by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Stanley
THE centenary of the Battle of the Somme is being commemorated at a North-East museum with a weekend of activities. Beamish Museum, near Stanley, County Durham, will remember the soldiers and communities affected by the devastating First World War campaign from...
by Chris Lloyd | Durham, In Your Town, Latest
THE country will fall silent on Friday to honour those who gave their lives in the bloodiest battle in British military history. In cities and villages across the region, the sacrifice of thousands of ordinary soldiers killed or injured during the Battle of the Somme...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
AN old photograph kept in a biscuit tin has reunited a family. Margaret Eason took the old snapshot of her great uncle Arthur Corner to an open day at Durham County Record Office, which was collecting material for its Lottery-funded Durham At War project. All she knew...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Newton Aycliffe
YOUNGSTERS from the region will be among a national schools delegation travelling to France next month to commemorate the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. A special service held on Friday, July 1 will include members of the Royal family, veterans, military and...
by Chris Lloyd | Bishop Auckland, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
THE village of Evenwood was on tenterhooks 100 years ago. The whole country had been waiting for nearly two years for the Royal Navy – the pride of the nation – to join the war, and on May 31, 1916, at last it did. It was the largest naval battle in history: 100,000...
by Chris Lloyd | Durham, In Your Town, Latest
A DURHAM University student has taken the first steps in a poignant 950-mile journey on foot to the battlefields of the Somme. Jordan Blunsom, 22, will walk more than 30 miles a day over 31 days, raising cash for the veterans’ charity Walking with the Wounded. He will...
by Chris Lloyd | In Your Town, Latest, Richmond, War Stories
ONE hundred years ago this weekend, 16 men were secretly spirited out of the dungeons of Richmond castle and sent by train to the killing fields of northern France where their own government hoped they would be shot at dawn by their fellow countrymen pour encourager...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Scarborough
HISTORIANS from Germany and Britain have collaborated on what’s believed to be a unique bilingual book about the German bombardment of the East coast in 1914. Scarborough Bombardment, by Dr Jann M Witt, naval historian at the German Naval Memorial, and retired British...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Richmond
GRAFFITI which reveals an often-forgotten chapter of the First World War is to be saved from crumbling away to dust. Hundreds of pencil drawings, political slogans, portraits, hymns and poetry were scrawled on the walls of the 19th-century cell block at Richmond...
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 | DLI Somme Diary, Latest, War Stories
Tony Kearney tells what the Durham Pals – volunteer soldiers from across the region – were doing 100 years ago this week, in the build up to their date with destiny: July 1, 1916, and the Battle of the Somme. AFTER two months in the Egyptian desert, the...
by Chris Lloyd | In Your Town, Latest, Northallerton
THE fascinating secret stories of the men who appealed against having to serve in the trenches during the First World War are slowly being revealed. Compulsory military service – or conscription – came into effect 100 years ago with the Military Service Act of 1916....
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Crook, In Your Town, Latest
PUPILS at Wolsingham School have begun a project to commemorate soldiers who lost their lives in one of the biggest battles of the First World War. Students from years nine to 13 will be visiting France in July to mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme. The 25...
by Chris Lloyd | Barnard Castle, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
A NEW database containing a generation of men who served in the First World War is now available thanks to a major project. The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle is almost two years into a five-and-a-half year project to record details of every soldier from the Teesdale...
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 | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, People
Sergeant John Teasdale survived the Great War thanks to ‘a series of miracles’. His ‘vivid narrative’ of his experiences still chills to the bone. IN August 1915, the Darlington and Stockton Times published a lengthy account written by Sergeant...
by Chris Lloyd | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, Newton Aycliffe, People
FOR 97 years, Private Edward Henry Pratt lay in an unmarked grave in Darlington’s West Cemetery. But on Wednesday, that wrong will be righted: this soldier of the First World War will be properly recognised when an official headstone is dedicated after brilliant work...
by Chris Lloyd | Barnard Castle, In Your Town, Latest, People
POSTMAN George Thorn was due to be away from home for a fortnight in 1914 when he did his annual stint as a naval reservist. But when war was declared in August he was on board the battleship HMS Caesar – so right away he became a full time gunner in the Royal...
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...
