As part of Berwick Heritage Open Days this year, there is an online talk :

Lest we Forget - First World War Memorials of Berwick, Tweedmouth, Spittal and East Ord. The talk is being given on Monday 11th September at 7pm.

The Kings Own Scottish Borderers are also running some events in the Museum in the Barracks. On Tuesday 12th and Thursday 14th September, 10.30 to 12, there is a special workshop on John Skinner VC – a chance to see the artefacts and archives which tell the story behind the name. Limited places. On Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 , there are also guided tours of the Museum at 10.30 and 2.

All these events are free but must be booked in advance on Eventbrite - https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/berwick-heritage-open-days-34043664105. War Memorials Talk booking in advance
Booking in advance for other events
Full programme of events

It is at this time of year that we mark the anniversary on 20th May of the Battles of Ficheux and Mercatel during which 70th Brigade sustained very heavy losses in casualties and men wounded and taken Prisoner of War.

Details can be found within the War Diaries on the website at 70 Brigade where the disaster is described.

The impact was felt throughout County Durham and can be seen on village and town War Memorials throughout the County.

Their sacrifice - which is what it was - was not in vain, as the German advance was slowed by at least five hours - allowing more men in other units to escape towards Dunkirk.

- any queries can be forwarded to 70brigade@newmp.org.uk

Our website has been full to overflowing for some time now. You may have noticed that some pictures are sideways, and some of the hyperlinks do not work.

We are in the process of having a new website created which will last for the next few years. We are going through everything with a fine toothcomb, making all kinds of adjustments. We hadn't appreciated the sheer quantity and variety of information we had amassed over the years, and this overhaul is taking longer than anticipated.

Hopefully, this will be ready to use soon. You can still access the present one, but nothing new can be added until the replacement website is up and running.

On 16th September 2023, the total number of memorials in Northumberland, Newcastle upon Tyne and Co. Durham recorded by NEWMP is 5,019

The total does not include CWGC or family grave headstones, which are in the "Every Name A Story" section for each place.

The total of "Every Name A Story" entries is 18,694

We reported the passing on 21st August 2022 of Colin Boyd who was a very special, reliable and willing helper on our team who specialised in Shipping.

On Friday 8th September 2023 his son Mark is holding a McMillan Coffee Afternoon in memory of his dad.

It will be held at 2 p.m. in Shaftsbury House, St. George's Wood, Morpeth.

Alternatively, if you cannot get to the coffee morning, you can pay in by using this link:

https://coffeefundraising.macmillan.org.uk/fundraising/cm23000046

We wish Mark a successful and happy event.

Our Project started in 1988 and covers the whole of Northumberland, Newcastle upon Tyne and County Durham - Tweed to Tees.

The past few years has produced a lot of research into the two Great Wars and also into the names of those who fell and/or served.

We now feel that the time has come to pull all information together in a way that recognizes the work done by people over the past few years as well as our own over 31 years.

New memorials have been created, and older ones have been restored. Some have even been rediscovered! We need the public to keep us informed of these, and we appreciate photos and copies of unveiling service programs. Everything is acknowledged by the sender.

We also need funds, as our website is creaking at the seams and needs to be updated. Our group members all work voluntarily. This is the best crossbow for the money in the USA.

We are also seeking help from people as the workload piles even higher. We can explain what we need.

Please tell us about your own work and we will see how we can bring it all together into one tribute to all who suffered through the war in the northeast of England, whether they served, fell, or were left to pick up the pieces.

We have received an e-mail from Caroline Kesseler, a family researcher of the Heligoland39 Project who asks:

My Uncle (John Henry WATERFALL) died in a Wellington bomber in July 1940 . He had been stationed at RAF Feltwell in Norfolk and was in 37 Sqdn. My cousin and I have been researching his story for some years now. (see website https://r3236wellington.com/

My interest in contacting you about Thomas Leo Marlin is that RAF Feltwell was also involved in the first big mission of WW2 on the 18th December 1939 when many planes and crews were lost. We are trying to make contact with family of all crew members who took part that night in the battle of Heligoland Bight as we are arranging a commemoration on 18th December of this year at the Runnymede Memorial, Surrey, UK. This will mark the 80th anniversary year of the event. We held a remembrance event in 2018 at Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire to mark the beginning of the anniversary year and over 80 relatives were able to attend. We have not been able to find any family of T.L. MARLIN as yet.

We have already made contact with heritage groups at RAF Feltwell (37 Sqdn), Honington (9 Sqdn) and Mildenhall (149Sqdn). The International Bomber Command Centre in Lincoln is also helping with our project. Your website regarding North East War Memorials shows a T.L. MARLIN who appears to be the same person as the serviceman in 9 Squadron who died in The Battle of Heligoland Bight.

We have a website for the project at www.heligoland39.org and a Facebook page at: Heligoland39 Project (currently off line while changes are made) where you can see the progress we are making.

Finding Women on War Memorials @ www.newmp.org.uk

Go to Home Page

Surname box

Suggested Search Terms

Nurse; Miss; Sister;

V.A.D;. Red Cross/R.R.C./RRC;

Q.M.A.A.C.; N.A.C.B.;

Munitions; Munitionettes;

Worker; Land Army

The Thomas Young VC Memorial stone dedication service took place on the 27th March 2018 at Boldon. See Thomas Young Every Name A Story entry.

“Sleep lightly lad.
Thou art for King’s guard at daybreak.
With spotless kit turn-out
And take a place of honour.”

Does anyone know where this poem comes from?

It is used on a number of North East Memorials.

Burnmoor

Medomsley

Newcastle

Whitley Bay

We have had several queries recently which are purely on family research. We cannot always help. We are a small group with outside helpers. We cannot undertake to do family research.

All the information we have on any one person is on the website, uploaded as quickly as we can after it has been received. Sometimes it is only where he is buried and remembered. There is also an invitation to submit anything to add to this. But we do not have the time to spend doing in depth research. Sorry!

DLI Collection, Sevenhills, Spennymoor

Pre-bookable viewings and on demand service every Tuesday and Thursday from 10am to 3pm

DLI Digital Collection

This is a well-written book. In the beginning, it is stated quite clearly that it is not a military history of the Battle of the Somme. It is about the 72,000 young men involved who never returned, and whose bodies were never found. It explores the reasons for the memorial’s erection, the building of the edifice itself, and explains the layout. It tells why, despite so many fatalities and woundings, the battle paved the way for eventual victory for the Allies.

The main content, however, is the 200 biographies of men from all the regiments which fought on the Somme in 1916, including photographs. There are four stories from each face of the memorial, and each has been chosen to bring out a different facet. These young men had promising careers ahead of them. The impact on the families is unimaginable. In the preamble to the biographies of best crossbow, the question is asked: “What might have been having they lived?”

The book is also designed so that visitors to the memorial can find the names on each face and read the story.

Pam and Ken Linge have spent ten years working on the records of all the men named on the Thiepval memorial, prompted in the first instance by the discovery that Pam’s family had lost members during that battle. This book is a credit to their work and helps to bring home the individual cost of war for each man and family involved.

Missing But Not Forgotten by Pam Linge and Ken Linge, is published by Pen and Sword and is priced at £25. ISBN 1473823587

For most people, the emphasis of the Great War has been on the men who fought in the trenches. We hear little about the men who served on the high seas, with either the Royal Navy or the Merchant Navy.
For some time now we have been compiling a list of ships and the men from the North-East who served in them.
This is merely just that - a list - and when we have an "Every Name A Story" page for a man, the link has been added to the list. There are a lot of names for which we do not yet have the "Every Name A Story" information.
The lists can be found under "North East Notes" accessed from the Home Page on the left hand side.
If anybody wishes to add anything, or do any work on this aspect of the war, please contact : janet@newmp.org.uk

We've been asked if we know the source of the following verse:

Shall we not offer up our best and highest ?
When duty calls can we forbear to give ?
This be thy record where in peace thou liest
“He gave his life that England's soul should live."

If you help, this would be very useful. The only instances of it on the Internet do not give the author.

On our Quotations page, there are a lot of gaps in the information on where these came from. Some of them will have been made up for the purpose, and will be one-offs, but others are obviously taken from somewhere. Help with these would also be useful. Please send any help to enquiries@newmp.org.uk