The Victoria Cross Trust, a small charity that dedicates it’s time to cleaning and restoring graves and memorials of Victoria Cross recipients and other military personnel first came to Wrexham in 2023 to restore the grave of Percy Whelton MC.
They recently returned to clean a small memorial to David Lord VC which is adjacent to the Royal Welch Fusiliers memorial. As part of the planning they added the RWF memorial alongside a restoration of Major Guy Egon Rene de Miremont DSO MC and Brigadier General Robert Henry William Dunn also of the RWF. Both of these memorials are in Wrexham cemetery close to Percy Whelton MC.
Upon arrival they also identified two further military memorials associated with the RWF in the cemetery and with the permission of the cemetery team cleaned those as well.
In total the team cleaned:
David Lord VC memorial
Major Guy Egon Rene de Miremont DSO MC
Brigadier General Robert Henry William Dunn
Quarter Master Sergeant JC Widenbar
Corporal Thomas Bowman
RWF Memroial
DDay Memorial
Falklands War Memorial
Burma Memorial
Korean War memorial
Enroute to Wrexham they also cleaned the grave of Ernest Egerton VC and the war memorial both at Forsbrook church in Blythe Bridge.
The organisation would like to stress that they only use specialist steam cleaning equipment to protect the stone (not chemicals or jet wash that could damage the memorials) and do not charge for any of their work. However donations are always welcome via their JustGiving page available on their website.
Cllr Beverly Parry Jones, Armed Forces Champion at Wrexham Council said: “I visited members of the charity on their most recent visit to Wrexham, to thank them on behalf of Wrexham for their work. “A huge debt of gratitude is owed to our war heroes and organisations such as The Victoria Cross Trust who work tirelessly to keep their memory alive are invaluable in making sure that we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifices.”