Eight Derbyshire families have become the first in the county to be awarded the Elizabeth Cross – a new medal that remembers those who lost their lives for their country.
Their sons, brothers, fathers and uncles made the ultimate sacrifice in the armed services from the 1940s to the current Afghanistan conflict.
At a ceremony in Matlock, their loved ones proudly accepted the Elizabeth Cross which carries the names of those who fell.
Valerie Jessop, of Mackworth, said she was honoured to be given the new award in memory of her son, Martin Jessop, who was killed in Northern Ireland in 1982. She said: "Not a day goes by when I don't think of Martin." Syvia Figgis, of Mickleover, was only two when her father, Flying Officer Robin Parsons, died in a plane crash off Cyprus in 1957. She said: "In 2004 I took my two sons to see his grave in Cyprus. This medal is something they can have to remember him by."
A Boulton Moor man accepted the Elizabeth Cross on behalf of his uncle, an 18-year-old sailor who died in the Yangzte Incident in 1949.
| 
