A Gosport resident has fought his own one-man campaign against vandals who wrecked a Canadian war memorial at Stokes Bay.

Patrick Sheehan has paid an undisclosed amount to have the damaged war memorial restored as a tribute to the thousands of Canadian servicemen who left Gosport for the D-Day landings.

Appalled by vandal attacks on the memorial, Mr Sheehan decided to act.

He said: "My interest in the plaque stems from the fact that I had friends in the 1st Canadian Hussars, one being a close personal friend.

"Prior to D-Day they trained for months with their Sherman DD tanks at Stokes Bay.

"I think the plaque, if kept in a good state of repair, is an appropriate memorial to them. "To see it damaged is upsetting. What makes people want to perpetrate these mindless acts of vandalism is beyond me, but it does cause a lot of grief to those people who have either lived through the war, or lost loved ones.

"Perhaps if we draw attention to the vandalism problem, those who do it might realise the misery they are causing and stop."

The memorial was unveiled by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien during the 50th anniversary D-Day commemorations in 1994.

Despite wind and rain, thousands attended a moving service at the embarkation point for thousands of Normandy-bound troops.

The memorial was paid for and donated to Gosport by the people of Canada to mark the departure of thousands of Canadian troops from Stokes Bay.

Gosport played a vital role in the Normandy Landings and 500,000 servicemen left the town for the invasion.

Councillor Denis Wright, chairman of the borough council's leisure committee, thanked Mr Sheehan for his public-spirited action.

He commented: "The day the plaque was unveiled will long be remembered in Gosport. It is sad and disappointing when damage like this occurs to mar those memories. Unfortunately, due to its location, the war memorial is an open target and we have all seen the problems in recent years with attacks on memorials and graves.

"Hopefully, if the public are made aware of the problem, they will keep their eyes open. Better still would be for the vandals responsible to read this and think twice before ever doing anything like it again."

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