I WRITE to follow on from David Borrett’s letter of 15 December regarding ‘erroneous traditions’ of local historic sites and raise an issue regarding the town’s cenotaph.

As many will know, the memorial bears the dates 1914-1920, rather than the more conventional 1914-1918.

The reason often stated, but which is factually incorrect, is that it reflects of the Hampshire Regiment’s involvement in the North Russian Campaign in 1920, when men from Andover fought and died with the county regiment.

Two units of the Hampshires did indeed go to Russia in 1919, the 2nd and 1/9th (Cyclist) Battalions, helping the White Russians fight against Bolshevik forces.

However, both units were back in England before the end of the year, returning on 6 October and 5 December 1919, respectively. No unit of the Hampshire Regiment served in North Russia in 1920, and indeed no Andoverians serving with those units died during the campaign.

The town did, however, suffer one casualty in Russia: William Brown of South Street. He was serving with the 46th Battalion Royal Fusiliers when he was killed in action near Troitza on 10 August 1919.

The actual reason for the dates 1914-1920 is rather less glorious than that previously claimed, and so often repeated.

The dates simply reflect the years in which the town suffered casualties directly attributable to the war. Until fairly recently the final death recorded was that of Captain Frederick Owen Maynard of the Army Veterinary Corps, who died of pleurisy and pneumonia in Egypt on 12 January 1920. However, in February 2015, the name of Reginald Frank Bashford Robbins was finally added to the memorial. His death from influenza on 7 February 1920 came too close to the completion of the monument for his name to be carved on the cenotaph, although he did appear in the programme for the unveiling on 5 May that year.

Even he, however, was not the final man from the town to die as a result of the war.

Albert MacLawrence Keylock of Winchester Street was serving with the Army Veterinary Corps in Aldershot when he also died of influenza, the day after Reginald Robbins. It is hoped that he and a number of other men and women who died during the First World War and who were not included on the town’s roll of honour will finally receive recognition of their sacrifice in time for the one hundredth anniversary of the Armistice in November next year.

The other misconception regarding the dates is that they are unique among UK war memorials. However, even a quick search of the internet brings up at least a dozen other towns and villages whose memorials bear the dates 1914-1920, including both Lake and Sandown on the Isle of Wight, Wardington in Oxfordshire and Worminghall in Buckinghamshire.

Craig Fisher, Berry Way, Andover.