SIR – The deaths of war veterans Frank Buckles and Claude Choules in 2011 brought to an end living memory of the horrors of the First World War trenches.

For anyone born in the 20th century, it remains difficult to grasp the enormity of the losses suffered on all sides. Returning such vast numbers for burial was impossible; the families of those who never made it back and the communities in which they lived were forced to find other ways of commemorating. Their answer was to create war memorials.

Down the years, while more obvious parts of our “built heritage” such as railway stations, theatres and town halls have undergone renovation to keep them functional, war memorials have attracted a kind of “sacred permanence” in the public mind.

That’s right and proper, but now we need to look at war memorials in a new way – because nine decades or so at the mercy of erosion, weather and traffic vibration, along with vandalism, theft, changing lifestyles and modern regulations are taking their toll.

With the centenaries of the outbreak of war in August 2014, and the Armistice in November 2018, information about the Great War will be difficult to avoid.

But how many more memorials will have disappeared by then?

We have a duty to retain this heritage for those who will follow us.

Ray Thompson, South View Avenue, Brigg