THE sacrifice of thousands of soldiers who died on the battlefields in the name of King, Queen and country will never be forgotten.
But their names etched on the county's war memorials are fading fast with the ravages of time.
Now The Citizen is calling on communities to make sure these memorials are restored to their former glory in an effort to preserve a lasting tribute for generations to come.
With the centenary of the start of the First World War in 2014, we are urging communities to take steps to ensure we continue to have fitting monuments to our heroes.
Dame Janet Trotter, the Lord Lieutenant of Gloucestershire, is backing the campaign, she said: "War memorials stand as witnesses to our past and are important in helping us to understand the grim sacrifice of many young people for our future. "Whenever I see a war memorial and the long lists of the names of the dead, I remember the thousands of young people who marched to war and did not return.
"By preserving these memorials in our towns and villages we have daily reminders of the devastating consequences of war. We owe it to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the memorials so we can honour them and their deaths in foreign lands."
And we have taken our own steps to help. As part of The Citizen Gets It Done project with Downton logistics company, we enlisted the help of stonemasons Graham Walder and Andy Robinson, from Cotswold Conservation,
to spruce up St Andrew's Church war memorial in Churchdown in time for Remembrance Sunday. They had to use specialist equipment and did the work for free.
Graham said: "It is important these monuments are preserved but it is a time-consuming and costly process. I have only worked on four monuments in the last 14 years. Much of the lettering has faded and it is important the inscriptions are documented so they are not lost forever."
Ian Mean, Editor of The Citizen, will lay a wreath at the memorial in Gloucester Park tomorrow on behalf of readers.
