A military historian, Garry Trown revels in the chance to pay homage to those veterans that gave their lives to defend this country.

So when he came to visit his daughter in Chessington last week he would pay his respects by walking down to St Mary the Virgin's Church.

When he first arrived he thought it all looked well kept.

"As a family and military historian I never miss an opportunity to visit the local graveyard of any church that happens to be in the area I visit," he said.

"So in the hope that I may find the resting place of any brave individual who fell in either of the world wars albeit by way of a memorial or headstone, I went to St Mary the Virgin's."

"Arriving at the church I found a delightful and indeed beautiful little church that from the gate appeared to be well tended."

Sadly its initial appearance was not to last.

He went looking for veterans to pay respect to, but was hard pressed finding any.

Not because there weren't any there, but because of the shocking state the graveyard had been left in.

"Wandering around the graveyard in search of any courageous soul who gave their all for family and country I found to my horror a graveyard that is so overgrown one cannot easily see the place that marks a sacrifice without fear of injury," Mr Trown said.

"The only hint of presence is the top of a headstone that is consistent with those of a military grave."

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Kingston Council is responsible for the upkeep of the graveyard and commissioned this job out to contractor Quadron since 2006.

Sadly, this isn't the first time the issue has arisen.

In 2015, the same graveyard came under scrutiny when the grandson of a war veteran encountered the same problems as Mr Trown.

Kingston Council has said that the grass at the site has since been cut since Mr Trown's visit "as part of the ongoing maintenance."