A PENSIONER injured in the Second World War has become the first person to commemorate fellow Hampshire veterans in a new community garden.

Frank Southwell, 79, has suffered hearing loss since an accident while he was loading shells into gun barrels as a special- service seaman on board the destroyer HMS Kashmir.

He has paid to have two bricks, which will form part of a "propeller path" in Woolston Millennium Garden, Southampton, inscribed with the names of the ships he served on in honour of fallen comrades.

The £150,000 garden, which will have a theme of float and flight, is set to transform an ugly plot at the junction of Portsmouth Road and Bridge Road.

Southampton City Council has granted it planning permission and the Onyx Environmental Trust, which offers money for schemes to improve rundown or landfill sites around the country, has donated £96,000.

Organisers are trying to raise the rest of the cash to begin building the project. They are selling bricks which can be inscribed as a lasting memorial to people, ships and aircraft at £10 each.

Mr Southwell, of Hawkley Green, Weston, will have the names of HMS Atherstone as well as HMS Kashmir on the garden's centrepiece path.

He said he was paying for the brick inscriptions as a memorial to those who served in the war.

"It is a nice thing to have in Woolston because of the ships that are launched there," said Mr Southwell. The Kashmir was my first ship, and you still remember your crew."

He said HMS Atherstone was a lucky ship because it survived a bomb and that his duties on the Kashmir included manning the twin guns. One overriding memory Mr Southwell has is of rushing to man the guns in the rain with barely any clothing on when the alarms went off and then being given a jacket by a friend.

To have a brick inscribed, contact Maureen Wake on 023 8043 2216 or Bronte Matthews on 023 8032 6908.