Resort set to unveil war memorial

Town mayor, Coun John Freeman, said Whitby did not have a local point of remembrance for the fallen of the two world wars, because the War Memorial Hospital, built in their memories, no longer existed.

The issue came to the fore following the loss of two local soldiers, Corporal Damian Lawrence and Craftsman Andrew Found, in Afghanistan. Coun Freeman said: “The council created a memorial board at St Mary’s Parish Church to record their names and those of 34 others that research uncovered were not listed, and we realised that Whitby did not have a point of remembrance any longer.”

As a result, a working party was set up by the town council.

The memorial, on the harbourside at Dock End, takes the form of a double plinth, quarried sandstone and a piece of portice lattice from the north of Norway. “It is significant that our county regiment, The Green Howards, saw action there in 1940,” said Coun Freeman.

It will be unveiled and dedicated at a ceremony on Saturday which will be attended by members of the Yorkshire Regiment and others.