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This article appeared in the
Newcastle Evening Chronicle on 22nd April 2003
First victory in war to
honour fallen heroes
North-led campaigners win new headstones and tidier cemeteries
for old comrades
War heroes
lying in shabby graves thousands of miles from home are finally
to get more fitting tributes.
Brave
servicemen who lost their lives in the Malayan Emergency of 1948
- 60 and Indonesian Conflicts of 1963- 66 have battered and
worn headstones in unkempt graves. As the
Chronicle revealed in February many lay in ordinary civilian
cemeteries while a handful of others have been buried by the
side of a Malaysian road. Now, after
tireless campaigning, the National Malaya and Borneo Veterans'
Association has won the first victory in a battle to have their
fallen colleagues commemorated properly. The
Ministry of Defence confirmed money has been set aside to
replace 14 battered sandstone headstones at Gods' Little Acre
Cemetery, in Malaysia with Portland stone.
NMBVA
President, David Neil, of Station Road, Wallsend, believes it
is a vital move forward. "The response we've got from the MOD
shows we have our foot in the door," said Mr Neil, 74. "They are
moving part of the way towards what we are asking for and
hopefully there will be more to come in time. However,
we are still calling for them to recognise these soldiers in the
same way as those that died in the World Wars."
Mr Neil
spent three and a half years in Malaya as part of the 4th
Queen's Own Hussars regiment, between 1948 and 1952. He saw
first hand the bravery of the thousands of soldiers taking part
in
 the
conflict and lost more than 20 friends. Because war was never
officially declared, victims killed during the emergency are
classed as non-war dead.
More than 1,000 service people were killed in battle, accidents
or by tropical
diseases, with dozens believed to be from the North East.
Mr Neil
added: "Although 14 gravestones is a small number, it is a start
and we can go on from here." A letter
from the MOD to the association reads: "The group responsible
for maintaining the graves on behalf of the MoD has already made
money available to replace 14 sandstone headstones.
"The graves
of former Royal Malay policemen will also be maintained."
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