Hero's daughter tells of her pride
The daughter of a soldier featured on a new Black Country war memorial today spoke of her pride.
The daughter of a soldier featured on a new Black Country war memorial today spoke of her pride.
Elijah Jackson is one of 1,060 soldiers named from the First and Second World Wars on the new memorial in Walsall Street, Wednesbury.
He was 32 when he was ambushed by German soldiers in France in 1945. "There were 225 in his battalion and they were patrolling in Caen," said Mr Jackson's daughter, Mary Powell.
"They crossed over railway lines and stepped into an area of apple trees in full blossom. The area was quite flat and must have been really beautiful.
"But the Germans were hiding up in the trees and as they walked past they shot them all in the back."
Mrs Powell, aged 70, was born in Wednesbury but moved to Leamore, Walsall, to live with her grandparents when she was six months old after her father's joined the Army. He served with the South Staffordshire Regiment.
The family received a letter to say Mr Jackson had died. He was buried close to where the ambush took place.
"The letter I don't know about because I was four at the time," said Mrs Powell. "When my mother got the letter she ran out into the street screaming and screaming."
She added: "I never really knew my father. I asked my mother what he was like and they told me he loved swimming and dancing. He was a typical Black Country man and had eyes as blue as blue bells."
Mrs Powell now lives in the Staffordshire village of Great Wyrley and has not yet had a chance to visit the new memorial in Wednesday.
But she said no matter how ornate it was, there was no monument beautiful enough to do justice to all the men who who lost their lives.
"There is nothing on earth fitting enough to those men," she said. "It could be made of solid gold and it would not compensate for the loss of life."
The Wednesbury war memorial was finally completed last week after five years of campaigning.
It is made up of two granite tablets. Of the 1,060 names inscribed, 385 are forgotten heroes who were uncovered during five years of research by the Wednesbury War Memorial Group.
The £30,000 monument was funded with £15,000 of collections from fundraisers, and Sandwell Council stepped in to foot the rest of the bill after an application for lottery funding was turned down.
