WAR MEMORIAL DEDICATED AT HARPER ADAMS

Posted 21 November 2002

A MEMORIAL to students of Harper Adams University College, near Newport, who were killed during World War II, was officially dedicated earlier this month.

Reverend Edward Ward, Rector of Edgmond, led the Armistice Day prayers of dedication for the memorial before visitors, staff and students observed the two-minute silence at 11am.

Mrs Joyce Bunce, sister of former student Johnnie Lewis, laid a wreath of poppies at the memorial. Mr Lewis had studied a National Diploma in Agriculture at Harper Adams between 1940 and 1942 before joining the RAF's 199 Squadron Bomber Command. He was killed in action over Kiel early in May 1945, during the last European bombing raid of the war.

A group of nine students from the 1940's got together to make a donation to the Harper Adams Club Centenary Scholarship fund in Mr Lewis' memory. It was their wish that his sacrifice be recognised along with that of other students who lost their lives during the war.

The memorial is situated in the Committee Room on the first floor of Harper Adams' main building. A plaque naming seven students known to have lost their lives during the Second World War has now been added to the names of students who died during World War I and during the Falklands War.

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