World War One Memorial Restored

You may recall we reported back in November that the original wooden plaque given to the club in 1920 as a memorial to those who gave their lives in WW!, had been found. Click here to read that special report.

After that special event for the Remembrance weekend, we wanted to get the plaque (which since the closure of Loakes Park had been gathering dust for about 35 years in a store cupboard) fully restored. One of the relatives of the the Buchanan family members, Martin Ball, knew someone who could do this for us.

So we are very grateful to the work of Tim Burt, from near Tring, who worked on this plaque in his spare time to clean, and repair it, sanding and retouching the grain, renewing the lettering in gold leaf, before waxing and polishing it to a finish that looks good whilst retaining some of the look of a vintage item given that it is now over 105 years old.

The costs of this restoration and repair work have been met by Frank Adams Legacy Limited

Tim Burt works locally as a portrait photographer https://www.timburtphoto.com/ but he was originally a cabinet maker in the High Wycombe furniture trade until redundancy forced him to find an alternative income source. As well as his photography, Tim teaches, trains and competes at judo!

So with the help of Csaba Handa from the WWFC maintenance staff, the plaque has been fixed to the wall in the entrance lobby to the Caledonian Suite, replacing the metal one that we sourced in 2014-15.

WWST again would like to thank those who contributed their family stories with their links to some of those named on the plaque – Phil Ball, Martin Ball, Pete Wrighton-Priest, Ian Monk and Deborah Parkes – to the members of the memorabilia audit working party, and to WWST and FALL director Alan Cecil who was tall enough to find the plaque on the high shelf last October and who has managed this part of the project from then till this completion.