Members of Spalding Rugby Club who lost their lives serving in the armed forces have been honoured with a new plaque.
Four of those named died in the Second World War while the fourth died in Northern Ireland.
Sgt Frank Heard served with the RAF in 22 Sqdn Coastal Command as a wireless operator and gunner. He was killed aged 23 returning from a mission in France in 1941.
Sgt Gordon Shearer also served with the RAF and was killed in Canada while training pilots in 1943. He was just 21-years-old.
Eric Longstaff was also in the RAF as an Aircraftman First Class. He was sent to Singapore and captured when it was taken by the Japanese army. He remained a prisoner of war until he died, aged 38, in 1944.
Major Kenneth Barrell served with the Lincolnshire Regiment and was posted to Tunisia with the 6th Lincolnshires to join forces with a group from the Leicestershire Regiment. They went to Italy in 1943 and he was killed in action aged 35 and buried in Solerno.
Mjr Barrell was a founder member of the Spalding Rugby Club and captain from 1931-34. His daughter was months old when he died.
The final name on the plaque, Robert Nairac, belongs to a member of the Grenadier Guards who was killed in Northern Ireland in 1977 aged 28.
He spent time on the farm of the Sly family in the Spalding area for a time before the war, and joined the rugby club with members of the family which, at one point, had five men playing in the first team.
Capt Nairac was serving his fourth tour of Northern Ireland and working in military intelligence when he was abducted and murdered by the IRA. Several men were later convicted and as late as 2024, searches for his body continued.
Rex Sly, who organised the memorial plaque, said he felt 80 years had been long enough and it was time the servicemen members were honoured.
