A MEMORIAL bench that had deteriorated over 50 years has been unveiled. 

Members of the Purbeck branch of the Devon and Dorset Regt Association unveiled the new bench outside St Martins Church in Wareham last week. 

Branch chairman Ken Chivers, who had done all the woodwork in 1973, set about renewing it all, obtaining a suitable brass plaque. He was assisted in the repair by vice chairman Derek Burt. 

It was officially unveiled by the mayor of Wareham Cllr Carol Turner and Major Nick Speakman. 

There followed a brief act of remembrance at the adjacent war memorial. Five regimental standards flanked the memorial.  

These were paraded by Ken Chivers, Derek Burt, Ken Shipton, Bob Strickland and Steve Keane. 

Peter Metcalfe read the Dorset Regiment Collect, followed by the mayor who laid a Regimental Wreath. This was followed by the Exhortation read by Captain Colin Parr. 

The short service, held on March 27, was described as “simple and sincere” and displaying “one of the real purposes of an old comrades branch”.