A fresh campaign to have fallen World War II soldiers commemorated in Molesey has begun.

The two war memorials in Molesey list the names of soldiers who lost their lives in the First World War, but there is only a tiny mention of soldiers who died in WWII.

Brian Batten of Molesey Residents’ Association has reignited a campaign that lasted years to get the WWII soldiers rightly remembered.

His father Frank Charles Batten served in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars – a British Army cavalry regiment during WWII.

Mr Batten has made it his mission to see a memorial erected to fulfil his father’s wishes of a place to remember his fallen friends and comrades.

Mr Batten, 94, lost his closest friend during the war and his eyes still fill with tears whenever he talks about him, according to his son.

Brian Batten said: “He doesn’t think he’ll see it in his lifetime, but I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he does.

“It’s about time something was done about this. All they’ve got is a tiny metal plaque at the bottom and it’s not enough, it really isn’t.

“It annoys me because my dad fought in that war.

“I was lucky, and he was lucky, that he came home, but he had a lot of very good friends from around here who never made it back and there’s no proper place to remember them.”

Detailed plans were drawn up for a shard-style memorial about five years ago.

It was set to cost £70,000 and the council pledged to stump up £30,000 if the rest could be raised, but the task proved too onerous.

Bill Maskell, president of the Molesey branch of the Royal British Legion, said he was not hopeful Mr Batten’s latest campaign would be successful.

He said: “I know exactly how Brian feels, but we tried to beg, steal and borrow and just couldn’t raise the money.

“My dreams were somebody would read about it somewhere along the line and give us a lump sum to get it done, but that never happened.”