Seriously!? Who cares about the War Memorials??!!

[planetpotty]

Fellow Mumsnetters please help.

Put simply I cannot believe the images that I have been seeing recently on the news. War memorials are being vandalised or having the brass plaques stripped from them and sold for scrap metal at a rate of THREE PER WEEK.

The majority of our war memorials were erected by local communities after the huge losses of World War I; communities raised the money to remember their sons, brothers, fathers and friends who did not return.

If you to are outraged please, please show support through the War Memorials Trust, follow the link and donate whatever you can.

The War Memorials Trust is the charity that works to protect and conserve our war memorial heritage. Recently the Trust recruited a Learning Officer whose job it is to build an educational programme for young people to ensure that tomorrow?s custodians continue to preserve our war memorials because they understand what they represent and why they are important.

www.warmemorials.org/donate

This is a cause very close to my heart having used to the memorials to remember friends recently fallen.

Thank you so much for reading.

Bump...

Done.

Shocking

Well done planet for highlighting this.

From the thread title I thought this was going to be something very different.

MJB Thank you so much for posting and donating!

Completely shocking! This is happening here, right now, in all areas of the UK, a brass statue of a soldier was taken from Tidworth in Wiltshire recently, it took the thieves 40 mins to remove the statue, even the time and increased risk of being caught was not enough to deter them

Amberleaf and everyone .... Im sorry knew it would get people through the door.

Last bump before bed. Considering posting in AIBU for the next few days given the time of year. Is that a bad idea?

I saw a piece about this on the ITV News tonight.

What was striking was the unanimity of the condemnation of the action (characterised in the report as beyond a crime - more like the desacration of a grave).

And I was very moved that at one location, to replace the names in time for Remembrance ceremonies, a primary school "adopted" the monument, and the children wrote and decorated a set of individual name cards, one for each man or boy whose name had been stolen, and those cards were then laminated to be hung on the plinth.

I agree med

Getting the children to make the plaques is a wonderful way to deal with them stolen. So so sad that those children should ever have to though.

bump

Bump

bump

The stealing and melting down of metal from memorials and other sources (remember the Henry Moore a while back?) could easily be stopped by a little bit of legislation that forces scrap dealers to insist on paperwork for every piece of metal that they accept. Donate to the War Memorial fund, it is a very worthy charity, but if you have spare time, write to your MP and put some pressure on to change the law so that there is no market for stolen metal.

There is an epetition calling for the ending of cash transactions for scrap metal.

This is relevant not just to War Memorials, which are so much in our minds at this time of year, but also metal fencing, gates, manhole covers and other metallic items are stolen. Property is raided for lead, copper and cabling. Statues have are stolen. Overhead power lines are stolen at serious risk to personal safety with huge costs for replacement and major inconvenience to the public.

Bumping for you. I too thought the thread was going to be something very different. Good idea to get people in here.

Agree with legislating scrap dealers - it would stop all sorts of problems.

Yes, at this time of year we think of the distressing damage to war memorials, but the rest of the year we think of the inconvenience and danger caused to the rail network by metal theft.

so sad, thank you OP

The thieves are scum but also shame on the scrapyard owners/workers for accepting and paying for such items. They know their meaning, they know they are stolen and they also know they are encouraging further crimes. We recently had an item stolen from our garage that later turned up at a local scrapyard. There was no cctv or any other record of who had brought the item in so there isn't much the police can do. However, we were told by a friend that there are plans afoot to ban the paying of cash for scrap metal, everything will have to be done through bank accounts, so hurrah for that.

what does bump mean?

It makes the thread keep appearing in Active Convos, mamaLou. So more people can see it.

medi thanks for the e petition (I'm all signed up) prevention better than cure, if there is no cash from the scrap metal trade then no demand and hopefully a huge decrease in these terrible and dangerous metal thefts.

Sign up if your outraged!!!!! It's easy and free

Smart-water is another option I think the war memorial plan to use. It coats the metal and then the scrap metal yards shine it over uv light to fractal the smart water mark.

I'm still furious and dumbfounded that this actually really happens.

Thanks everyone, it's not just about the cash the awareness of the charity and cause is of huge benefit as well.

We have our own little society looking after our one. I C&P'd part of your post to the chair, so thanks for that.

,

It seems like there is a lot of support for new regulations for the scrap metal trade.

Our local war memorial is in stone to avoid this happening, then again it is also outside the main guardroom to the camp so anyone thinking of steeling anything from it would get shot (and rightly so)

Signed. Thanks for the petition link.

A primary school near me suffered £40,000 worth of flood damage because thieves stole some piping.