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Artist Ivan Sinnaeve uses remains of the millions of shells that fell on Flanders' killing fields to make his own tribute to the Scots who fought and fell in WWI

A LASTING symbol of hope has been created from the debris of death left in the World War One battlefields.

A Belgian craftsmen is using tiny pieces of lead shrapnel which still litter the killing fields of Flanders to make 10in models of brave Highland soldiers who fought and fell there in the Great War.

Wheelchair-bound Ivan Sinnaeve - known as Shrapnel Charlie - sells the detailed figures, complete with kilts and bagpipes, for £35 from Passchendaele Museum in Zonnebeke, Flanders.

And £25 from every sale is put towards the building of a Celtic Cross monument dedicated to the memory of Scotland's war dead.

Ivan's miniature army has already raised more than £5000 for the memorial, which will be unveiled at a ceremony in August likely to be attended by First Minister Alex Salmond.

The £30,000 cross commemorates more than half a million Scots who fought in the trenches - and the one in four who never came home.
Read entire article at Sunday Mail (UK)