Rifleman Jeremy English – Memorial cross at St. Luke’s, Thurnby

Chris Stephens was aware that in the churchyard there was an unusual WW2 memorial to Rifleman Jeremy John English, 12th Bn. King’s Royal Rifle Corps, killed at Cleves (Kleve) in Germany near the Dutch border on February 10th 1945. Being of wood and standing outside it had warped, deteriorated badly and the foot of the post embedded in a concrete block was starting to rot.

We endeavoured to see if there were any relatives still living in the village but could find no one.

After discussions with the Parochial Church Council, we removed and stabilised it but did not alter the wood, apart from splicing in a new base to the shaft.

We then made a wrought iron stand hand and had it placed inside the church next to the other war memorials.