Staff at Oak Tree Lodge care home in Gipton, Leeds, awoke to find the benches missing
Yorkshire’s oldest D-Day Veteran Jack Mortimer, 102, being interviewed by Dan Walker, while sat on his wife Florrie’s memorial bench (Image: Submitted (Vicky Gudgin))
Staff at a Gipton care home have been left furious after two memorial benches were “stolen” from the property.
The pair of benches was “stolen” last week from Oak Tree Lodge care home in Gipton – with one being a tribute to a beloved member of staff and the other in memory of the wife of Yorkshire’s oldest living D-Day veteran.
Manager Vicky Gudgin explained that staff were “distraught” when they realised the chains that had attached them to the front of the care home had been cut and the benches removed.
Vicky said: “The benches were secured with wire, so we believe someone had planned to steal them and brought the necessary equipment with them. It’s absolutely heartbreaking.”
One of the benches was a tribute to resident Florrie Mortimer; a donation made by devoted husband, Jack Mortimer, who had bought it after she sadly died a few days before his 100th birthday.
Jack is the last surviving D-Day veteran in Yorkshire and is now a resident at Oak Tree Lodge. Vicky explained that Jack “does not know about the bench” and staff are hoping to replace it before he realises. Currently aged 102, Jack recently moved into the home but used to visit the bench every week and come to Sunday lunch with the staff.
A fundraiser has been started with the hopes of replacing both benches – the other belonging to a “much-loved” member of staff named Angie Butler. Angie worked at Oak Tree Lodge as a care assistant from 2014 and was “extremely dedicated to her role”, often coming in on her days off to fundraise and bring in prizes for the residents’ bingo sessions.
Vicky said: “We are shocked, saddened and appalled that someone could steal two memorial benches that had engravings and plaques on them, and we are fundraising to get these replaced, which we will keep behind the secure gates in the garden.”
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