AT last, the new memorial centre in Okehampton is up and running — and very smart it looks too, in a Tesco-ish sort of way. The much needed car parking facilities have been extended (good), the garden re-established and the contractors gone home (even better). But — and it is a very big but — where, oh, where, is the original memorial portal which once graced the entrance to the old hospital?

Almost one hundred years ago, this doorway, hewn from Dartmoor granite and paid for by public subscription, was erected in honour of the fallen. It means a lot to some of us in Okehampton.

We were promised by the planners that our portal would be re-erected in the newly established garden of the new memorial centre. There is no sign of it yet. It would be appropriate if it were to put in an appearance before Remembrance Day 2013. That gives us about five weeks.

Lest we forget.

R E Williamson, Okehampton