THE NAME of a veteran who died during the Battle of Dunkirk has been corrected, 70 years after it was inscribed incorrectly on a war memorial near Wallingford.

Lance Corporal Edward Victor Woodgate, who fought in the 4th Battalion of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, was killed on the beach at Dunkirk on May 29, 1940.

The 38-year-old’s name was carved on the Brightwell-cum-Sotwell’s memorial shortly after the end of the Second World War.

But a mistake was made with his first name, and on the memorial he was called George instead of Edward.

Seven decades later, the error has finally been corrected and the new inscription will be commemorated at the end of the week on Remembrance Sunday.

Mr Woodgate’s son, Edward “Ted” Woodgate, 78, realised the mistake several years ago, but nothing came of the discovery then.

The father-of-three, a former engineer who lives with wife Shirley, 76, said: “It felt disappointing to me – I won’t say it hurt because it didn’t make me break down and cry but it just felt wrong.

“I’m delighted this has now been rectified.”

Earlier this year he discussed his father’s history with Olive Sutcliffe, a churchwarden at St Agatha’s church, who wanted to put together an exhibition dedicated to local soldiers who fought in the Second World War.

In August, she advised him to get in touch with Brightwell-cum-Sotwell parish council, which later paid for the name to be rectified.

Mr Woodgate, who lives in Greenfield Crescent, Wallingford, provided a birth certificate to prove that his family lived in the parish of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, and a copy of the notice delivered to his mother, saying his father had been reported missing, believed killed.

The death was confirmed in 1955, when Mr Woodgate’s father’s identity discs were found on the beach.

Mr Woodgate, whose father was a groom at Rush Court, a private estate near Shillingford, said his father’s Christian name may have been confused with that of the estate’s gardener.

Mrs Sutcliffe said: “It was rather strange that it said George when it should have been Edward.

“I’m just very pleased for Ted that his father’s name is properly recorded after all these years.”