Mark Newton, a former British Army tank crewman, is on a mission to visit every war memorial in Britain, travelling only by mobility scooter.
In his journey, he was already covered more than 12,000 miles and holds the record for the furthest distance travelled on a mobility scooter.
Mark uses a list of war memorials and graves which was given to him by the Imperial War Museum to plan his journey. He has been updating the data for the War Museum on his travels, and has discovered more than 2,000 memorials they didn’t know about!
He has been on the road for more than 569 days in his specially adapted mobility scooter, but admits that he still has a pretty big challenge ahead of him.
Speaking of his incredible effort, Mark said: “I have a passion for this and have already found more than 2,000 unknown, unmarked memorials that the Imperial War Museum did not know about.
“There are roughly 70,000 on the books so far that we know of and still more we have yet to find.
“It will take very many years, not least as my scooter does 8 miles an hour; I may have to hand over the legacy.”
Mark injured his knee whilst serving with the 1st Queens Dragoon Guards in Cyprus in 1991. Although he had several operations, his injury forced him to retire in 2010.
It was then he started his plan to visit every British war memorial on his specially adapted, all terrain mobility scooters. He has so far raised more than £66,000 for veteran charities including the Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes.
Photo courtesy of Luke Woods, under Creative Commons
