HEREFORDSHIRE Royal British Legion is on a mission – driven by the spirit of the county’s 4,000 war dead.

The legion has this week gone public with its ambitious plan to put those 4,000 on parade, bringing them all to attention in a single Garden of Remembrance at Hereford Cathedral by November.

County RBL chairman Alan Harrhy said the salute would go out to those the county had lost to conflict from the First World War to the present.

Work is already underway on establishing each name – and circumstances of death where they are known – for an accompanying Book of Remembrance.

Mr Harrhy said around 4,000 names are expected, each to feature in groups of between 50-100 on crosses set up in the Cathedral’s Lady Arbour garden.

A plaque devoted to the three services and the Merchant Marine will be prominent.

The plan allows families to purchase poppies from the Cathedral to lay by the cross on which their relative is named.

Cathedral authorities are right behind the idea, the Lady Arbour – a herb garden for their medieval counterparts – having been freshened up by a lotteryfunded redevelopment of the cathedral’s north-west quad.

“We’re delighted to support the garden,” said the cathedral’s Dominic Harbour.

The RBL garden, he said, was seen as mirroring the annual Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey – but on a Herefordshire- specific scale.

At present, the RBL plan has the garden opened by a dedication service on November 5 to stay open until November 15 – the extent of the remembrance period.

The accompanying Book of Remembrance is expected to be accessible between 10am-3pm daily