by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
THE third and final time the Durham Pals went into the frontline trenches ahead of the Battle of the Somme was by far the toughest. In their first two spells at the front in northern France, the 18th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry held the line at...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
ON the evening of May 14, 1916, for the third and final time before the fateful first day of the Battle of the Somme, the Durham Pals went back in the frontline trenches of the Somme. The 18th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry had two previous experiences of life...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
DURING the first few days of May 1916, the Durham Pals were able to enjoy some well-deserved respite after the traumas of Easter Week. In their four days in the waterlogged trenches over Easter, 18th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry had seen one of their...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
EASTER Week of 1916 saw the Durham Pals waist-deep in water and thoroughly miserable. Exactly 100 years ago Easter was three weeks later than this year, and so it was on April 20 – Maundy Thursday – that the volunteers of 18th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
CONDITIONS in the Durham Pals’ sodden camp in the woods were so bad 100 years ago that most were relieved to go back into the trenches. On the afternoon of Maundy Thursday – April 20, 1916 – the 18th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry – commonly known as the...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
AFTER their baptism of fire during their first five days in the trenches, the Durham Pals received the order to withdraw, and at 8pm on April 3, 1916 they were relieved by the 12th Yorks and Lancs. During their first five-day taste, they’d been constantly under threat...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
AT dusk on March 29, 1916, the Durham Pals silently filed into the battered frontline trenches to the east of Auchonvillers, in northern France, and under cover of darkness took over the posts from the Royal Irish Rifles. Earlier that day, the battalion’s commanding...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
AT the end of March, the Durham Pals received the order to move up into the frontline trenches. Having volunteered in the heady days of late summer 1914 to do their duty, they now finally had the chance to face the enemy. On March 25, 18th Battalion of the Durham...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
AFTER a 50-hour train journey across the length of France, the Durham Pals arrived at Pont Remy in northern France, in the early hours of March 14. It was bitterly cold, but the men of the 18th Battalion Durham Light Infantry were simply glad to be off the train in...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
THE Durham Pals had spent a week at sea but, 100 years ago this week, within six hours of their feet touching the steady dry land of the port of Marseilles, they were packed into trains for the long journey north across France. The 18th Battalion of the Durham Light...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, Peterlee
THE skies above Wheatley Hill were eerily thick with mist as a trio of buglers from the Durham (The Rifles) Company sounded The Last Post shortly after 11am. But, as Father Kenneth Crawford, chaplain to the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) Association, reflected, it was...
by Chris Lloyd | Durham, In Your Town, Latest, People, VC Recipients, War Stories
Welcome, welcome once again Hero brave and bold To the school where you were taught In the days of old. We the present pupils Of Wingate Catholic School Were pleased to hear When death was near You were so brave and cool. HAVING read their poem to their war hero that...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, People
The sacrifice of war was felt most keenly in Bowburn, a community of 200 homes of which 47 endured the pain of losing a loved one. CLARENCE Street – an ordinary terraced street, in an ordinary pit village, but one which paid an extraordinary price during the First...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
THE fate of thousands of British soldiers taken prisoner during the First World War will be revealed by a military historian. Writer John Lewis-Stempel will discuss the fortunes of British prisoners of war during the conflict at a talk taking place at the DLI Museum...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
THE story of how hundreds of County Durham men signed up to fight alongside their friends during the First World War is at the heart of a major exhibition about the conflict. Outbreak 1914!, at the DLI Museum and Durham Art Gallery, looks at the role played by the...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
THE centenary of the First World War is being marked in Sherburn Village, near Durham City, by installing additions to its seven-year-old war memorial. Two inscribed granite stones are being placed on either side of the monument, which is next to the community centre....
by Chris Lloyd | Durham, In Your Town, People
WALTER’S family were twice wrongly notified that he had died in battle, leading to the marvellous newspaper headline “He is not dead after all”. The third time, though, was not so lucky. Walter came from Cassop, near Durham City, and joined the Durham Light Infantry...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
A FOUR-YEAR programme of activities to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War is set to be launched. Residents of Belmont are organising a series of events to mark the anniversary, beginning on Friday (July 18) with the launch event First...
by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
AT 7.30am on July 1, 1916, the guns stopped, the mines exploded, the whistles blew and the British soldiers climbed up out of their trenches and walked into no man’s land towards the German lines. After seven days of non-stop bombardment by heavy guns, they hoped the...
by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
NINETY-EIGHT years ago this week, Gunner George James was in the trenches near Albert, in northern France, writing his diary. We’ve been following it since the start of the year, but now as July 1, 1916, approaches – the first day of the Battle of the Somme on which...
