Ironsmith creates memorial to honour fallen comrades

Cpl Chilton had served in various posts abroad, including the brutal Malayan Emergency and in Aden, but retired after nine years of service and came home to set up the successful Chiltondale Wrought Ironsmiths, Summerbidge, near Harrogate.

Mr Chilton, 71, still runs the ironsmiths with his son, Chris, and when he saw in a gardening magazine that the Royal Marines were creating the memorial at their Condor base at Arbroath in Scotland, he set to work on a sculpture in memory of his fallen comrades.

Chris, 37, and his father have been working on the one-tonne sculpture, a semi-globe based on the Royal Marine’s cap badge presented by King George IV in 1827, for months.

Now the pair have just returned from the new garden in Scotland where it has recently been installed as the centrepiece.

“My dad saw people not make it back,” said Chris.

“And he wanted to put something back in for the Marines.

“It was quite an emotional thing going up there.

“They also put up a memorial stone about 12ft high with the names of the soldiers who have lost their lives.”

The Memorial Garden officially opens on November 11.