THE nation was shocked last year by a drunken youth urinating on a war memorial.

This act displayed a disregard for those who died for our freedom in the Great War; it insulted the memory of those who died in the Second World War and of those brave men who continue to die in Afghanistan.

Now Selby War Memorial Hospital is to suffer similar disregard and is to be renamed.

Such was the sadness, distress and appreciation of the people of Selby after the First World War that they scrimped and saved to buy the land and to build the hospital in memory not only of the Selby lads who died, but for all who died with them.

My own grandparents paid sixpence a week which was what they could afford and my uncle’s name is on the Abbey memorial to those who died. They paid to buy the land and build a hospital to be called the Selby War Memorial Hospital; and so it should remain.

At least the youth who urinated was drunk and did not know what he was doing. These people know what they are doing but do not care.

Peter Palmer, Brayton, Selby.