In the blazing heat of the past month or so, a solitary figure can sometimes be glimpsed through the overgrowth on the south side of Hove Cemetery.
Amid thousands of headstones and memorials, coated in years of fumes from the Old Shoreham Road traffic, he delicately coaxes black to white like a modern-day alchemist.
Steve Davies, 64, is a man on a mission. The former rifleman has been coming to Brighton and Hove for the past three years from his home in Hawkhurst, Kent.
His aim – to remember and honour those who served to defend our democratic freedoms and way of life by restoring their graves.
He usually starts by clearing weeds – and sometimes sturdier vegetation. Then he gently brushes, wipes and washes away decades of grime from the masonry. Finally, he turns his hand to restoring the memorial messages from the past.
And those memorial lines have revealed astonishing feats of bravery, marked long and dedicated service and shone a fresh light on some remarkable lives.
Seven holders of the Victoria Cross (VC) are known to have been laid to rest in Brighton and Hove out of 1,355 individual recipients since 1856, during the Crimean War.
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration, sometimes awarded posthumously, and since the Second World War, just 15 medals have been awarded.
It is reserved for those who, in the presence of the enemy, display the most conspicuous gallantry, a daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice or extreme devotion to duty.
So how did Mr Davies, who served in the 3rd Battalion Royal Green Jackets from 1974 to 1981, end up as a military grave restorer?
He said: “I was attending a family christening in Sandhurst, in Kent, and wandered outside.
“There was a dirty overgrown war grave of an 18-year-old rifleman in the Rifle Brigade, my antecedent regiment, killed six weeks before the Armistice.
“I came back the next day and sorted it out. The rest is history.
“I have to date cleaned and renovated 22 Victoria Cross recipients’ graves in the south east and helped put a headstone on a George Cross recipient’s grave, unmarked since 1949.
“I have cleaned and renovated over 140 non-Commonwealth War Graves Commission military graves in the area, including raising funds for a headstone for a forgotten First World War soldier who did not qualify for a CWGC one.
“This year alone have renovated 127 graves. I pay mostly for this myself and via my Just Giving page, which is very close to its target.”
Well done to Steve and his Team. Please help ensure that any 2nd World War graves are also restored if you are able to do so.
Whilst Steve and his team are doing their best to restore these monuments Brighton Council with its inept attempts to ‘tidy up’ Woodvale has successfully wrecked more than a few rare Victorian monuments.
What a hero..pity our politicians don’t feel the same