Anger as poppies stolen from Telford war memorial
Thieves have pulled up poppies from the memorial to a pilot killed during the Second World War.
It is the second time this year that the memorial in Lawley Bank, to a US pilot killed in the Second World War, has been attacked by vandals.
In January a wreath was torn from the memorial, and thrown into a hedge.
Ivor Jones, who has been tending the poppies since the memorial was created at Lawley Bank in 2012, said he was disgusted that people could be so mean.
Mr Jones, who served in the Korean War with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps, said he had been going to the memorial every day to collect the seeds from the poppies to replant next year.
However, when he turned up yesterday, he discovered that most of them had been pulled up.
"It's so petty," said Mr Jones, who is 82. "The poppies looked lovely, and somebody has thought 'I'll have those for my garden'."
The memorial, which features a bench and a plaque, is at the location where American pilot Second Lt Clifford Jensen performed an emergency landing in 1944.
With his plane on fire, he chose not to bale out and risk it landing on Lawley School and Avondale, but instead guided it to the Bull Ring where he performed a crash landing. He was killed in the fire.
Lawley Bank and Friends Wartime Memory Group created the tribute in 2012, and also raises money for ex-servicemen blinded in the line of duty.
