A COLWALL war memorial has been made more legible thanks to grants from the parish council and a national organisation.

The memorial, at the churchyard of St James the Great, has been relettered, cleaned and updated to include the correct spelling of a Colwall man's name.

Costing a total of £360, the work was funded with £100 from the Friends of War Memorials and £260 of parish council money.

Parish clerk Charles Walker said it was difficult to find a stonemason to do the work on site because most stonemasonry was now done in workshops.

"But there was a need for the work because the lettering was getting difficult to read," he said.

The man whose name was spelt wrongly was Frank Henry Rawlings, an able seaman killed when HMS Good Hope was sunk in the Battle of Coronel in 1914 and all her crew was lost.

Colwall resident Bob Arnold noticed the mistake when researching his grandfather Albert Duck, who also died on board the ship.

"It was an interesting little project," he said.

Mr Arnold found a family memorial to Frank Rawlings in the Church of the Good Shepherd in Upper Colwall.

He saw that the name was spelled Rawlins on the St James's memorial, and contacted the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to inform them of the plaque in the Church of the Good Shepherd and confirm the correct spelling.

When the cleaning and re-lettering on the St James's memorial was done, the stonemason corrected the spelling.

Friends of War Memorials is appealing to other parishes with memorials that may be dilapidated to apply for funding to restore them.

The charity is dedicated to the preservation of war memorials and providing advice about them. Conserv-ation officer Dr Pedro Gaspar can be contacted on 0207 259 0403.