A PENARTH woman has launched a campaign for her father-in-law to represent survivors of the First World War.

Marion Avon said that following events held to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of World War One in 2014, the new year should be used to “commemorate and celebrate” the survivors of the war.

During a meeting of Penarth Town Council’s World War One Commemorative Group this week she also presented two pennies which saved the life of her father-in-law during the war.

She said that the ‘tuppence’, which included an 1862 penny with Queen Victoria on and a 1907 penny with Edward VII on, had helped stop an enemy bullet whilst he was on active service in France in 1915.

The Queen Victoria penny has a hole in it, pierced by a bullet, while the Edward VII penny has an indent mark too.

“Had he not had these two coins in his pocket he would have died instead of being wounded,” said Marion.

“So tuppence saved his life.”

She added: “He continued to carry these two pennies for the rest of his life in his pocket.”

She added that because she had so many souvenirs telling the story of the life of Ivanhoe Avon he could be used as an icon to represent survivors of the war.

The group, which organised a ‘Penarth Remembers’ commemorative event to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War last year, agreed that Marion could put on a display about Ivanhoe’s life during the Armed Forces Day parade in the town.

The parade, which was cancelled in 2014 after the 580 Transport Squadron pulled out of the event, is set to be held on June 20.

Councillor Neil Thomas, who was chairing the committee, said Marion could put on a display in one of the rooms in West House.

“It’s still appropriate to be talking about World War One, so we could have a room commemorating that and another one focusing on conflicts since the war.”

He added: “We have a reputation in Penarth of putting on particularly inspiring events in the town.”