A well-respected Second World War veteran has spoken out about the need for change at the National War Memorial and the preservation of others around the island.
Hector Duff, who is 96 and lives in Onchan, told the Manx Independent that the wire which keeps the poppy wreaths on show at the memorial in St John’s does not keep them strongly attached to the memorial.
He said: ‘The wire is not attached to anything, it’s just completely loose and drops down to the bottom of the step. When you put the wreaths behind the wire they fall over and get blown down in the wind.
‘It’s a disgrace to the 1,600 men, or more than that, named on the memorial. I want the public to see the memorial and I would like to see if something can be done about it.’
He added: ‘We owe them men a debt we can never repay, and what can we do about it? We can lay flowers on the memorials.’
The D-Day veteran is a member of the Preservation of War Memorials Committee, a group which was established to oversee the identification and registration of memorials and encourage the maintenance of more than 150 across the island.
He said he will be bringing up the issue to the government committee at a meeting in January. ‘I will certainly be bringing it to their notice and I will try to get something done about it,’ he said.
Mr Duff – who last year received the Tynwald Honour, the island’s highest accolade – has been a dedicated campaigner for the preservation of the memorials and said he has been ‘fighting for years’ to make sure they are well maintained to remember those who have died in battle.
He said: ‘I go every week [to the war memorials] and I go to quite a few that are causing concern, like in Malew, and I’m quite happy to do it.’
Mr Duff was conscripted at the age of 19 and fought in the North Africa Campaign. He has been awarded numerous honours, including a military medal for his role in the D-Day landings, the British Empire Medal in 2012 and, most recently, was last month awarded the freedom of the borough of Douglas.
He said: ‘I would like to see flowers on every war memorial in the island and I will die happy if I can get something done. I go out to remember the fellas I left behind.’