Press coverage

The Times 21 July 2003: Complimentary of Friends of War Memorials Newsletter

"Friends of War Memorials deserve an award for the liveliest newsletter of any voluntary organisation, packed with stories of memorials snatched from oblivion."

The Daily Telegraph 4 July 2002: Editorial and Commentary of War Memorials

Editorial: Unfitting Memorials

Rupert Brookes would have found it rich that, while British soldiers buried in some corner of a foreign field ended up in well-tended billets, the memorials raised in their name are rotting away. For 85 years, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, funded by Commonwealth governments, has been doing excellent work, keeping the tombstones of our war dead gleaming. But there is no similar government-funded body to protect war memorials. 

And so the charity Friends of War Memorials, founded as recently as 1995, is left to look after the 60,000 memorial across Britain and the world. The demands on the charity are enormous and its current funds minimal. But even a small donation is enough to touch up the fading lettering on a weather-worn stone memorial or restore long-neglected plaques - one, recently plucked from a bonfire at Wentworth Castle, Yorkshire, will be returned to immaculate order for a few hundred pounds. Donations can be sent to Friends of War Memorials 4 Lower Belgrave Street London SW1W 0LA (Webmaster note: these are the old contact details for the charity now War Memorials Trust 42a Buckingham Palace Road London SW1W 0RE).

Article: Appeal for funds to save war memorials by David Graves

An article was also published in the same edition of the paper. The appeal for funds lead to donations in excess of £10,000. These donations were used to fund a grant scheme in Mr Graves's memory as he died just a few days after publication of the article.