December 2023 saw the VCT restoration team undertake one of its biggest challenges. The full restoration of a grave belonging to a WWI veteran Charles Hirst, who served in Mesopatamia. This was completed on behalf of the Hirst family and in a cloak of secrecy to all but the great-grand daughters (Karen and Julie) of Charles Hirst. In addition, work was required on the grave of Kenneth Reed who had served in the merchant navy in WWII and was the grand father of Julie and Karen.
Charles Hirst's grave was badly damaged in broken into a number of sections, whilst Kenneth's had become dirty and was starting to lean.
With the necessary authority in place the team set about removing the Charles Hirst's headstone and kerbsets in order to firstly clean and then re-pin the pieces.
Kenneth Reed's headstone was cleaned and then reset in to its original vertical position.
The reconstruction of the headstone took several hours of careful work firstly re-pinning the three sections back together and then filling cracks and gaps to bring it back as close to the original state. A concrete base was constructed to cap the grave before the original kerb sets and headstone were re-erected using anchor systems.
The final part of the project and most challenging was to complete this before the parents of Julie and Karen completed their annual Christmas visit to the graves to lay wreaths, totally unaware of what had taken place.
Job completed, wreaths laid - a few tears followed.
