by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
AT 7.30am on July 1, 1916, the guns stopped, the mines exploded, the whistles blew and the British soldiers climbed up out of their trenches and walked into no man’s land towards the German lines. After seven days of non-stop bombardment by heavy guns, they hoped the...
by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
NINETY-EIGHT years ago this week, Gunner George James was in the trenches near Albert, in northern France, writing his diary. We’ve been following it since the start of the year, but now as July 1, 1916, approaches – the first day of the Battle of the Somme on which...
by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
IN Memories 175, we left Gunner George James enduring heavy shellfire in the trenches near Ypres, in 1916. George, a miner from Littletown, near Durham City, was 21, and serving in the Royal Field Artillery. We’ve been following his fortunes all year, seeing how...
by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
GUNNER George James spent Easter 1916 in the trenches near Ypres, but his mind was on the traditional ceremonies that he knew would be unfolding in the Methodist chapel in his home village of Littletown, in County Durham. Easter would have been very important to...
by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
NINETY-EIGHT years ago, our diarist, Gunner George James, was in the midst of one of the muddiest encounters of the First World War. At 4.15am, on March 27, 1916, at St Eloi, about ten miles south of Ypres, the British detonated six large mines which they had...
by Chris Lloyd | Centenary, Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
THIS is the latest excerpt of Gunner George James’ Diary, written exactly 98 years ago on the Western Front, by a Durham miner. George had grown up in the small pit village of Littletown, a couple of miles east of Durham City. He left school at 13, and after six years...
by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
Since Christmas, Memories has been serialising the First World War diary of Gunner George James, a miner from the Durham pit village of Littletown. We are following his war on the Western Front as it unfolded exactly 98 years ago. IN our excerpts so far, we’ve told...
by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
IN the faintest pencil amid the mud of the trenches around Ypres, Gunner George James writes his latest observations and experiences into his war diary. FEBRUARY 5, 1916 We have moved our positions owing to the Germans discovering our whereabouts. We have built and...
by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
IN the faintest pencil amid the mud of the trenches around Ypres, Gunner George James wrote a diary which is now in the loving hands of his niece, Isabel Field. Memories began serialising his remarkable diary at the start of the year so that we are now in step with...
by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
IN the second installment in Gunner George James’ diary, written 98 years ago, he has been withdrawn about 20 miles from the frontline at Ypres. Gunner James, aged about 20, was a miner from Littletown, a pit village to the east of Durham City. His diary is extremely...
by Chris Lloyd | Diary of Gunner George James, Durham, In Your Town, Latest, People, War Stories
Over six months, The Northern Echo serialised a First World War diary which was kindly lent to us by John Tyson, of Eaglescliffe. The diary was written by Gunner George James, who hailed from Littletown, a mining village a few miles to the east of Durham City, near...
