WHAT is the point of remembering war heroes under the wrong name?

Remembrance Day is a painful reminder to news editor Julie Mollins, who contacted the Herald about her failed campaign to get the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to correct the spelling on the main Portsmouth Naval Memorial of her great uncle’s surname.

Julie writes: “Former Grayshott resident George Loftus Levett died aged 29 in the Battle of Coronel in 1914.

“But he is unidentifiable among thousands of casualties listed on the Portsmouth Naval Memorial because of an error in the spelling of his name.

“The memorial is managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which has a mandate to commemorate the names of 1.7 million war dead around the world.

“Due to a misspelling of his surname in his attestation papers, George served and is memorialised as Loftus G. Levitt, an inaccuracy the commission has refused to correct.

“He appears as Levett on the Grayshott war memorial, the Grayshott plaque and roll of service in St Luke’s Church.

“The commission eventually added ‘Levett’ to the CWGC website, but referred to it as his ‘birth name’, despite the documentation I shared.

“I was told the only piece of evidence it would accept going forward is a hand-written signature, to which I replied I would see if I could revive him from the dead to do so.

“My offer to pay to have the letter ‘i’ replaced with an ‘e’ on the Portsmouth memorial, or to have his name added, was refused.

“The commission website states: ‘The accuracy of our records is very important to us’.

“A spokesman said he could not tell me how many requests for corrections have been received or how many have been corrected, if any, over the years.

“After a two-month effort in which I presented official documentation and – in a last-ditch act of desperation – family lore on the name to prove his identity and highlight the absurdity of commemorating a war hero under the wrong name, I have failed.”