SIXTEEN South Holland district councillors clubbed together to give a £1,000-plus boost so the last of The Lincolns can live to see a memorial built to the county’s regiment.
Coun Angela Newton, who organised the mass donation, presented the money to The Royal Lincolnshire Regimental Association Spalding branch on Monday.
The £20,000 memorial will go on the site of The Lincolns’ old barracks, Sobraon Park in Lincoln, and Spalding veterans – some in their eighties and nineties – are still busy fundraising.
They will collect at Morrisons in Pinchbeck on Saturday, June 16, Sainsbury’s in Spalding on Friday, July 6 and Morrisons in Wisbech on Thursday and Friday, May 24 and 25
The memorial will record the regiment’s ten heroes decorated with the Victoria Cross, battle honours and famous march past lyrics from The Lincolnshire Poacher.
Formed in 1685 in the time of Charles II as the Tenth Regiment of Foot, what later became The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment fought on four continents in four centuries.
Lincolnshire author David Nalson said: “The Lincolns earned ‘imperishable renown’ at the Battle of Sobraon in 1846 during the Sikh Wars. Another famous honour – gained in Egypt in 1801 for service under Wellington – is reflected in the Sphinx badge which veterans still wear.”
The county regiment amalgamated with another in 1961 so there have been no true Lincolns since that time, although its proud history lives on in the honorary title “The Poachers” given to the 2nd Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment.
Ken Willows, chairman of regimental association Spalding branch, said: “We would like to thank all of the councillors who gave. The memorial is something we would like to leave behind for future generations to see.”
The cash came from councillors’ designated budgets.
Coun Newton said they were honoured to help and the proud history of The Lincolns is something that must not be forgotten.
She has pledged to fund a bus when the Spalding members go to see the memorial.