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
The battalions of the Durham Light Infantry paid heavily for its infamous assault on the Butte de Warlencourt, an ugly mound of land dubbed ‘that miniature Gibraltar’. Chris Lloyd counts the cost. THE tree-lined D929 runs dead straight through the flat fields on the...
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, Latest, War Stories
A Darlington historian has found the stories behind the names on a plaque to fallen First World War soldiers in one of the town’s churches. Chris Webber talked to him. FRANCIS LOVE TELFORD: just one more name on a plaque to the war dead in just another ordinary small...
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 | 1916 Centenary, Centenary, Latest
THEY died in their thousands and if they had failed in their objective millions of British people would have known severe hunger, even starvation; the war would have been lost and the history of the world would have been entirely different. Yet the 250,000 sailors of...
by Chris Lloyd | 1916 Centenary, Centenary, Latest
A GROUP of young people are looking into how life as a child in the First World War compares to living in the 21st Century. Investing in Children secured £9,900 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help with the new project, entitled “What happened to children whose...
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...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Latest
A SOLDIER who died as a result of being gassed during the First World War has been commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for the first time. The name of John Sedman, a Private from North Yorkshire, is one of 77 that have been added to the Commission’s...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
A SOLDIER’S prayer book, which saved his life when he was bayoneted in the chest, has been donated to a North-East military collection. First World War Durham Light Infantryman Tommy Crawford was just a teenager when he charged into a German trench, only to see his...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
In a quiet, shady spot overlooking the gently rolling French countryside, a wrong going back 100 years was finally righted yesterday. A bench commemorating the ultimate sacrifice of hundreds of Durham Pals was unveiled on the Somme, following a fund-raising campaign...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Durham, In Your Town, Latest
EXACTLY 100 years ago today was the Durham Light Infantry’s bloodiest day on the Somme. In one 24 hour period, 405 men were killed. Most of them perished in the Battle of Flers Courcelette, which was the first engagement in which the British deployed their new-fangled...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Stockton
A MAN’s efforts to achieve recognition for a farmer’s son who was killed in the Battle of the Somme during the First World War are to result in a remembrance service on the centenary of his death. Joe Kenny was struck by the fact that Private Henry Johnson was the...
by Chris Lloyd | Barnard Castle, Centenary, In Your Town, Latest
A SOLDIER dubbed the real-life Saving Private Ryan after he was brought home from the First World War when his five brothers were killed will be commemorated during a special service next week. Wilfred Smith, of Barnard Castle, County Durham, was the only surviving...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, In Your Town, Latest, Thirsk, York
A COURAGEOUS earl who died while standing up to rally his troops in the “unadulterated hell” of the Somme battlefield is to be honoured with a commemoration service. The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu will join the Feversham family and parishioners at All Saint’s...
