Local Hero

Sharrad Gilbert joined the army in 1899 and fought the Boers in South Africa for 15 months before being captured in Rhodesia.
He managed to escape with some other prisoners and later served in France during the First World War before leaving the military in 1921.
His wife died in 1940 and Sharrad lived the final years of his life as a recluse, dying in 1961 after falling into a fire at his home and suffering fatal burns.
He was buried in an unmarked grave until 2017 when an appeal by a local funeral director set about raising funds to give him the memorial he so rightly deserved.