Wick volunteer is doing his bit to keep war graves looking immaculate
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A Wick volunteer is playing his part in ensuring the war graves in the town’s cemetery are maintained to the highest possible standard.
William Sutherland took on his unpaid role with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission after retiring as station manager at Wick John O’Groats Airport.
He is one of the commission’s Eyes On, Hands On volunteers who carry out inspections at war grave sites in their area and play a key role ensuring they are clean and well-tended.
Mr Sutherland (65), who worked at the airport for 35 years, explained: “I was looking for something to volunteer at and I couldn’t think what I was going to do that would suit me, and this came up.”
He was taken on as part of the Eyes On, Hands On project after applying online and undergoing training.
Mr Sutherland was among those attending the annual Anzac Day commemoration at Wick cemetery on Thursday when, as always, the graves were looking immaculate.
“You come round and look after the war graves – not only the Commonwealth ones but there are a lot of scattered war graves in this cemetery,” he said.
“The Commonwealth ones are looked after by the commission. There’s a maintenance team in Scotland that goes round all the cemeteries and they have a local maintenance team that they get to come in and cut the grass and do the flowerbeds.
“The problem we have here is rabbits.”
His duties include keeping an eye on vegetation and reporting any lettering that has faded on gravestones, “so they know what they have to do or how long they have to be here for”.
Mr Sutherland has also begun to find out more about the lives of some of the service personnel buried in Wick. “I’ve researched two or three of them that are in here and some of the history behind them,” he said.
Mr Sutherland praised the efforts of volunteers who attend regularly to strim, cut and lift grass at Wick and other local cemeteries.
“I have to say that the volunteers here have made a tremendous difference,” he said.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains graves and memorials across Britain at more than 12,000 locations.
It cares for 23,000 war memorials and war cemeteries around the world, commemorating 1.7 million Commonwealth casualties. The work covers headstones, buildings and monuments as well as horticulture.
