Boxley has a proud memorial just outside the grounds of St Mary and All Saints Church dedicated to its sons who fell in the First and Second World Wars.

Thirty-four men are recorded as killed in the first and 14 in the second.

The memorial was erected in 1925 after a public subscription raised the the necessary £286 7s to pay for the stone. It was designed by Harold Barnald with a cross surmounted on two granite "drums" representing the traditional makeshift altars made of drums in the field during times of conflict.

Now with this year being the centenary of the end of the Great War, the parish council was concerned to make sure that all the village's heroes were properly included.

Two suggestions were made of names that had been missed off when the memorial was first erected.

Research has confirmed one man who should have been included: R.V.S Hadlow was an RAF Mechanic First Class. His parents ran the Kings Arms pub in the village at the time. He died on September 17, 1919, from tuberculous. Although the war was over by then, he had contracted the disease during the war and his grave is registered by the War Graves Commission.

His name will now be added to the memorial.

A second suggestion was one Fred Dennis, believed to have died while serving in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. But so far the parish council has not found any evidence beyond establishing that there was a Dennis family who lived in Weavering and were farming at Vinters Farm around this time.

The 1921 census which might have given a clue will not be released by The National Archives until 2021.

So the parish council has decided that unless it receives more information about Fred Dennis before its estates committee meeting on Tuesday, April 17, it will only add the one name.

If anyone has information on Fred Dennis, they should contact the parish clerk on 01634 861237.