Town Hall and War Graves Commission accused of buck passing

A WAR widow fighting for her husband’s name to be placed on the war memorial in Hampstead Cemetery in Fortune Green has accused Town Hall bosses of trying to pass the buck.
Joyce Maxwell, 80, who has lived in Constantine Road, South End Green, all her life, says she has been trying to put her husband’s name, Edward Maxwell, onto the memorial in the cemetery since the early 1980s.
Mr Maxwell was an orphan who had no other family when he died in 1950, aged 37, from injuries he sustained in World War II.
He had lost his toes after being force marched across Eastern Europe as a prisoner of war during a bitterly cold winter. He suffered from severe kidney dehydration from which he never recovered.
Mrs Maxwell, who never re-married and brought up their three children on her own, is a founder member of the War Widow’s Association and received an MBE for her services in 1997.
She said: “I went to visit my husband’s grave in the cemetery in 1980 and noticed that there was plenty of space on the War Memorial for more names.
“When I approached the council, they told me that I should speak to the War Graves Commission. But they only deal with military cemeteries and referred me back to the council.”
Mrs Maxwell says she eventually gave up on the matter until her son decided to take up the case late last year.
He approached Labour councillor, Janet Guthrie, who was sympathetic – but has yet to come back to the family with an answer.
David Maxwell said: “It’s typical of the council who publicly talk of all these good intentions but never come up with the goods.
“My mother is getting on now and she would like to see her husband’s name put on a memorial in her lifetime.”
Mrs Maxwell, who visited the war memorial on Remembrance Day, says she was horrified to see no wreath by the memorial.
She said: “My whole generation sacrificed our youth and our lives to the well-being of our country and of Europe.
“I think that the younger generation should remember that and say thank you to us.”
A spokeswoman for the War Graves Commission said that there was no single body responsible for war memorials – and that responsibility could lie with different bodies depending on the area.
Camden Council and Cllr Guthrie were unavailable for comment at the time of going to press.