ONE of the city’s best-known war memorials has received important maintenance work ahead of the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War this November.

Sculptor Alec Peever yesterday finished retouching an inscription on the St Giles war memorial, remembering those who perished in the conflict between 1914 and 1918.

The text had faded over time but will look good as new for the centenary of Armistice Day, which will be marked by the annual parade in St Giles on November 11.

Located at the north end of St Giles, the memorial remembers the city’s dead from the First and Second World Wars, but contains no individual names.

It was constructed in 1921 and bears the coats of arms of the city and the university.

Mr Peever has been carving around Oxfordshire for the last 35 years and sculpted gargoyles on the Bodleian library and obelisks on the natural history museum.

He said: “It was a very tricky job because the stone was so old and weathered.”