The memorial plaque on the statue commemorating the sacrifice of Tamworth war hero Colin Grazier is to be removed for restoration.

The three anchors memorial in St Editha’s Square was last year given a new coat of hard-wearing, long-lasting paint, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor.

Now the plaque, which details the courage of Able Seaman Colin Grazier, Lt Anthony Fasson and Tommy Brown in retrieving vital Enigma codebooks from a sinking German U-boat, is to also undergo restoration.

Tamworth artist Louise Blake will carefully paint the raised letters on the plaque to highlight them, making the plaque much easier to read.

The work is likely to take a couple of weeks to complete and the plaque will be returned to the memorial as soon as it is finished – in plenty of time for the 70 th anniversary of Colin Grazier’s heroic actions on October 30.

The memorial was put up in 2002 to honour Able Seaman Colin Grazier from Two Gates. The 22-year-old sailor was serving on HMS Petard when in October 1942, he and fellow seaman Lt Anthony Fasson died retrieving vital German codebooks from a sinking U-boat in the Mediterranean. The third sailor, Tommy Brown, survived the war, only to die in a house fire while still a teenager.

It was the precious documents they seized which enabled Bletchley Park’s code breakers to crack the Enigma codes and so win the Battle of the Atlantic. It is believed that the bravery of the three men – each commemorated with an anchor on the statue - helped shorten the Second World War by two years. Both Colin Grazier and Anthony Fasson were posthumously awarded the George Cross.

The plaque will be removed from the memorial at the end of this month.