A CAMPAIGN stretching back several years to engrave the names of three St Albans Second World War heroes onto the city's war memorial has finally come to fruition.

The names of Robert Frederick Peters, William Ernest Keys and Cyril Thomas Bradbury were added to the St Peters' Street War Memorial on Wednesday afternoon.

British Legion Secretary Steve Meyrick was there to express how glad he was that the names have been added before the November 11 parade.

Mr Meyrick said: "This has taken a long time but we are extremely grateful to Mr Chris Fagin and his colleagues at the council for being there with us every step of the way.

"Now it has been done, we hope that family members will be pleased their loved ones' names have been accorded their proper commemoration."

Present at the engraving was Mr Reginald Alban Smith.

He served with Mr Bradbury in both the Beds and Herts Regiment and Number Three Commando.

Mr Smith said: "The Beds and Herts was too slow for me. I volunteered for the Commandos when they came to the regiment to tell us about it."

Both men were captured in Dieppe in 1942 and were PoW's together for three years.

Mr Smith said: "We were at camp 344 in Poland. The guards used to tie us up day and night. But we knew how to get them off.

"Mr Bradbury was killed after an air raid near to the coal mine where he was working.

"The guards loaded them onto lorries to get them away from the bombs.

"But he fell between the trailer and the lorry and died."

November 6, 2001 10:30