The Telford Batman's mission to protect Donnington War Memorial

A war memorial has acquired its own guardian angel, known as the 'Telford Batman' who has made it his mission to protect and preserve the monument.

Jay Gough, a former corporal with the Royal Corps of Signals, and also a character actor and local councillor in Telford and Wrekin, has been looking after the Donnington War Memorial for the last six years.

He took on the responsibility of caring for the memorial as it was in a poor condition.

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Working together with a team of friends and local volunteers, Mr Gough has helped maintain the important monument for his community, with duties including regular groundwork and mowing, jet washing, repainting, and maintaining gates and benches.

Now The Telford Batman has launched a fundraiser to pay for further maintenance to be carried out.

Mr Gough said: "I'm ex-Army myself. I served for seven years with the Royal Signals and, after Afghanistan, I was medically discharged.

"I've thrown myself into a lot of different things to keep myself busy.

"I moved to Telford 10 years ago, and I noticed the state of this particular war memorial in Donnington.

"It hadn't been looked after properly in a very long time. The grass was never properly mowed and no-one litter picked there.

"We got a team together, and we mowed the entire thing, and planted a new tree because one of them had died.

"We repainted the monument, and I paid for new nameplates on there with a friend of mine. Some of the plates had spelling mistakes on them," he added.

The fundraiser has so far generated more than £1,300 of its £5,000 target.

Mr Gough has been a parish councillor since 2019 and is a well-known local character actor, from which he earned the name 'The Telford Batman' by appearing at events and parties as the caped crusader.

He went on: "The last massive group effort that we did was in May or June this year, and we gave it its first proper push because it was getting bad.

"I put an appeal out on my councillor page, and about 20 people showed up.

"It was a job that would have taken four days on my own, and we had it done in two hours. It was beautiful.

"It was a real sense of community. Donnington is historically an Army town."

Anyone who wants to support the fundraiser can do so here.