A MAMMOTH two-metre-high wooden sculpture marking the anniversary of a First World War battle which killed men from the Monmouthshire Regiment
The carving remembers the six-day Battle of Frezenberg Ridge, Ypres, which started on May 8, 1915 and saw more than 80 soldiers from the First Monmouthshire Regiment lose their lives.
Artist Mr Wood took around a month to complete the wood carving, which depicts a famous scene from the battle copied from a painting in the Newport Museum. It shows the moment when 1st Mons officer Captain Thorne responded to a German invitation to give in with the cry "Surrender? Be damned!"
Here is a poem I wrote.
Men were dying young and old,
There courage strength forever told.
Fear and doubt was in there mind
There lives they gave for all mankind.
We the people of today
Say thanks to those where’re they lay,
Without those heroes of days gone bye
Our future here would surely die.
There lives they gave so selflessly
So we could live in harmony.
So once again with gratitude
WE SAY THANK YOU.
