by Stephen Waite

The completion of a new war memorial has been officially marked almost 25 years to the day after the original was destroyed in the Great Storm.

On Saturday, a service was held at Holy Trinity Church, Milton Regis, where the monument to victims of the First World War was wrecked during the hurricane on October 15, 1987.

Cllr Adam Tolhurst, chairman of the Milton Regis War Memorial Committee, set up to help fund a replacement, said: “It looks magnificent, in its clear, clean splendour.

“As Seb Coe said at the end of the Olympics: ‘We did it right’.”

Saturday’s service was the culmination of years of hard work to raise £35,000 for the stonework.

The committee had raised about £20,000 when, earlier this year, it received a £15,000 anonymous donation after the story of the memorial was printed in a national newspaper.

Sculptor Elliott Brotherton was commissioned to carry out the work and it was lifted into place last month.

Cllr Tolhurst thanked all those who had donated and said: “The fact it was finished in the 25th year after being destroyed was a coincidence.

“Once we knew it was going to be completed, the plan was to have a ceremony as close to the 25th anniversary as possible.”

More than 50 people attended an event to mark the completion of a new war memorial for Milton Regis.

The service was conducted by the Rev Pat Tatchell, padre for the Sittingbourne and Milton branch of the Royal British Legion.

Branch chairman Fred Langworthy was among those who addressed those present, who included Mayor of Swale Cllr Pat Sandle and relatives of those named on the memorial.

Cllr Adam Tolhurst said work would continue to fund the addition of names of all those who had died during the Second World War and subsequent conflicts.