A CALL has been made for the war memorial in Wellington to be given a full re-dedication when a plaque boasting 32 previously unmentioned names is officially unveiled.

Members of Wellington Town Council heard on Tuesday (May 8) that the specially commissioned plaque which was completed and ready to be fitted onto the memorial.

The plaque will be in place before Armed Forces Day on Saturday, June 30, and councillors were told it will be formally blessed by the chaplain of Wellington’s Royal British Legion branch during the Remembrance Sunday service in November.

But Cllr Pete Critchard said: “These are new names going on to our war memorial – I think there should be a full re-dedication of the memorial rather than just a blessing.”

The new plaque has been created following research by historians Ray Hitchcock and Mike Perry during their work on three books entitled Our Boys, Our Boys and a Girl, and Our Other Boys.

The plaque has been created by Stonehenge Masonry and councillors have been impressed with the final results. The Mayor, Cllr Gary James, said: “The stonemasons have done the fallen proud.”

And Cllr Mark Lithgow said: “We should congratulate all the people who did the research and all the hard work in tracing these names.”

The council was first made aware of the ‘Missing 32’ on the war memorial in 2016 and it was decided that a bronze plaque containing those names would be added to commemorate the centenary of the end of the First World War.