By Khya Gott
A West Yorkshire veteran has been describing to Yorkshire Voice how he came to mount and frame Second World War medals for Captain Sir Tom Moore.
Veteran Stuart Kilminster, 66, of Bradford, West Yorkshire, served with the Prince of Wales’s Own Regiment of Yorkshire (PWO) for 12 years.
After leaving the army he began court mounting and framing medals for fellow veterans.
Stuart said: “I first got interested in medals when the Queen gave me one for my services of three tours of Northern Ireland during the 70s and 80s.
“I was approached by a member of the Duke of Wellington Regiment because I put medals into frames with a photograph, a cap badge and anything else they wish to put in there.
“I was asked to work on Sir Captain Tom Moore’s medals. These weren’t the original medals he was issued, someone else sorted them out.
“I acquired a photograph, his cap badge, some citations that he had to go with it and a plaque with his name, rank and number on and put them all together in framing.
“When Sir Tom got the Freedom of Keighley he asked personally if he could see me to thank me. I talked to him for about 10 minutes through his daughter, what an amazing person, he knew exactly what regiment I was in, I was very impressed; it was a massive honour.
“He gave me such a praising that a museum asked me to fix all their medals.”
Stuart said he was delighted with what he had done and achieved.
Captain Sir Tom Moore walked one hundred 25-metre laps of his garden to raise money for charity around his 100th birthday, raising £32.8m for the NHS during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Fred Edmondson, 69, of Wetwang in East Yorkshire also had some of his medals court mounted by Stuart.
“I have a total of six medals, Stuart court mounted them and put fresh ribbons on them.
“Being court mounted stops the silver rubbing against each other and getting damaged,” Fred told Yorkshire Voice.
Fred spent 25 years with the PWO and said celebrating at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month is very important, especially for ex-service men and women and their families
Craig Upton, 61, from Cross Hills, Skipton, North Yorkshire said: “It is important for everybody to remember because of all the young lives that have been lost in all wars.
“Not just the first and the second world war, subsequent wars, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan recently, that’s why it is important to remember.”
Craig also served with the PWO for nine years.
Her Majesty the Queen remembered the fallen soldiers on Remembrance Sunday when she attended a socially distanced service at the Cenotaph in London.
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