This year two men were jailed after they tried to sell six bronze plaques stolen from a war memorial. Plaques were also stolen from a graveyard in Benfleet, Essex last year.

Whoever did this is a national hero,” said one Virginia resident passing by the installation that will grace the National Mall for a week.

Dozens of bronze memorial plaques have been stolen from a cemetery. West Midlands Police said it had alerted local scrap metal dealers after the thefts at Bilston Cemetery in Wolverhampton.

Among the plaques and memorials honoring veterans on Monument Terrace, this bronze plaque was the first memorial to be dedicated to Lynchburg veterans of a military conflict in almost 40 years.