A special remembrance service was held yesterday (Monday) to mark the unveiling of a memorial to Pembrokeshire’s lost children.

The memorial at City Road Cemetery Haverfordwest remembers the County’s hundreds of stillborn babies, which lie in unmarked graves.

Over 30 members of the public attended the service, many of them clutching flowers to place around the memorial.

Eighty year-old Maureen Colgan from Pembroke Dock, who lost two babies over 50 years ago, said the memorial had helped a lot.

“I have grieved every year since I lost them and have never forgotten them,” she said.

“In those days nothing was done when your babies died. I did not even know where they were buried. This memorial means a lot.”

It’s estimated that 400 stillborn babies were born between 1928 and 1975 when it was common practice to take them from their mothers without any ritual.

The new memorial at City Road cemetery, where most of the babies were buried, is the culmination of years of campaigning by Pembrokeshire County Council employee, Pat James - Crematorium Assistant at Parc Gwyn in Narberth.

Pat, from Milford Haven, said she was pleased that parents would now be able to move towards “closure”.

“Today parents of stillborn babies are given a chance to say goodbye to their children with proper burials or cremations but it wasn’t always so in the past,” said Pat.

“I hope this new memorial will give those mothers - and fathers- some solace. Hopefully it will be a place for them to come and reflect.”

And she thanked those who had contributed towards the funding of the memorial including Monumental Masons J Cecil Jones of Swansea, Milford Haven funeral director Tom Newing and Sons and Haverfordwest undertaker Roy Folland and Sons, which provided four trees to mark the area.