RECENTLY I attended a Pensioners' Voice meeting at The West End Hall, and as I sat with the chairman at the front, one of our lady members approached me, carrying in her hand a large bag with a box in it.

She said to me, "I would like you to take this away with you and look at it, when you have time", and added, "I do not want it back".

When I arrived home I was curious and so I opened it. What I saw was a large scrap book, and as I opened the book I was confronted with pages and pages of the Bucks Roll of Honour.

There were over 100 photographs, probably more, of young airmen, soldiers and sailors, mostly from High Wycombe addresses, that had been killed in action.

These young men had given their lives, some in prisoner of war camp, some in the air and others at sea. The details said where they lived, whose son they were and where they had worked in the town.

I realised that I was looking at a catalogue of heroes. I also thought of not only the heartbreak but the pride of each family, who had lost a loved one in the war.

I was only nine when the war started and 15 when it ended. I recall us being told on the wireless by Winston Churchill that our young men and women were fighting and many giving up their lives for a better country, fit for heroes to live in.

Among the roll of honour were listed some more well-known Wycombe names. It told how Lucian Ercolani won his DSO. It even quotes from the citation, also too, along side Lucian Ercolani's photograph is one of the late Freddie Secker, telling the people of this area of his bravery in winning his DFC and explaining what his citation said.

Many of those on the Bucks Roll of Honour though had won medals for bravery or promotion, and as I thought of those brave young people, from nearly all the streets of High Wycombe, I read that some mothers and fathers had lost two sons, only a few months apart.

This is the book I have and my reason for writing this letter is wondering if there is a place for it in a local museum, or in the library or does anyone have any ideas where it could be best put to use?

These brave young men, and women, do not deserve their names on this Bucks Roll of Honour, with its pages of names, and photographs of these heroes, if the book is to be left in a drawer.

There must be somewhere we can all continually be reminded who gave their lives for "Our better tomorrow".

Jim Tanner

Branch secretary

Pensioner's Voice branch

Terryfield Road

High Wycombe