Carol's labour of love in honour of fallen war heroes
A RETIRED health worker has embarked on a labour of love attempt to compile a roll of honour of every serviceman and woman from her home town to have died in the line of duty.
The unique online tribute is being put together by Port Talbot's Carol Scott, who is now urging relatives of those who made the ultimate sacrifice to help her expand the rapidly-growing list.
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"I've always been interested in military history," said 65-year-old Carol, who lives in Taibach and was practice manager at Riverside Surgery in Port Talbot before retiring.
"I first developed an interest in compiling a roll of honour from doing research into my family tree, and visiting Normandy and Ypres in search of memorials to family members.
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"One of my father's brothers was killed at Normandy and my mother had an uncle killed in the First World War.
"I became very interested in that. Over the years I started looking at various memorials around Port Talbot. There are things in churches and so on, but there isn't a complete list anywhere."
Carol set about trying to put that right. Over the past six years, and with the help of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, she started compiling a list which, she said, had kept on growing.
So far there are around 650 names included, though Carol has no doubt there are many more missing.
"I've looked on various war memorials but often they just give an initial and surname," she said. "Unless I can identify who they are and where they come from I can't put them on the roll of honour.
"Since I published the website a few people have got in touch with me and given me details.
"There aren't many names from after the Second World War, but I did add one name this week, after hearing from someone whose uncle was killed in Malaysia in the 1960s."
Carol is now compiling a list of the 113 war graves in the old Port Talbot borough to add to the website.
"This is a matter of some urgency as we start to lose access to some of the graves," she said. "It is already difficult to identify some graves in Holy Cross churchyard and in the town cemetery."
Contact details for families who want to add the names of fallen relatives are on Carol's website and she is urging them to get in touch with her.
"I was going to publish the roll of honour as a pamphlet," she added. "But the problem with that is that I wouldn't be able to update it.
"That's why I decided to do it as a website. Once people contact me with details I can just add names to the list."
Go to: www. porttalbotrollofhonour.co.uk
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