HE will carve their names with pride.
Over the next few weeks, the names of four young Huddersfield soldiers will be added to the Armed Forces Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum.
Stonemason Nick Hindle has started work on adding the 53 names of the service personnel killed during 2012 in Afghanistan or on duty elsewhere.
And those names will include the four Huddersfield soldiers, all serving with the Yorkshire Regiment.
Cpl Jake Hartley, Pt Daniel Wilford and Pt Anton Frampton were all killed in March last year when a Taliban bomb blew up their Warrior armoured vehicle on patrol in Helmand in Afghanistan.
Pt Tom Wroe, of Meltham, was killed in Helmand last September .
Now all will be permanently honoured at the Staffordshire memorial and their families will be invited to a dedication service later in the year.
The names of two other Huddersfield heroes killed in Afghanistan, Lance-Cpl Graham Shaw and Capt Lisa Head, are already inscribed on the memorial.
Andrew Baud, spokesperson for the Arboretum’s parent charity, the Royal British Legion, said: “This is a sombre, month-long task for the engraver.
“During that time, many bereaved service families and members of the public will come and watch the names being carved.
“The names will then be dedicated in a special services of commemoration later in the year. Many families tell us that they feel great pride that their loved one’s name is etched forever on the memorial’s Portland Stone walls.”
The Armed Forces Memorial is one of more than 250 at the site and was dedicated by the Queen in 2007.
Of the 53 names now being added, 44 were killed in Afghanistan.
The work at the site in Alrewas is being painstakingly carried out by stonemason Mr Hindle and is expected to take up to a month to complete.
The Armed Forces Memorial is the nation’s tribute to the more than 16,000 personnel who have died on duty or through terrorism since 1948.
It is a stunning piece of architecture comprising a 43-metre diameter stone structure with two curved walls and two straight walls containing the names of those honoured.
Jenny Green OBE is a trustee and vice-patron of the Armed Forces Memorial and former chairman of the War Widows Association of Great Britain. Her husband Group Captain Bill Green was killed 18 years ago, but his body was never recovered.
She said: “This Memorial is a special place in which to honour our loved ones, a place to reflect with pride on their ultimate sacrifice, to remember them and to see others remembering them.
“But it’s far more than just a monument. It has a serenity and beauty of its own and comes alive when, within its walls, people walk, sit and think.”
