UNVEILING a plaque to complete the refurbishment of the railings around Hennock War Memorial, Cllr Richard Hingston said it was an honour and a privilege to do so.

'It is in memory of the lads who did not return from the conflicts of the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 wars,' he said. Cllr Hingston, who serves on Hennock Parish Council, was born in Teign Village and moved to Chudleigh in 1935, married a Christow lass just after the second world war and has lived in Chudleigh Knighton since 1950. 'Some of the names on the memorial were lads with me in Teign Village, two of whom I went to school with. It brings back a lot of memories. 'For their size, Hennock and Teign Village paid one hell of a price in the two wars – there are half-a-dozen names from the second world war and 11 from the first. 'It was a high sacrifice considering the small population of the two villages,' he said. Cllr Hingston joined the 70th battalion the Gloucester Regiment in 1942, training in Gloucester and then Yeovil, before being transferred to the Royal Navy at the end of 1943. He went to Italy and when he returned to Portsmouth he again found himself transferred, this time to the Royal Marines in readiness to go to the Far East. 'That was aborted and I was demobbed in 1946,' he said. Cllr Hingston, who has been a parish councillor since 1974, was a lorry driver for local haulage firm Vallance for many years, later ran the company stores and finished as a commercial rep for vehicle spares, continuing to work three days a week until he was 70. He thanked the organisations who had enabled the refurbishment work to be completed. The £1,530 plus VAT cost of the work under taken by Ben Nock Fencing and Landscaping, was jointly funded by English Heritage, The Wolfson Foundation administered by the War Memorials Trust, and Hennock Parish Council. The replacement railings were erected in October to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the ending of hostilities in Europe in 1945. Also at the ceremony on Thursday last week was the vice chairman of the parish council Cllr Jim Hine, Cllr Paul Wastell, council clerk Gordon Haigh, Cyril Aplin, who maintained the memorial for many years, and Maurice Rowe, who maintains the flower container. Mr Aplin, of Hennock, joined up as a 19-year-old with the Royal Engineers in 1941, training in Aldershot, was posted to Halifax and was on draft for the Far East. 'We were then told we had not been in the Army long enough to be in the Far East and we were posted to the TAs in Highgate, London. 'After joining them we went to Egypt, Palestine and Syria, and did training and went back to North Africa. 'We went into Italy in the invasion of Salerno, on September 9, 1943, and later returned home in preparation for D Day. 'On D Day I was on an old merchant boat and we did not have landing craft. Instead I was in a lorry and lowered over the side on a gantry and had to drive on to a wire net. It was then a case of driving ashore,' he said. Mr Aplin remained in Germany 12 months after the war ended, with the occupation troops. Back in civilian life he was a lorry driver for Dunston's, of Trusham, spent five years at the clay pits, and for some years before his retirement was a timber feller. In Iain Fraser's book Hennock A Village History, there is a photograph of crowds around the war memorial, which is opposite Road Park, when names added after the second world war were unveiled in the presence of Major D B Wilson and the Rev Peacock.