FIFTY years ago yesterday, Yvonne Radford celebrated her 11th birthday and her first day at Blackwood county secondary school.

The Markham youngster was popular and bright, a promising artist whose talent in the latter subject had made her a prizewinner whilst still at infants school.

Half a century on, as pupils settled back into lessons after their summer break, family and friends gathered at what is now called Blackwood comprehensive school, at the formal opening of a memorial garden to Yvonne.

The idea of Jeff Smith, a friend of Yvonne's, the garden is a memorial to promise cruelly unfulfilled, and a life cut brutally short.

For less than five months after she embarked on her path through secondary school, Yvonne was murdered whilst completing her evening paper round in Markham.

Her killer, Edgar Wallace Davies, known as Wally, lived at the last address on the round, a job she shared with one of her sisters, Jacqueline.

When Yvonne did not return home that cold Friday evening, January 28 1966, a search was launched by neighbours and joined by miners coming off shift at Markham Colliery.

Resumed the following morning, it ended with the discovery of her body on the hillside near Penywerlod Terrace, where Davies lived. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted, and her head had been crushed with a stone.

Yvonne was described to the Argus at the time by the secondary school's headmaster as "a clever, happy girl, with an inner serenity" and "one of the most promising pupils in the first year we have had at this school for years."

Davies was subsequently sent to a secure psychiatric hospital. His crime shocked the country and had a profound effect on the village of Markham.

"Her parents understandably never got over it, and it was devastating for her brother and sisters, and for her friends," said Mr Smith, an electrician who now lives in Aberbargoed.

A memorial plinth and sundial were installed at the secondary school, but over the years it has been damaged.

When Mr Smith saw it, he was determined to provide his childhood friend with another memorial.

"It is 50 years since Yvonne started at this school, and it is even more fitting because opening the garden now is like giving her a birthday present," he said.

Mr Smith used to help Yvonne with her paper round but that Friday night, after arranging to meet her, he found out he had to go out with his mother.

"Yvonne came up to the house and I told her why I couldn't help her that night, and she said not to worry.

"The last memory I have of her is a big smile, she was always smiling.

"We went to school together from very young, and we were best friends.

"She liked painting and drawing. She was a very good artist and had an award for painting, I think in infants school. I'd done a clay model or something like that, and I think we both got £1.

"We were always out playing, laughing, having fun"

A dedication service for the garden - paid for with the help of donations and a fundraising show, and designed through a competition among art students at Blackwood comprehensive school - was held yesterday.

With its sundial, flowers and seating, the garden is designed as a place where pupils can go for a spot of solitude or quiet contemplation.