Work is due to begin soon on a memorial in Lansbury Park, Caerphilly to commemorate Darren Smith who was posthumously awarded The Queen’s Gallantry Medal for exemplary bravery.
Darren lost his life trying to save two-year-old Geraint Lewis and his nine-month-old sister Jade from a fire in their home on the estate in December 1989.
The memorial is being installed by Caerphilly County Borough Council on green space in Maxton Court, and replaces the commemorative plaque that was located in the former Lansbury Park GP surgery. The new memorial is expected to take around three weeks to complete, depending on weather, and will be followed with the planting of three trees in memory of Darren, Geraint and Jade. A memorial service will be held in the new year.
Cllr Shayne Cook, the Council’s Cabinet Member for Housing, said “We hope that the new memorial will offer a place for family, friends and the wider community to visit and remember the extraordinary bravery shown by Darren, and the lives that were tragically lost that night.”
