The proposal to put a World War One tank in the park to commemorate that conflict strikes me as inappropriate. Trowbridge already has four WWI memorials in the town, put in place by the grieving townsfolk who wanted to ensure those who died in that war were remembered. In addition to the fine soldier statue on the memorial in the park, there is the line of trees also in the park as well as the bell in St James’ Church.

However, a less obvious memorial and one well worth the expenditure of National Lottery money to re-publish is the Trowbridge Roll of Honour. This remarkable book not only documents the fallen from the conflict with photographs and a brief background, it also records all the decorations won.

Its importance as an educational resource for young people is also its documentation of the role of the town itself in the war, young women working in Haden factory, making munitions, and in the cloth mills, making uniforms for virtually every Allied army. The book also records how one local company produced butter at reduced cost to help those struggling on the Home Front. The compilers of the book went around to every house in the town and asked each family what their role had been in the war.

There was a WW1 tank placed in the park after the war. The generation who had put in place the war memorials in the town allowed it to be cut for scrap in 1940.

The Trowbridge Roll of Honour is unusual and remarkable, offering a unique picture of Trowbridge in that great conflict. Re-publishing that would be a much more effective and useful way to commemorate the war.

Andy Milroy, Bellefield Crescent, Trowbridge.