Exactly 108 years ago on Monday, a hero WWI Liverpool army captain was tragically killed on the Somme.

Now well wishers have come together to pay for his decaying memorial to be finally restored. And - on the 22nd July - they will hold a short poignant service at his grave on the Somme. Captain Houston Wallace died at the age of 24 after being hit by German machine gun fire when he was the Commanding Officer of a battalion on the French battlefield.

After the war his devastated Aunt paid for a memorial to the Birkenhead born soldier but when she died it was largely forgotten and fell into rotten disrepair. Now a public fund-raising campaign has been launched to pay for the repairs. Volunteers have pledged to finally restore it to its original condition in his memory.

Stephen Benson, trustee of the Cheshire Roll of Honour, said: “The memorial has fallen into a dreadful state and is urgent need of restoration. Last year on one of my visits to the Somme I noticed the poor condition of the private memorial to Captain Wallace. Houston was from Birkenhead, on The Wirral, which until 1974 was part of Cheshire and therefore he is on the roll. I started a project to restore the memorial and now have approval from the local mayor to carry out a restoration and ground improvement project.”

The Duke of Westminster, who owns the Grosvenor estate in Chester, has offered to supply all the oak needed for the restoration free of charge. Captain Wallace was killed in action on 22 July 1916 as the 10th battalion Worcestershire Regiment moved into the line. Mr Benson, 60, from Northwich, Cheshire, is an IT consultant and has a Masters in British History and the First World War.

He went on: “After the war, his aunt, Miss Beatrice Heap arranged for a private memorial. From January 1925, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission were empowered to maintain the memorial for 20 years. But after the Second World War Miss Heap could not be traced and the memorial fell into disrepair. In fact, Beatrice had died in 1940.”

In 1991 the Western Front Association recorded the memorial but only the dilapidated cairn remained. Over the next three years some work was done to restore the memorial after the original cross was discovered in a local village.

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