A group of 15 officer cadets from Britannia Royal Naval College assisted by three staff from ESS, three from Mitie, two from Vivo and three gardeners from Gavin Jones Gardeners all spent a day restoring mostly Naval graves at Longcross Cemetery in Townstall.

Dartmouth Town Council got in touch with Lieutenant John Connor to say that there are two graves relevant to BRNC up in the graveyard that haven't been tended for a while and asked if they were able to assist as an outreach project.

John explained: “I got in touch with a guy called Steve Davies who's a military grave restorer.

I saw him on BBC TV and he goes around and does this off his own back.

“Steve’s been down for two days and we did a recce in the in the graveyard.

“I identified the two and basically the two graves are relevant to a horrific accident happened 50 years ago where five officer cadets died in a helicopter crash.”

Officer cadets hard at work
Officer cadets hard at work (Richard Harding)

Two of their graves are at Longcross and right next to the grave there's another one there which is actually a Major Lloyd who was the Mayor of Dartmouth between 1958 and 1960.

The group are going to tidy this one up too clearing the debris and replace the soil around it.

There are also two graves of Royal Marines.

Near the entrance is a grave behind a massive great big Yew tree and that's from a Joseph Sweet from back in the 1800s.

He served on a wooden ship named HMS Britannia on the River Dart.

A cleaned up grave
A cleaned up grave (Richard Harding)

John continued: “We’ve identified another five or six other military graves relevant to BRNC and HMS Britannia so we're gonna we're gonna attend to those out and Steve Davies tis actually going to reset one of the graves as well it's leaning and dangerous so we're attending to that one as well.

BRNC’s commanding officer Captain Andrew Bray was also due to come down and see how the work is progressing.

Military grave restorer Steve Davies is a BRAM-accredited memorial mason and a former Royal Green Jacket in the Army.

He has appeared twice on BBC Breakfast time in the past year.

One of the restored graves
One of the restored graves (Richard Harding)

Steve described his work: “Firstly we need permission, then look at health and safety.

“We briefing the guys who then use water and a hard bristle brush.

We use a environmentally friendly cleaner put it on there.

“Let it work as you can see this grave here is white marble and it will slowly come out over the day and then was it down

“I then send it to my researchers Jane Robertson and Hilary Chalice and we find the family and put them together. I don't ask them for anything, but I just love doing it and today we've discovered two more.

“It’s just by the guys strimming it's probably not surprising that there are things to be found here.”

If you would like to find out more about Steve’s work you can visit his Facebook page called Military Grave Restorer.