THE West Somerset Branch of the Burma Star Association has been confined to the history books with the laying up of the branch standard at a special ceremony in St Andrew's Church, Minehead, on Tuesday.

Supporters past and present attended the ceremony, which saw the standard lowered for the last time by a bearer from across the county border in Devon.

Despite being steeped in history, the West Somerset branch had just six members remaining and no longer had its own standard bearer.

Tuesday's ceremony lasted around an hour and featured branch chairman Rod Johnson reading General Slim's famous letter bidding "Farewell to the 14th".

The national Burma Star Association was officially founded on February 26 1951 with 2,000 founder members.

The aims were to promote the comradeship experienced in the bitter fighting in the jungles of Burma and to provide help for members and widows at times of ill-health or crisis.

Photo: Steve Guscott