by Chris Lloyd | Victoria Cross
Private William Short, of Eston, near Middlesbrough, was 31 when he died. The Green Howard was still priming guns and encouraging comrades while dying of terrible wounds. Pte Short was fighting at Munster Alley, a key area in the Battle of the Somme, for the Green...
by Chris Lloyd | Victoria Cross
THE story of Stockton’s only Victoria Cross winner who inadvertently sparked the protest against the “damnable banquet” is worth re-telling. Edward Cooper was born in Portrack in 1896, left school at 14 and worked as a fruit cart salesman for the...
by Chris Lloyd | Victoria Cross
“I must confess that it was the biggest fluke alive and I did nothing, ” Second Lieutenant Donald Bell of the Green Howards wrote home on July 7, 1916. “I only chucked one bomb, but it did the trick. The C.C. says I saved the situation for this gun...
by Chris Lloyd | Victoria Cross
A MILLION or more men were pitched into a battle which precipitated the end of the First World War a fortnight later. Of those million or more fighting to the north of Venice, one stood out: a pitman from Murton on the east Durham coast. He was Sgt William McNally...
by Chris Lloyd | Victoria Cross
JOHN Scott Youll, known as Jack, was born in Thornley on June 6 1897 and from the age of 15 worked as an electrician until he joined the army. He worked his way up the ranks to become a temporary second lieutenant for the Northumberland Fusiliers. While commanding a...
by Chris Lloyd | Victoria Cross
GEORGE McKEAN was the dashing captain. With intense machine gunfire raining down on his men in a trench, he realised that the only way their operation could succeed was by someone physically taking out the enemy stronghold. So – exactly 100 years ago today – he dashed...
by Chris Lloyd | Victoria Cross
Chris Lloyd tells of a George who was born on St George’s Day and who fell on that day, giving his life for his country. EARLY in 1918, the Royal Navy requested volunteers from within its ranks for an extremely dangerous mission. Singlemen were preferred...
by Chris Lloyd | People, Victoria Cross
AT 3.15pm 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 without a break, and many had paid the...
by Chris Lloyd | Victoria Cross
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, In Your Town, People
A FIRST World War hero who was awarded the highest military medal for bravery 100 years ago was honoured in his home village today. A memorial paving stone commemorating Victoria Cross holder, Second Lieutenant John Scott Youll, was unveiled during a moving ceremony...
by Chris Lloyd | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, People
ON January 12, 1918, two British warships were wrecked in a blizzard on rocks off the Orkneys. Of the 189 men on board, only one survived. Indeed, as the ships were smashed up by the seas, only 55 bodies could be recovered for burial. Following the report of the...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Crook, In Your Town, Latest, People
THERE is a mountain named after him in Canada and a market square in France – but until recently little was known of First World War hero George Burdon McKean VC in his birth town of Willington. Nine years ago, Allan Newman, of Darlington, helped change this by...
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 | 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 | 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, 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 | In Your Town, Latest, People, Stockton
THE family of a village’s only soldier killed in action during the First World War have come forward with the last letter he sent home before his death. Relatives of Private Henry Johnson attended a centenary remembrance service and parade for him in the village of...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Middlesbrough, People, York
EXACTLY 100 years ago this weekend, two brave local soldiers – one a VC, the other a MC – were killed in the same trench on the Somme. The first to die was Lt George Butterworth of the 8th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, who was the most promising composer of...
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...
