Park ceremony for regimental memorial bench

A rededication ceremony has taken place for a bench honouring 21 soldiers who died while on active service in Malaya in the 1950s.

The bench, which honours men of the Worcestershire Regiment, has been moved to the county from Staffordshire's National Memorial Arboretum, and takes its place at Gheluvelt Park in Worcester, the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Association said.

More than £1,000 was collected through a GoFundMe page to allow the bench to be cleaned and have rotten wood replaced.

One of the few surviving Malaya veterans Ron George, 92, from Malvern, laid a regimental wreath on the bench during Saturday's ceremony.

The park would be an appropriate home for the bench, said Nigel Fish, chairman of the association's Worcester branch.

The bench honoured men who died serving in the Malaya Emergency, with the regiment seeing active service there between 1950 and 1953, he stated.

Fish said placing the bench near the Worcestershire Regimental Stone would be "a fitting home", especially as the branch in the city held an annual service there to remember all who served during the Malaya Emergency.

In the online fundraising appeal, he stated work would include three cast iron supports being sandblasted and painted, and brass plaques cleaned.

Community network Men's Shed Worcester "saved a lot of work for the mainly elderly veterans" of the branch, the association said.

Activities included delivering and reassembling the bench in the park.

Representatives of the Worcester and Hereford branch of The Parachute Regimental Association and the Royal British Legion were among those who attended the ceremony.

Worcester Cathedral also featured a memorial to the 21 men, Fish said.

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