Semi-colons and capital letters ... Which is correct?

[ChristmasAlreadyOver]

Our thanks go to the library for their lovely books; to the hospital for their professional care; to The White Horse for their hospitality and to the vicar for the lovely service

Or

Our thanks go to the library for their lovely books; To the hospital for their professional care; To the White Horse for their hospitality and to the vicar for the lovely service

Thanks

First one.

Our thanks go to: the library for their lovely books; the hospital for their professional care; the White Horse for their hospitality; and the vicar for the lovely service.

I think so too ... Anyone else?

Then I will tell you the story

First

No need for capitals.

First one. Capital letters follow a full stop.

No capitals after a semi colon. Just after a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark.

CW yes you may be more accurate.

The first one (but with different words) is the one we asked to go in the local paper as an acknowledgement after mum's funeral.

The second is the version they printed, extra capital Ts for To and a missing T for the

I am more than pissed off!

Should I contact them?

I'd go with Calamitously Wrong's approach. It's very pared down and clear. Though I might even ditch the colon and semi-colon and just go for a list with commas (but I am very boring).

Hope everything is well with you (having read your list).

I would have gone with commas too.

You might want to point out that it is not completely considerate of them to make such a mess of notices that people have taken time to write, at periods of great stress, thanking people for help and kindness. It makes them look very shoddy.

Alas, the days of the literate and dedicated sub-editor are very much a thing of the past on local newspapers.

I would have said:

Our thanks go to the library for their lovely books, the hospital for their professional care, The White Horse for their hospitality and Vicar for the lovely service.

But I'm not excellent with punctuation and all that.

Semi colons are also used to separate items in a list when the items involve several words each.

It doesn't seem right in this situation though. This example is what I think it should be used like:

In the meeting today we have Professor Wilson, University of Barnsley, Dr Watson, University of Barrow in Furness, Colonel Custard, Metropolitan Police and Dr Mable Syrup, Genius General, University of Otago, New Zealand

which is messy and hard to understand so changed to

In the meeting today we have Professor Wilson, University of Barnsley; Dr Watson, University of Barrow in Furness; Colonel Custard, Metropolitan Police and Dr Mable Syrup, Genius General, University of Otago, New Zealand

From here btw www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/page_05.htm

and OP really sorry about your mum

Thank you, you have made me think more rationally about it.

Our words with the semi-colons and no capital To was written under stress and is perhaps clumsy. But I am cross that they have 'corrected' it yet the result looks even worse.

I'd have gone with Tequila's version as well: semi-colons not necessary here. They are only used in a list if the items in the list contain commas already. But anyway, no capital letters after semi-colons.

Sorry, to clarify, below is an example where you would need semi-colons in a list:

In the meeting today we have Professor Wilson, University of Barnsley; Dr Watson, University of Barrow in Furness; Colonel Custard, Metropolitan Police and Dr Mable Syrup, Genius General, University of Otago, New Zealand.

Spooky cross post with Tequila!

OP. Don't worry about punctuation. The people who matter will just see a thank you and not notice anything else. Only arses would read a funeral notice and think about whether the capital letters were correct or not.

ChristmasAlreadyOver, CalamitouslyWrong is absolutely right. Although I think that it was not the most sensitive thing a newspaper could have done (and I think if it had been me, I'd have tried harder on your behalf), the people that matter really, really won't care. They will be very touched that you managed to put out a public notice of thanks at a time they will know is very difficult.

I really do hope things are going better with you and yours now.

Thank you all. I have calmed down now and realise, as you say, that people will appreciate the sentiment and not worry about the punctuation and grammar.