The families of fallen soldiers have expressed ‘disgust’ and ‘devastation’ at the closure of a barracks memorial room to their lost sons.
Relatives of Pte Anton Frampton – and other Huddersfield families who lost loved ones in the Afghanistan conflict – have expressed upset that a memorial room at Battlesbury Barracks in Wiltshire is to close.
Families were informed late last month that The First Battalion of The Yorkshire Regiment (1 Yorks) memorial room is to be taken over for training.
The room, at the Wiltshire base, holds official army portraits of Pte Frampton, Pte Daniel Wilford, Cpl Jake Hartley, Pte Tom Wroe, Lance Cpl Graham Shaw and other soldiers from Huddersfield who died during service in Afghanistan.
It also has a memorial bench, wreathes and memorabilia relating to the servicemen of the now defunct 1 Yorks.
But, according to relatives, no alternative room is to be opened at the base and portraits and memorabilia of the fallen soldiers are to be sent back to the families.
Pte Frampton’s mother Margaret Charlesworth said: “We’re absolutely devastated. We got this letter out of the blue advising us that the memorial room is to close and any artefact must be reclaimed.
“They’re saying they need it for training purposes but why can’t they keep the photos? The battalion should be remembered in the place it worked.
“The boys that have left the regiment are disgusted.
“To us it shows a lack of respect in the hierarchy of the Yorkshire Regiment for the soldiers that have died and their families.”
An army spokesperson said: “The army takes very seriously its duty to honour the service personnel who died during the Afghanistan campaign and keep their families’ needs in mind.
“The National Memorial Arboretum provides the focus for this and, in the infantry especially, regimental headquarters provide the focus for memorial, not the operational units.
“There is, however, a memorial wall at Battlesbury Barracks, the home of 1 Yorks in Wiltshire. ”
Pte Frampton, 20, of Longwood, Cpl Hartley, 20, of New Mill and Pte Wilford, 21, of Cowlersley together with Pte Daniel Wade, 20, Pte Christopher Kershaw, 19, and Sgt Nigel Coupe, 33, were killed when their armoured vehicle was blown up by insurgents in Helmand Province in March 2012.
Meltham soldier Pte Wroe, 18, was gunned down by a rogue Afghan policeman inside a checkpoint in Nahr-e Saraj, in September 2012.
Lance Cpl Shaw, 27, of Golcar, was the first Huddersfield soldier to die in the Afghanistan conflict when he was killed by an IED while on foot patrol in the Babaji District, Helmand Province, in February 2010.
