The Rotherwas Together community group is trying to find as many former workers from the Royal Ordnance Factory site at Rotherwas and other munitions factories across the country so that they can receive long-overdue recognition for the work they did.

“More than a million men and women worked in the munitions factories of Britain during World War One and World War Two but they’ve never been officially recognised,” said Nicola Goodwin, Secretary of Rotherwas Together.

“Thanks to the generosity of BAE Systems, who took over many of the ROF sites after WW2, we have some specially designed commemoration badges which we have been presenting to former munitions workers. So far we’ve presented almost 50 medals to former munitions workers from across the UK. in ceremonies involving The Countess of Wessex and the Lord Lieutenant of Herefordshire.

“We know that hundreds of workers travelled to Rotherwas from Ross-on-Wye and the Forest of Dean during the war and many more took up lodgings in Hereford. Unfortunately, due to the logistics involved, we’re only able to present the badges to living workers and not posthumously to the relatives of workers, but we are keen to trace as many former munitions workers as possible,” Nicola said.

The Mayor of Hereford, Councillor Kath Hey, will be presenting the commemoration badges at the Herefordshire Archives and Resources Centre at 12 noon on August 10th. The presentation will be the highlight of the Rotherwas Together Open Day which also includes talks by local author Bill Laws and the ROF Rotherwas Project Officer Angela Williams.See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.