WE need to put our war memorials in the news for the right reasons.

They are the most tangible link we have with those dark years of almost a century ago when, with no repatriation possible, our forebears had no other means of honouring those they had lost in the slaughter.

Recent abuses involving theft and urination have caused outrage and disgust.

But if we care about war memorials, as we seemingly do, we have to invest in their upkeep if we are not to ultimately lose them through more mundane – but less newsworthy – natural erosion and structural problems.

With belts being tightened all round, this will be difficult.

However, to mark the centenary of the Armistice in a little over eight years, let’s do what is necessary to make our war memorials clean, safe and readable – and show that sentiments such as “We Will Remember Them” and “Lest we Forget” did not fall on deaf ears.

Ray Thompson clean2018@hotmail.co.uk