THE dozen soldiers from the Forest who fought in one of the bloodiest engagements of the Korean War are to have their own memorial in the district.

The last of them, Mr Roy Mills of Cinderford, was in the audience at St Paul’s Church in Parkend when the announcement was made.

Mr Mills was one of the special guests for a concert by the Royal Forest of Dean Orchestra which premiered Holding the Hill by Gloucestershire composer Liz Lane to mark the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Imjin.

The four-day battle in April 1951 helped stop the Chinese advance on Seoul and prevent the Communist take-over of the entire country.

The memorial plan was revealed by Mr Roger Deeks during his introduction to the premiere.

He said: ""After today, many of the people involved in this commemoration will be working towards establishing a permanent memorial in the Forest.

"Mabey Bridge have already kindly offered £2,000 to support this - then the events in Korea will not be a forgotten war and there will be a focus for remembrance and learning about the soldiers from the Dean, what they did, what they sacrificed and the importance of freedom and democracy and, just maybe, trying to end all wars.

"We are here today because we want to remember and commemorate the sacrifices of soldiers from Gloucestershire and particularly the Forest of Dean.

"Amongst that battalion there were about a dozen men with connections to the Forest of Dean and they knew each other - they were butties who shared the same jokes and humour.

"Most of them were simply ordinary men, national serviceman called up, like Roy Mills who is with us tonight, 19-year-olds who were quickly trained and deployed to reinforce a regular army battalion on a peace-keeping mission.

"Over three days these soldiers defended two hills and were eventually fought over to the last round of ammunition before being required to lay down their arms.

"What happened on those hills was beyond anything we could understand."

Liz Lane said it was "an honour and privilege" to be asked to write a piece for the anniversary.

She explained what the music in each of the three movements represented with the first, called Hill 235, reflecting the fighting on what is now known as Gloster Hill.

Mr Mills said he enjoyed the concert. He said: "I really enjoyed listening to this wonderful music and being with the families of other veterans, even though I am the only survivor now in the Forest,"