WAR veterans choked back tears as a village came out in force to respect residents killed in conflict over the past century.

A special rededication ceremony was held at St Peter and St Paul Church, in Kings Sutton, near Banbury, after the village had moved its war memorial obelisk from a cemetery on the outskirts to a prime position outside the church on the village green.

The 90-year-old, 13ft monument inscribed with the names of 33 villagers killed in conflict was moved to its new position in March after an 18-month campaign by Kings Sutton Parish Council and the village’s war veterans.

The rededication ceremony on Sunday was led by Canon Roger Bellamy and Rev Christopher Young.

Veterans John Coles, 84, of 39 Squadron RAF and Ronald Sutton, 92, who won the Burma Star while serving as a signaller with the Royal Artillery, attended the dedication ceremony.

Mary Thomas, of King’s Sutton Parish Council, said: “It means so much to the village because we have a really good social mix living here.

“Many descendants of families who first moved here earlier last century still live in the village today and names of their relatives are on the war memorial.

“The kids have never seen the war memorial before. They never went past it, which is a shame. Now all can see it and the names if those who died.

“Two Second World War veterans who still live in the village attended and they could hardly talk because they were fighting back the tears.

Mrs Thomas added: “It should have been there in the first place.”

The obelisk marks 22 killed in the First World War, 10 who lost their lives in the Second World War and a naval officer who died in an incident in Hong Kong in 1953.

The parish church choir led the hymns and the Waterloo Band and Bugles based at Dalton Barracks, Abingdon, sounded the Last Post.

Representatives of the Royal British Legion and the War Memorials Trust also attended.

mwilkinson@oxfordmail.co.uk