A GROUP of war veterans have laid up their Standard.

Members of the Huddersfield branch of the Burma Star Association took part in the solemn ceremony at the Tolson Museum, Moldgreen, after the closure of the branch.

To be a member, an ex-service person or nurse must have been awarded the Burma Campaign Star for service in Burma (now Myanmar) during the Second World War or the Pacific Star with Burma Clasp.

There were more than 20 members when the Huddersfield branch was formed at Turnbridge Working Men's Club, Aspley, in 1980. There were seven when it folded.

During the ceremony, the Standard was handed to the museum to be cared for, for the people of Huddersfield.

The Vicar of Huddersfield, the Rev Catherine Ogle, said: "The Standard represents the ideals for which the members of the association served, and is a memorial to those who laid down their lives in the cause of freedom.

"We remember those who died in the heat of battle or from wounds sustained, those who died of sickness overseas and those who survived.

"We remember them all and give thanks for their sacrifice to win victory over tyranny and oppression."

Thanks were also given in memory of those who had died since the war.

* The Burma Star Association was officially founded in 1951.

* The rules of the association were drawn up by Lord Louis Mountbatten (pictured) and Field Marshal Lord Slim.

* The broad aims of the association are to promote the comradeship experienced in the bitter fighting in the jungles of Burma.

* The group also set up a welfare organisation so that members and widows in need can be given poverty assistance in times of ill-health or other debilitating circumstances.