AS secretary/treasurer of the York Branch of the Royal Marine Association (RMA), I was intending to use your paper to once again appeal for more members from the Royal Marines.

However, after reading your edition of April 25, I must first record my disappointment at the way you described our only York VC, and one of the first Royal Marines to receive the VC, Bombadier Thomas Wilkinson, of the Royal Marine Artillery.

Although his grave is not included in the restorations accorded by the 100th anniversary of the First World War, he won the honour of a VC in the Crimean War, which was also a very hard-fought conflict.

In the year that the Royal Marines are celebrating 350 years of formation, it is due to the good offices of York cemetery and at the York RMA’s request that the lawn where his grave is situated is kept neat. York RMA has also installed a seat by his grave in his memory.

A service and wreath-laying is held every two years at his grave and is attended by members of York Royal Naval Association, York Association of Wrens, York Royal British Legion and York Royal Artillery Association.

Marie Taylor, St Wulstan Close, Fossway, York.