by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Chester-le-Street, In Your Town, Latest
THE centenary of a North-East miner’s gallantry on a First World War battlefield was marked with the unveiling of a commemorative stone heralding the act of valour. Descendants of Private Michael Heaviside were joined by civic figures, representatives of the armed and...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
A £50,000 project is being launched to explore the story of the only two brothers to be awarded the Victoria Cross in the First World War and the village in which they live. Groundwork North-East and Cumbria and Durham County Council will use the funding to get the...
by Chris Lloyd | Chester-le-Street, In Your Town, Latest, People
A WREATH has been laid in Durham cathedral to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of a 24-year-old Durham Pal. At the same time, an identical wreath was laid on his grave in northern France. The soldier being commemorated was Pte Newrick Curry, of the 18th...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
A VICTORIA CROSS winner is to be permanently commemorated as part of a day of events in the County Durham village of Witton Park, where he was born. The youngest general in British Army history, Roland Boys Bradford and his Navy officer brother George were the only...
by Chris Lloyd | Chester-le-Street, In Your Town, Latest, People
FOR the Durhams, the Battle of Passchendaele began at 3.50am on July 31, 1917, when the buglers sent the 20th Battalion over the top into the Flanders mud. The men made good progress until a row of German pillboxes opened up a barrage so intense that only messages...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Latest
AT 3.15pm exactly 100 years ago this afternoon, two battalions of the Durham Light Infantry rose up out of their trenches to attack enemy lines, led by Lt Col Roland Bradford. They had been engaged in the heaviest fighting on the Somme since September 15, practically...
by Chris Lloyd | In Your Town, Latest, People, Tyne & Wear
THE previously unknown truth behind the tragic and senseless death of a Durham Light Infantry soldier 100 years ago today has finally solved a life-long mystery. For the 102-year-old daughter of Lance Corporal John McDonald has just discovered he was executed for...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Newton Aycliffe
THE Remembrance Sunday special edition of The Northern Echo provided an enormous shock for Arnold Stewart. It contained an article about a collection of postcards that a County Durham miner turned soldier sent from the Western Front back to his new wife in Chilton...
by Chris Lloyd | Barnard Castle, Crook, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
WARTIME graffiti buried deep beneath a French battlefield has been unearthed 100 years after it was written by North-East soldiers. Pen and pencil messages scrawled on tunnel walls by Durham Light Infantry soldiers during the First World War has been discovered by...
by Chris Lloyd | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
ON the east bank of the River Skerne, there used to be a network of tight terraced streets with hundreds of homes that were cleared away in the late 1960s so the inner ring road could bulldoze through. Possibly the only survivor from the days of the terraces is a...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, People, Stanley
WHAT time are you reading this? At 9.10am this very day 100 years ago, hundreds of Durham men slithered up out of their rain-lashed trenches on the Somme and tried to wade through waist-deep sticky mud to attack a heavily fortified mound. “The officers’ whistles...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
ON the day the nation remembers our brave fallen, it has emerged two North-East towns suffered greater losses than most. Almost eight per cent of Durham City’s population was killed fighting abroad in the First World War – the highest figure in the UK,...
by Chris Lloyd | Barnard Castle, Bishop Auckland, Centenary, Chester-le-Street, Darlington, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
MORE than 50 memorials commemorating fallen soldiers across the region have been listed to mark the centenary of the First World War. As the country falls silent today (November 11) to honour Armistice Day and reflect on those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, war...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, Peterlee
Romantic, caring, both brave and afraid… the wartime experiences of a County Durham soldier are revealed through a series of treasured postcards – many sent home from the Somme. Chris Lloyd tells Private Abraham Stewart’s story. UNDER a floorboard in...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
THOUGH the year of Durham Remembers events is coming to an end, the opportunities to discover the story of the Durham Light Infantry and the county’s brave servicemen is far from over. The DLI Collection, with its 15,000 items and artefacts – the majority of which...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
THIS month sees the end of this year’s series of events and activities across the country marking the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. Here in Durham, the county council sought to ensure that the sacrifice of those brave men who fought for our freedom would never...
by Chris Lloyd | 1916 Centenary, Centenary, Harrogate, In Your Town, Latest, Ripon, War Stories, York
THE family of a soldier awarded the Victoria Cross for leading a counter-attack, against greatly superior numbers, during a key part of the Battle of the Somme have spoken of their pride after a memorial to honour him was unveiled in his home town. Numerous members of...
by Chris Lloyd | 1916 Centenary, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Northallerton, Richmond, Thirsk, War Stories
A Lottery-funded project has documented the story of the community hospitals of the First World War. Ashley Barnard reports. THE role of the Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses throughout the First World War was vital, as swathes of injured men came back from the front...
by Chris Lloyd | 1916 Centenary, Centenary, Ferryhill, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
YOUNGSTERS in County Durham are learning how the everyday lives of children their age were affected as the First World War raged in Western Europe a hundred years ago. As the men of the Durham Light Infantry laid down their lives in the fields of France, families on...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Tyne & Wear
A FREE screening of the original documentary of the Battle of the Somme is to be shown on Armistice Day. Around 20 million people, roughly half the population of Britain at the time, watched the original film when it was released in cinemas in 1916. Now, to mark the...
