Councillor Paul O’Kane, chairman of the association, broke ground with the help of Kyla Fergus and Joseph Kearney, the pupils behind the winning design for the memorial.

Around 50 people braved the elements on Sunday for the service, which included a reading by Reverend Fiona Maxwell and a poem from dedicated member Jimmy Higgins.

Speaking to The News, Cllr O’Kane could not hide his joy at seeing a long term ambition fulfilled for everyone involved.

He said: “I was extremely honoured to cut the ground on the Neilston War Memorial as we look forwards to getting construction started.

“There has been a lot of hard work by everyone behind the scenes that has made this day possible.

“The war memorial association would not have been able to do it without the support of the Neilston community which has backed us from the very start.” The campaign was launched in 2012 and after three years of fundraising the association smashed through its £40,000 funding target using community grants and fundraising gigs at Neilston Bowling Club.

This even included an anonymous £10,000 from a generous local businessman.

And Jimmy Higgins even took on a 620 mile walk from Neilston to France, to visit the battlefields where his grandfather fought in World War One.

He said: “For me, having relatives that fought in and nearly lost their lives in the great war, it is appalling that nearly 200 Neilston men and women, many of them very young, have no memorial to their sacrifice.” Work on the memorial will begin within the week with a projected build time of around three months.

And the complete article will be ready to take centre stage in time for Remembrance Sunday in November.

More than 300 soldiers who have never been recognised in a memorial will be immortalised, along with any future casualties of war from the village.