A Carlisle man is organising a memorial event in honour of those who served for the country in the Far East during the Second World War.

Tony Parrini has planned for a gathering to take place by Carlisle’s war memorial in the city’s Greenmarket on the morning of Tuesday, February 15, with those in attendance invited to grab a coffee afterwards.

Discussing the event, Tony said: “If you go back to 2020, VJ Day was forgotten because of Covid. We marked VE Day like the UK did in 1945 but when the surrender of the Japanese took place in August of that year, once the prisoners got home there was little celebration.

“This was the forgotten army who came home and received no appreciation, it got lost again in 2020 when we got to the 75th anniversary.”

Continuing, Tony shared: “During the pandemic I researched my family history. I discovered that I had an uncle who was a PoW in Singapore, then on the Burma railway before being shipped up to Japan to work in a mine until his release. That camp was within 150 miles of Hiroshima where the atomic bomb dropped, whether he was affected by it we don’t know.

“He came home, turned around and went back to work in the plantations in South Malaya before dying 18 months later due to the wounds and illness that had been inflicted on him as a prisoner.

“I discovered that his medals were never claimed so proved to the Ministry of Defence medals office that I was the sole next of kin and have received his medals. With that, I decided that with the upcoming 80th anniversary of the fall of Singapore where 85,000 British soldiers surrendered to the Japanese.”

Speaking about the gathering, Tony said: “I thought it would be a good idea to have a gathering at the city’s war memorial and have the Mayor lay a wreath which she has kindly accepted to do.

“There will be a trumpeter, piper and the Mayor. If anyone would like to pay their respects, if they could meet at the war memorial before 11am in time for The Last Post.”