Sawtry-based engineering company Spirotech Group has made and donated a new war memorial statue to the Northamptonshire town of Thrapston, following an incident of vandalism last year.
The town made headlines for all the wrong reasons in November 2020, when its memorial statue of the silent soldier fell victim to vandals, mere days after Remembrance Sunday.
The act was even enough to provoke a response from Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who wrote to the town council urging that a replacement be erected as soon as possible.
The local community immediately set-up a fundraising campaign to replace the damaged statue, which drew in almost £5,000.
Meanwhile, Spirotech Design Engineer, Will Gadsby, volunteered to design and donate a whole new statue as a replacement.
Eventually, four new statues were donated to the town including Spirotech's contribution, and now form part of the new memorial.
The crowdfunding monies were put towards a new permanent memorial alongside the statues which bears the names of all Thrapston's war veterans.
The new memorial was unveiled on April 27.
Speaking at the unveiling, Thrapston’s Mayor, Councillor Karen Draycott, said: “Even through the difficulty and darkness of Covid, and then on top of that to have something vandalised like this, that really hurt. But actually, as in life generally, it's how you respond, and because we've responded in that amazing and positive way, we've been able to achieve this installation.”
