Campaign launched to restore memorial of WW1 hero from Birkenhead

Granada Reports journalist Paul Crone went to meet the campaigners to hear more.

A campaign has been launched to restore the memorial of a captain from World War One.

Captain Houston Stewart Hamilton Wallace from Birkenhead was killed in France on 22 July 1916 in Northern France but his body was never found.

His aunt arranged for a private memorial.

She cared for it alongside the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) maintained it for 20 years.

A project is now underway on the Wirral to improve the memorial near where he died in Bazentin on the Somme.

The campaigners want to restore the memorial back to a pristine condition including a new plaque and making it more accessible to visitors.

Captain Wallace served with the 10th battalion Worcestershire Regiment and went to France on 1 August 1915.

Both his parents, William Hamilton and Emily Constance, had died before he went abroad and are buried in Flaybrick Memorial Gardens in Birkenhead.

Captain Wallace's name can not be found on the walls of the famous Thiepval Memorial in Northern France but it is on the Calvary at Bazentin near where he lost his life.

He died after an unsuccessful mission to capture a German machine gun post.

A crowdfunding page has been started to raise £5500.

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