by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
AT the end of March, the Durham Pals received the order to move up into the frontline trenches. Having volunteered in the heady days of late summer 1914 to do their duty, they now finally had the chance to face the enemy. On March 25, 18th Battalion of the Durham...
by Chris Lloyd | DLI Somme Diary, Durham, In Your Town, War Stories
AFTER a 50-hour train journey across the length of France, the Durham Pals arrived at Pont Remy in northern France, in the early hours of March 14. It was bitterly cold, but the men of the 18th Battalion Durham Light Infantry were simply glad to be off the train in...
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 | 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, 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 | 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 | Harrogate, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
This is the little known story of Prince Charles’s great-aunt, who cared for injured troops in Harrogate during the war. Ruth Campbell talks to the man who uncovered the tale of the caring Russian aristocrat. SHE may have been the daughter of the King of Greece, the...
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 | Hartlepool, In Your Town, Latest, Stockton, Thirsk, War Stories
THIRLBY is a little village to the east of Thirsk, which sits in the shadow of the Cleveland Hills as they rise up to the North York Moors. It has an old Scandinavian place name, like so many villages scattered across North Yorkshire and Cleveland. These names follow...
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 | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
IN Memories 173, (published in The Northern Echo every Saturday) we told of the VAD – Voluntary Aid Detachment – nurses who ran convalescent hospitals for injured soldiers. Brenda Wright, of Darlington, has discovered this magnificent picture of all the town’s...
by Chris Lloyd | Hartlepool, In Your Town, Latest, Stockton, War Stories
THIS splendid picture of a First World War steamer is one of the many curiosities that will be for sale at Darlington Book Fair next weekend. It shows SS Maltby, and it was painted by an unknown crew member – his squiggly signature is illegible in the bottom left hand...
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 | Darlington, In Your Town, Latest, War Stories
THIS is a story of some nurses and a spoon. The nurses were undoubtedly heroic, but the spoon is truly splendid. More than a teaspoon, it is a proper tablespoon, made of the finest Sheffield steel. Stamped on its handle, is its owner’s number – SG 16170 – and, just...
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 | In Your Town, Latest, Stockton, War Stories
ON the cover of Memories 168, there was a postcard showing First World War soldiers who had had bits of their bodies blown away. They, though, were surprisingly happy, raising their crutches and walking sticks for the camera, and saluting with their false limbs....
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...
