School unveils war memorial for former pupils

Jason Cox gave a speech at the unveiling of the memorial

A new war memorial dedicated to former pupils killed in combat has been unveiled at a Devon school.

The memorial at Plymouth College remembers the almost 200 former pupils who died in conflicts dating back to World War One.

After 32 years in the Royal Marines, former pupil Jason Cox, who is now the college's health and safety officer, came up with the idea.

He said one of the reasons he wanted to create the memorial was to honour his former classmate who was killed in Iraq in 2003.

The idea for the memorial came from former pupil and Royal Marine Jason Cox

Founded in 1887, the school lost 112 pupils in the First World War and 68 in the Second World War.

Nine other names have been added, including former pupil Maj Jason Ward, who was killed when the US helicopter he was travelling in crashed in the Iraqi desert in 2003.

Mr Ward was a pupil at the college at the same time as Mr Cox and they both joined the Royal Marines in 1980.

Speaking to BBC Radio Devon, Mr Cox said: "That's one of the reasons why I've taken this to heart because of Jason."

He added: "The wonderful thing is his mother is travelling with his brother down from Barnstaple to attend the ceremony, so she's going to be our guest of honour."

The memorial was unveiled at a ceremony at the school earlier

Mr Cox said he had the idea for the memorial after seeing that the boards in the school, which showed former pupils who had been killed in combat, were looking "old and faded".

"It was only going to be a small granite block with possibly a brass plaque on it with some appropriate wording," he said.

"It sort of morphed into something a lot larger and a lot bigger and the headmaster decided to include all of the names of all the pupils to put on the plaque."

Speaking about the names of the fallen solders from the First World War, Mr Cox said all of the people were "local lads".

"If you could imagine 112 lads being taken away from the local community and never seen again - it must have been quite devastating for the city," he said.

A ceremony to unveil the memorial attended by members of government and the armed forces was held at the school on Friday.