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Many people in the Spanish city of Badajoz, on the Portuguese border, are opposed to the memorial, which is intended to commemorate British troops who died taking the city from the French occupiers in 1812. 

The project to build the memorial has already been approved by the local authority after a request from a regimental association connected to the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, successors to the Northumberland Fusiliers, one of the regiments which fought at Badajoz. But those against the plan argued that the British sacked Badajoz and carried out "all types of atrocities".

Alberto Gonzalez Rodriguez, the official historian of Badajoz, agreed that some of the troops had committed outrages. But he said they had been "severely punished" by Wellington. He said: "We cannot forget the positive aspects of the British action, helped by the Spanish army, in the fight against the Napoleonic invasion." 

He said the regiment made up the first wave that stormed through a gap opened by artillery. Almost all of them died in the French defences. Mr Gonzalez said: "You cannot ignore the military aspect, which has always made Badajoz a strategic defence position and the scene of many battles with the inevitable deaths and personal tragedies. But there has also been much glory."

At the site of the proposed memorial, known as the Breach of Death, there was once a plaque recording an earlier battle, but it was removed. "We cannot escape the fact that what happened forms part of our history and we must not forget it," Mr Gonzalez said.

The Northumberland Fusiliers, which suffered badly at the storming of Badajoz, was given the prefix "Royal" later in the 19th century and is now part of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.