by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Chester-le-Street, In Your Town, Latest
CHESTER-LE-STREET’S Remembrance service will be more poignant than usual. For years there have rumblings of discontent about the small obelisk opposite the town’s parish church that has been its memorial for more than 20 years. Now the first service will be held...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
“DON’T put the men’s ranks on the memorial because they’re all my lads,” were the words of a headteacher in 1923. Mr J Broughton, the head at St John’s School, in Darlington, was speaking before the unveiling of a memorial plaque and roll of honour dedicated to former...
by Chris Lloyd | Catterick, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
AN injured Armed Forces veteran has risen to a challenge set by The Northern Echo to produce a work of art for today’s Remembrance Sunday special edition. Malcolm Macdonald, who suffers from an extreme form of post-traumatic stress disorder, attends art classes as...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
A POEM written in tribute to war horses by a First World War soldier has been passed down through generations of a North-East family. An Appeal for the Horses was penned by Lance Corporal Francis Hedley, of the 7th Yorkshire Regiment, while stationed in France during...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Shildon
DOZENS of people turned out for Shildon’s Remembrance service yesterday. Parade marshall Kevin Stevens led the annual parade from the Dabble Duck Industrial Estate to the Redworth Road War Memorial at about 10.45am, where a service was held by Reverends Graham and...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, Middlesbrough, Redcar, Stockton
IT was a chance to get away from home at the height of summer, but for the 27 cadets who took part, it was anything but a holiday. TWENTY-SEVEN teenagers from 405 (Darlington), 1869 (Middlesbrough) and 2394 (East Cleveland) squadrons could have had little idea what...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Redcar
A CHURCH council has led the way in bringing the stories of WWI to life for the next generation and encouraging the whole community to get involved. Guisborough Parochial Church Council received £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a project based in St Nicholas...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Darlington, In Your Town, Latest
SCHOOL pupils paid tribute to those lost at war by launching an exhibition in their honour. Students from across Darlington commemorated the First World War by collaborating to create the exhibition, which opened at the Crown Street Library this evening (Thursday,...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Stockton
A DAY of remembrance has given students on Teesside a glimpse of life during the first world war. Pupils at St Michael’s Academy, Billingham, took part in a host of events exploring the outbreak of the First World War, its impacts on the country and the significance...
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, In Your Town, Latest, Newcastle, Tyne & Wear
PENNED in miniscule handwriting in small leatherbound notebook the text is so tiny it is hard to read without leaning up close. But what it lacked in size was more than made up in the enormity of the impact of its message. Siegfried Sassoon’s declaration against war...
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 | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
AN historian has written a new book about the search for his uncle’s grave after he was killed in the Second World War. Lance Corporal John Thomas Saunders, of Bishop Auckland, died at a German prisoner of war camp at Lamsdorf, which is now in Poland. His nephew,...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Middlesbrough
WORLD-FAMOUS artist Mackenzie Thorpe told today of his thrill at being asked to produce a commemorative First World War centenary front cover for The Northern Echo. The Middlesbrough-born artist told radio presenter Bob Fischer on BBC Tees it was “music to his...
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, In Your Town, Latest, Sedgefield
A FAMILY history society has commemorated the centenary of the First World War by honouring the fallen in fabric and thread. Sedgefield Family History Group in County Durham is taking part in a national project to create a series of patchwork quilts paying tribute to...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, People, Tyne & Wear
ONE hundred years after his death, a First World War soldier has finally been given a burial befitting a hero after his remains were found by French construction workers. On October 18, 1914, soldiers from 2nd Battalion, the York and Lancaster Regiment advanced on the...
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...
