In the blazing heat of the past month or so, a solitary figure can sometimes be glimpsed through the overgrowth on the south side of Hove Cemetery.
Amid thousands of headstones and memorials, coated in years of fumes from the Old Shoreham Road traffic, he delicately coaxes black to white like a modern-day alchemist.
Steve Davies, 64, is a man on a mission. The former rifleman has been coming to Brighton and Hove for the past three years from his home in Hawkhurst, Kent.
His aim – to remember and honour those who served to defend our democratic freedoms and way of life by restoring their graves.
He usually starts by clearing weeds – and sometimes sturdier vegetation. Then he gently brushes, wipes and washes away decades of grime from the masonry. Finally, he turns his hand to restoring the memorial messages from the past.
And those memorial lines have revealed astonishing feats of bravery, marked long and dedicated service and shone a fresh light on some remarkable lives.
Seven holders of the Victoria Cross (VC) are known to have been laid to rest in Brighton and Hove out of 1,355 individual recipients since 1856, during the Crimean War.
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration, sometimes awarded posthumously, and since the Second World War, just 15 medals have been awarded.
It is reserved for those who, in the presence of the enemy, display the most conspicuous gallantry, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty.
So how did Mr Davies, who served in the 3rd Battalion Royal Green Jackets from 1974 to 1981, end up as a military grave restorer?
He said: “I was attending a family christening in Sandhurst, in Kent, and wandered outside.
“There was a dirty overgrown war grave of an 18-year-old rifleman in the Rifle Brigade, my antecedent regiment, killed six weeks before the Armistice.
“I came back the next day and sorted it out. The rest is history.
“I have to date cleaned and renovated 22 Victoria Cross recipients’ graves in the south east and helped put a headstone on a George Cross recipient’s grave, unmarked since 1949.
“I have cleaned and renovated over 140 non-Commonwealth War Graves Commission military graves in the area, including raising funds for a headstone for a forgotten First World War soldier who did not qualify for a CWGC one.
“This year alone have renovated 127 graves. I pay mostly for this myself and via my Just Giving page, which is very close to its target.”
The Just Giving page is used to help offset some of the costs, including cleaning materials, as well as for travel.
The results can be revealing in more ways than one. In Hove Cemetery, for example, it is now possible to read once again the inscription to a trumpeter, Martin Landfried, who died in his sixties near by in Portland Road.
At 19 or 20, he was one of the trumpeters to sound the charge that sent the Light Brigade into action at the Battle of Balaclava in 1854, during the Crimean War.
He became something of a local celebrity in Brighton and the surrounding area and after leaving the Army he worked for Hanningtons, the department store.
In 1890, the inventor Thomas Edison recorded him playing the charge on a bugle that was sounded not just at Balaclava but also at Waterloo. Read more about Martin Landfried here and hear him play in the YouTube video.
Mr Davies said: “I work with an amazing researcher, Jane Robinson, who uncovers the hero’s story and seeks out any living relatives who we then make every effort to contact.
“If you or someone you know has any family stones or memorials that need refurbishing, please feel free to contact me.
“I am also happy to help and advise on anything cemetery-based, be it permission process and cleaning and refurbishing. I do clean and renovate non-military for a small charge too.”
He added: “Recently I applied for and received a grant from the Veterans Foundation. I used this to fund and complete a stonemason course.
“I never thought that my hobby would take me back into a classroom but I find it fascinating and am really excited about the future and what I can do with my new skills.”
A video shows how Mr Davies went about the task of restoring a grave in Hove Cemetery to the memory of Charles Slaughter, a 19th century Royal Navy commander.
Mr Davies hopes that his stonemasonry training will help him with more projects – renovating more graves where the remains of more VC holders and guards were interred.
The father of three, semi-retired from working in the financial services sector, said: “A lot of them are either forgotten or not known about and this is about bringing them back to life. I’d love to get them to dinner.”
He learns about their heroic deeds, their courage, bravery and valour, and he will remember them – so that in the words of Laurence Binyon in For The Fallen – “we will remember them”.
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Among those whose graves Steve Davies has restored in Brighton and Hove
* More than 200 graves and memorials of ex-service personnel who were cared for at St Dunstan’s – now Blind Veterans UK – have been restored in Bear Road. Although Mr Davies is a “one-man band”, he said that he “had a lot of help from volunteers”.
* The grave of Sir Wilbraham Oates-Lennox VC, in Brighton, was heavy work. His memorial weighs about nine tons. Several other members of his noble are remembered there too. Mr Davies said: “The grave had been broken and covered for 60 years. The Gurkhas helped me put the one-ton cross back on.” Read more about him here.
* One of the first graves that Mr Davies restored in Hove Cemetery is the final resting place of the Surrey and England cricketer Sir Jack Hobbs. He was one of the greatest batsmen in the history of the game and served in the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force in the First World War. He later worked as a journalist and died in Hove aged 81 in 1963.
* Sir George Westphal was wounded when, as a 20-year-old, he was shot in the head when serving under Horatio Nelson on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. Westphal lived for almost 70 years after Trafalgar, retired to a house in Brunswick Square, Hove, and was promoted to Admiral. A plaque to his memory has been restored at St Andrew’s Church, in Church Road, Hove. Read more about him here.
* Hove was a popular place for retired Victorian officers and Charles Winfield was another whose resting place looks more respectable now that his headstone is upright and clean. Read more about him here.
To support Mr Davies’s work, visit his Just Giving page here.
Well done to Steve and his Team. Please help ensure that any 2nd World War graves are also restored if you are able to do so.
Whilst Steve and his team are doing their best to restore these monuments Brighton Council with its inept attempts to ‘tidy up’ Woodvale has successfully wrecked more than a few rare Victorian monuments.
What a hero..pity our politicians don’t feel the same