Reading the article and seeing the photo of Mr David Pearce receiving his long-service award (Gazette, August 7) made me think of the members of my family who have received awards like these.

I have a photo showing both my grandfathers after receiving their 50-year service medals for work on Mr Stratton’s farm at Alton Barnes, and I also have my father’s 50-year service medal, which he received from Princess Alice at the Royal Show at Kenilworth in Warwickshire. This was also for working on Mr Stratton’s farm.

I am very proud to have this medal, not for the medal itself but for what it represents, and this was 51 years of hard work, and being nearly frozen, riding around on tractors without cabs.

Farm workers may still work long hours but what with the state-of-the-art machinery it is very different from what our parents and grandparents knew.

Also there are other jobs which involve long hours. Before he retired my husband was a lorry driver and he sometimes had to start work in Swindon at 3am and drive to perhaps the other end of the country in all weathers. These are some of the things people don’t realise when they complain about HGV drivers.

C Burgess, Hodge Close, Devizes.