‘Stolen’ Bricket Wood memorial plaque mystery solved

A MOTHER has told how her faith in human nature has been restored after finding out she had mistakenly thought her son’s memorial plaque had been stolen.

Frances Smith, of Park Street, was left devastated after discovering a bronze plaque remembering her son who passed away in 2006 had been removed from its home in Smug Oak Green in Bricket Wood.

But since making a public appeal for information it has emerged that the plaque had in fact been accidentally damaged by a lawn mower and taken by a concerned passerby in the hope she could track down the family.

The kindhearted woman, who even offered to pay for a new one if the family could not be found, handed the broken plaque over to the Bricket Wood Residents’ Association who were going to put an appeal in their village magazine.

She said: “One of my neighbours came rushing down the road and said have you heard about the plaque and said they [Bricket Wood Residents’ Association] have been trying to find you.”

While the family still intends to replace the memorial, they are delighted to have got to the bottom of the incident.

Frances added: “It is a wonderful feeling that it was not anybody deliberately vandalising it.

“We could not have kinder people.”