After a public appeal from the restorers of the Coopernook War Memorial, the mystery wording on one of the plaques has been solved.
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In June, work started on the restoration of the 100-year-old memorial funded by the NSW government.
A mystery surrounded a missing small plaque on the memorial, and MidCoast Council appealed for anyone who knew the history to assist.
It took two intrepid investigators to solve the mystery. Stone mason Ken Ellis cleaned up the plaque and took an etching of it. Sharon Knight, local resident and member of the adjoining Coopernook Memorial Hall Committee, investigated the wording.
Together they worked through a process of elimination. After recognising the last few letters, it didn't take long to recognise the words to be 'Edstein & Sons', local stone masons who worked on many of the war memorials across the MidCoast.
"We are very thankful to Sharon and Ken for taking the time to work through letter options to solve the mystery. The lead lettering has now been restored and is clearly visible on the memorial once more," said council's executive manager community spaces, Dan Aldridge.
Unfortunately, the work on the memorial has been halted just short of completion. The stone mason resides in Sydney and due to COVID-19 restrictions is unable to return to complete the work.
Once restrictions ease, the stone mason will return to complete a few lead letters, give the old memorial a final clean and apply a treatment.
The works are funded by the NSW government, and follow restoration works undertaken on war memorials over the last few years in Nabiac, Taree and Wingham.
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