A VETERAN’S group which holds repatriation services for UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan has created a garden of remembrance for Britain’s war dead.

Sedgefield Village Veterans has created the garden in time for next Sunday’s Remembrance Day outside of St Edmund’s Church, Sedgefield, County Durham.

Amongst the crosses in the garden are 437 which carry the photo and name of each British serviceman and woman killed in the current Afghanistan troubles.

There are also crosses that bear the title of many of Britain’s other wars like the Korean War of 1950-53 and the Falklands War of 1982 to honour those killed in these conflicts.

David Hillerby, who served with the Household Cavalry and is secretary of the veteran’s group, helped to set up the garden.

He said: “There are British soldiers currently fighting in the world and some of them are being killed and it’s important to remember them.

“Since 2009 the Sedgefield Veteran’s Group has conducted repatriation ceremonies for the UK’s war dead coming home from Afghanistan.

“The garden is another way of helping to honour Britain’s war dead and it is a way to remember those who have died fighting for Britain.”

The veteran’s group has held coffee mornings and other fundraising activities to raise more than £500 to pay for the garden.

It is hoped that the garden will become an annual event and that it will be created each year just before Remembrance Day.

Anyone who wishes to place a cross in the remembrance garden can do so but the veteran’s group asks if they can be handed to them to place.

Pupils and staff from Sedgefield Community College will also plant 1,000 crosses with poppies on near to the garden of remembrance on Friday (Nov 9) morning.

The college is to hold a remembrance service on Friday (Nov 9) at 10.45am.

The Remembrance Day service in Sedgefield starts at 9.45am at St Edmund’s Church which will be led by lay preacher Michael King.

It will be followed at 10.45am with the laying of 20 wreaths at the town’s war memorial.