by Chris Lloyd | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
TWO 15-year-olds and three 16-year-olds from Darlington died in the First World War, as Memories 198 told. Margaret Garrett, of Darlington, kindly points us to the research carried out by Anthony Magrys when the Eastbourne memorial was unveiled earlier this year in...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
THE ancestors of young men who died in the First World War were able to find out more about their lives as part of a special family history event. Experts were on hand at the Centre for Local Studies, in Darlington’s Crown Street Library to guide people through...
by Chris Lloyd | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
WHEN residents of one village gathered to unveil their memorial to the First World War, the priest had a powerful message for them. With their new war memorial shrouded in a large Union Jack, the villagers of Haughton-le-Skerne crowded round to see it unveiled. “It...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
A NORTH-EAST mayor spoke movingly at the launch of the annual Poppy appeal, commemorating those who have fallen in conflict. Members of the Darlington branch of the Royal British Legion (RBL) gathered at Darlington Town Hall on Thursday (October 23), for the launch of...
by Chris Lloyd | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, People
QUARTERMASTER Sergeant Alfred Harris fought throughout the First World War and when he returned to civvy street, he found himself still wearing military uniforms – to promote films in Darlington’s cinemas. Sgt Harris was a Londoner, who joined the 39th Siege Battery...
by Chris Lloyd | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
The Great War claimed the lives of many young men, including Bugler George Sanderson, who was perhaps the youngest of them all. THE local newspapers of 1915 are full of poorly-reproduced photographs of men who went to war and never came back. The Northern Echo of June...
by Chris Lloyd | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, People
IN Haughton-le-Skerne churchyard on Wednesday morning, a clear autumn day with beech nuts crunching under feet on the path, two second cousins met for the first time and remembered one man from the First World War. They were Penny Boal from West Sussex and Barrie Lamb...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town
SCHOOL children in a North-East town had the chance to find out more about the region’s role in the First World War during a series of workshops. As part of a wide project taking in the entire Tees Valley, experts from Time Bandits were in Darlington today in...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
DARLINGTON’S largest church and department store played their part in the national commemorative events to mark the First World War centenary. Visitors were invited inside St Cuthbert’s Church to light a candle and take a moment for quiet reflection throughout the...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
As thousands of people across the region gathered at events marking the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, the place in history of 15 young men killed in action during the conflict were safeguarded during a poignant rededication service. Vicki Henderson...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
LESSONS in life in the trenches and wartime medicine replaced maths and English to mark the final week of term at a North-East school. Students at St Aidan’s Academy, in Darlington, dropped their usual lessons and spent a week learning about respect and stewardship...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, Ferryhill, In Your Town, Latest
THE centenary of the First World War has inspired an Army reservist to transform a short story he wrote for a competition 15 years ago into a novel. Steven Corner was awarded third place in the Sid Chaplain short story competition run by Shildon Town Council when he...
by Chris Lloyd | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
IN Memories 173, (published in The Northern Echo every Saturday) we told of the VAD – Voluntary Aid Detachment – nurses who ran convalescent hospitals for injured soldiers. Brenda Wright, of Darlington, has discovered this magnificent picture of all the town’s...
by Chris Lloyd | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
THIS is a story of some nurses and a spoon. The nurses were undoubtedly heroic, but the spoon is truly splendid. More than a teaspoon, it is a proper tablespoon, made of the finest Sheffield steel. Stamped on its handle, is its owner’s number – SG 16170 – and, just...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
HEAD of Steam museum staff are to visit St Mark’s Church, Darlington, next month (April) to talk about their new project and recruit volunteers. Staff will be at the North Road church on April 9 to discuss the North East Railways in World War One project which focuses...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
PRIMARY school pupils helped to sow the seeds of Remembrance in Darlington, where free poppy seeds are being handed out to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. Youngsters at Corporation Road Primary School were the first in the town to sow the free seeds,...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, Hartlepool, In Your Town, Latest
THE sights and sounds of the First World War were brought back to life at the weekend. A living history group evoked the misery of life in the trenches for Darlington residents when they visited the town on Saturday. The Time Bandits, a historical interpretation...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, People
In an unmarked plot in Darlington’s West Cemetery lie the remains of Private Edward Henry Pratt who fought for two years in France, was injured on at least two separate occasions, and eventually died from his wounds in a hospital bed, four months after being...
by Chris Lloyd | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, People
OF all the terrible consequences of war in the way of personal disfigurement and incapacitation, none can compare with the distress of total blindness, ” began an article in The Northern Echo on March 7, 1916. “Unfortunately, that affliction has affected....
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, Hartlepool, In Your Town, Latest, Middlesbrough, Redcar, Stockton
ONE hundred years after the start of the First World War, a 400,000 project will remind residents of the Tees Valley of the sacrifice made by their forebears. The programme, funded with money from the Arts Council, runs until March next year throughout Darlington,...
