Vandals attack memorial

Vandals attacked a memorial to those who died fighting for their country just hours after a huge crowd gathered for a Remembrance Sunday service.

It is thought yobs struck overnight at Wednesbury Memorial Gardens, trampling crosses laid by relatives of servicemen who lost their lives in the two World Wars.

The small wooden crosses each bear a poppy and the name of a fallen soldier and were laid out in the shape of a large cross.

Ex-serviceman James Mills, who yesterday laid crosses for his late father also called James Mill, and grandfather Claridge Evans, who both died in the Second World War, visited the garden this morning to discover crosses had been snapped, knocked over and strewn across the grass. Former antiques shopkeeper Mr Mills, aged 67, said: "It is terrible, some people have no respect."

Wednesbury North ward councillor Bill Archer, aged 82, said: "It is just disgusting. If it had not been for our generation fighting in the war then these vandals wouldn't even be here today."

Meanwhile, a crowd gathered to pay respects to the war dead at a West Bromwich war memorial but nobody was there to lead the service following confusion over the date. Up to 20 people gathered at Heath Lane Cemetery yesterday while a Dennis Sanders had also been booked to liberate doves in honour of fallen servicemen.