I stopped to take a picture of the war memorial while I was in Hardwick village (part of the Clumber Estate) yesterday.
There was something different about it but I couldn’t quite place it until I had a closer look.
Hardwick Village war memorial
As you can see from the close up – the bronze plaques are missing. According to the various newspaper stories the “engraved brass” plaques have been stolen. They were actually cast bronze, which is completely different, but I won’t waste my time discussing that. Like the teeth of hens and the droppings of rocking horses, the accuracy of journalists is very rare.
I’m not sure I want to live in a society where people deface graves and steal memorials for scrap metal. I had a wide choice of examples to use there – I selected Michael Foot’s grave as being suitably neutral. I could have chosen stories on Jewish graves or Muslim graves being attacked in the UK, or British war graves being attacked in Libya. It’s a depressing world.
Fortunately, the names are preserved for posterity, so at least the sacrifice will not be forgotten.
It’s tempting to hold forth on respect, education, crime, punishment and the decay of civilisation. However, whatever I say won’t alter the situation, even if I had anything useful to say.
Really I just wanted to write something as a (mild) protest at this sort of thing.
Sadly there’s not much else I can do.
This blog entry of yours came up as being related to one I posted today. We have become so used to memorials and graves being vandalised by unscrupulous ‘scrap metal’ collectors that I was surprised to come across a war memorial in a small town here in South Africa with everything intact. I am horrified to see this vanadalism happens in your part of the world too!
It has become more common as the price of scrap metal has gone up, as has the theft of lead from church roofs. It’s a sad state of affairs.
We need to punish scrap metal dealers who are willing to buy stolen merchandise.
More resources and police are needed to protect decent people, from crimes against society.
Agreed. 🙂
Very sad and so frustrating that nothing can be done.
Replacing them with resin would work, though it would be expensive and look tacky.
It makes me angry. The people who steal these plaques (or the masterminds who require them to be stolen) have no conscience and care not a jot for heritage or memorials to the dead. We are absolutely powerless against them.
Yes – a complete lack of respect for heritage and the memories of the dead, It must be heart-breaking if you have a relative on a stolen plaque – as many people do,
The very same thing happened to a small, neighborhood bronze plaque honoring WWII service in the Connecticut town where I grew up. Heartbreaking. For the families, community and a sad commentary on the life and mind of the theif.
You are right – it’s hard to comprehend what goes on in the mind of people like that.
Depressing.
It is.
No, sadly there isn’t a short or simple answer to what can be done about this kind of misdemeanour. It beggars belief, all the same.
Indeed it does.
So sad!
Yes, it is.