Help Steve Restore Forgotten Military Graves

Hi, I’m Steve Davies. An army veteran, 3rd Battalion The Royal Green Jackets, now living in the South East, UK.

In 2018, I was attending a family christening in a local church and wandered outside. There was a dirty, overgrown war grave of an 18 year old Rifleman in the Rifle brigade, killed six weeks before the Armistice. It looked like it had been forgotten and abandoned. The next day, I decided to come back and spent a few hours tidying it up as best I could. 


Since then, I have developed a passion for restoring the resting places of servicemen and have attended to over 70 military graves including 12 recipients of the Victoria Cross.


I work with an amazing researcher, Jane Robinson, who uncovers their story and seeks out any living relatives who we then make every effort to contact.


Over the last three years I’ve restored as many military graves as I can find across the South East, and my aim for 2021 is to complete a further 10 restorations. 

As the projects we uncover increase in number, complexity and distance from home, I am hoping to raise funds to bulk buy cleaner, new cleaning equipment and cover petrol to complete these.


Each project is different but will take up to 10 visits depending on the level of renovation required.

When it comes to cleaning materials, I use D2 which is a biodegradable stone cleaner that contains no bleach or acid. I like using this product because it is effective whilst limiting the damage to the stone. Because of this it doesn’t come cheap!
 
I’m currently working on the grave in the picture below and estimate it will take 8 visits to Brenchley to return it to the standard it deserves.

To achieve this, I will use around half a gallon of D2 which will set me back around £42.50.

I estimate the average out of pocket expenses per grave will cost around £200 for Project 2021. The enjoyment I get out of these means that I will always donate my time to undertake the work.


I have added some pictures of the military graves I have worked on over the last few years to this page but if you would like to see more, I have recently created a facebook page  which has more detailed posts and includes Jane’s incredible research work. 

I hope to continue honoring the memorials of those who served our country and truly appreciate all your support in helping me do this.

Thank you,
Steve