Memorial to honour 2012 fatalities

An engraver has begun the sombre task of adding the names of 52 service personnel who were killed in the line of duty last year to the national Armed Forces Memorial.

The painstaking process, being carried out by stonemason Nick Hindle at the National Memorial Arboretum, is expected to take about a month.

Beginning with Sergeant Luke Taylor, a member of the Royal Marines killed in Afghanistan, the process will see the names of members of the Royal Navy - the oldest service - engraved on to the monument, followed by members of the Army and Royal Air Force.

Relatives of those killed serving in the Armed Forces during 2012 will attend a service to dedicate the newly-engraved names later this year.

The Portland stone memorial in Alrewas, Staffordshire, which was opened in the presence of the Queen in 2007, already honours more than 16,000 service personnel killed since the end of the Second World War.