£13,000 donated to build Memorial in Manchester

A millionaire from Manchester has handed over a cheque for thousands of pounds to build a new memorial for the people of the city who fought in World War I.

A fantastic act of generosity, it comes after the original memorial was taken down in the late 1960s to make way for a new road. After more than 50 years of neglect, the memorial had been taken from one council depot to another before being deemed ‘uneconomical’ to repair.

In light of this a campaign for a new gravestone memorial was set up by Cassie-Ann-Creely. As her great-great uncles, Felix and Thomas Battersby, were named on the original memorial, she thought it was only right for the site to be reinstated so that the people of Salford do not forget.

The story was highly reported in the Manchester Evening News and was picked up by Fred Done from Worlsey. When he read about the story during his holiday in Thailand, he got on the phone to the paper and said that he would take care of the problem.

£13,000 donated for memorial

As Fred is clearly a man of his word, over the weekend he handed over a cheque for £13,000 to Cassie, money which will pay for the monument to mark the heroism of the 156 people of the city who fought in the war.

When speaking about the monument, Fred said: “I saw the story and immediately phoned the MEN to say I would look after it.

“These boys died, and they are all from Salford. I thought it was a crying shame that there was nothing to remember them for what they had done.

“I thought it needed correcting. It was a mess, and it shouldn’t have been allowed. We are putting the situation right now.”

While Fred may have made his millions on football and horse racing, he certainly has his opinions about who his heroes are: “Footballers are not my heroes. The real heroes are lads like these who died for their country.”

Image Credit: Lance Bellers (Shutterstock.com)