A FORMER Royal Green Jacket has cleaned the statue outside Winchester Cathedral and five military graves in Alresford.
Steve Davies was in the Third Battalion Royal Green Jackets from 1974-1981 and noticed at a recent reunion that it needed a good clean.
Steve, 65, from Hawkhurst in Kent, said: “I went to the cathedral and saw the statue was filthy. I re-trained as a stone mason last year and got accredited with the British Register of Accredited Memorial Masons.”
After getting permission from the cathedral to do the work, Steve completed the job from March 13-15 and used a variety of cleaning equipment from Fairy liquid to a pressure washer.
Speaking about Steve's work, Colonel Carron Snagge chairman of the Royal Green Jacket Association, said: "Sometimes we are able to help cover his costs but invariably he gives up an enormous amount of his own time and energy. It is a labour of love that is always appreciated by the families and friends of those remembered. Thank you, Steve."
As well as the statue, Steve also cleaned the Royal Green Jackets cap-badge at Rifles Museum near the Peninsular Barracks.
Steve recently helped to clean five military graves at St John the Baptist churchyard in Alresford.
The graves are more than 200 years old and are French prisoners of war from the Napoleonic Wars. Their gravestones, erected many years after their deaths, were last cleaned in 1958.
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The five restored gravestones are: Joseph Hypolite Riouffe – a French Navy Lieutenant of the Imperial and Royal Marines; Ciprien Lavau, a Trade Officer who died in 1811, aged 29; Jean de L’Huille, an Artillery Lieutenant who died in 1812, aged 51; Sub-Lieutenant Pierre Garnier (1775-1811) 66th Regiment French Infantry; and Marie Louise Fournier, the wife of Captain Francois Bertet, of the French Imperial Artillery Corps at Guadeloupe.
This is part of a wider project Steve has organised, called the Military Grave Restorer. The project, which is a community interest company, is aiming to clean and restore military graves across the country.
On his Facebook page, Steve said: “I have to date cleaned and renovated 12 Victoria Cross graves in the south east and helped put a headstone on a George Cross recipient’s grave, unmarked since 1949. I have cleaned and renovated over 60 non-Commonwealth War Graves Commission military graves in the area including raising funds for a headstone for a forgotten WW1 soldier who did not qualify for a CWGC one.”
To donate to Steve's project, visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/MilitaryGraveRestorer. To find out more, visit facebook.com/MilitaryGraveRestorer.
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