paul Woodland to the Alexandra Park Cenotaph.

My understanding though is that the Alexandra Park memorial is dedicated to those killed in the Great War and the Second World War and later conflicts up to 1957, which saw our country suffer losses on a scale that we must all hope, will never be repeated.

The civilians commemorated there all lost their lives in circumstances directly connected with those conflicts and it should also be borne in mind that after the Armistice at the end of the First World War British forces remained on active service in northern France, Germany and north Russia until 1919.

The Armed Forces Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire was dedicated in 2007 to “honour those members of the Armed Forces (Regular and Reserve) who were killed on duty while performing functions attributable to the special circumstances and requirements of the Armed Forces, or as a result of terrorist action, and those who died while deployed on designated operations”.

This dedication therefore includes both those members of the armed forces killed by enemy action and all those who have died while on duty. To my knowledge there are other Penarthians commemorated on this memorial, in addition to Marine Woodland, who died on duty with the armed forces, but who are not commemorated on any public memorial in the town.

I therefore suggest the dedication of a local memorial in Penarth inscribed with the names of those connected with the town who are commemorated on the UK Armed Forces Memorial. This could take the form of a suitably inscribed stone to which names could be added. The Garden of Remembrance in Alexandra Park seems to me to be a suitable location. I think a fund raising appeal for a memorial along these lines would be well supported locally.

Huw Williams

Penarth