Nicholas Soames MP was greeted by members of the Haywards Heath’s branch of the Royal British Legion during a visit to the Western Road Cemetery on Friday, 21st October.

The cemetery is also home to a Commonwealth War Cemetery. Mr Soames is a former soldier, Minister of State for the Armed Forces and Trustee of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and he has a keen personal interest in veterans’ affairs and remembrance of those who have given their lives in war. For many years he has been instrumental in assisting the Legion with its clients living in his constituency.

Accompanied by local Legion representative Daniel Kington, who has led a campaign to care for more than a hundred war graves and graves of veterans located in the cemetery and to save a forgotten war memorial that lies decaying in a corner of the cemetery, Mr Soames also inspected recent landscaping works undertaken by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to improve fourteen of the graves clustered in one area of the cemetery.

Mr Kington said; “Nobody knows anything about the war memorial. Just after the First World War a group of local people organised a public subscription to erect the memorial, before the town’s official memorial was put up on Muster Green. Who these people were is lost to time and whilst the cemetery itself is beautifully maintained by the Town Council, the memorial itself is in a parlous state.”

In 2006 Mr Kington applied to the War Memorials Trust for a grant to restore the memorial. This was rejected, although the Trust placed the memorial on a Grade II listing. By law, local authorities have a responsibility to maintain war memorials in their jurisdiction but despite written promises from the Town Council in 2007 no work was undertaken.

Also present from the local branch of the Legion were Secretary; Mick Lisney and Youth Liaison Officer; David Collins.

Mr Soames was keen to see the results of the excellent work done by local cadets every year since 2005, cleaning and tending the war graves. He has pledged to do all he can to help save the forgotten memorial and where practicable have headstones erected on some of the official war graves.

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