Army cadets remember the local war heroes who fell

A group of Army Cadets from Bentley Detachment, Humberside and South Yorkshire Army Cadet Force, have spent the last two months undertaking research into the lives of 24 servicemen and women who lost their lives during, or shortly after, two World Wars and are buried locally in Arksey Lane Cemetery.

The project, was undertaken in the Cadets' own time, under the direction of detachment commander, sergeant instructor Richard Foster, who said he could not be more proud of the cadets. As the centenary of the end of the First World War approached, SI Foster wanted the Cadets to engage with a project that would allow them to see beyond the names carved in stone and come to the realisation that each one of those names represents an individual who had lived and worked locally and had each left behind grieving mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives and children.

The project culminated on Sunday November 4, in a poignant and moving ceremony, which saw the cadets joined by members of the Bentley with Arksey Branch of the Royal British Legion as they laid Remembrance Crosses on each of the graves of the individuals whom they had researched. Many of the Cadets later reported feeling a great sense of pride, with Cadet Joshua Howe who honoured the memory of Private Thomas Raymond Martin, saying: 'I would like to try and find out some more and, maybe, every year pay my respects to that same solider, as it really meant a lot to me what we did today.'