Plaque containing names of east Darlington fallen safeguarded after rededication service

As thousands of people across the region gathered at events marking the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, the place in history of 15 young men killed in action during the conflict were safeguarded during a poignant rededication service. Vicki Henderson reports.

Bishop of Jarrow, Rt Revd Mark Bryant re-dedicates the plaque.  Alongside him is server Peter Hakin.  Picture: CHRIS BOOTH

Bishop of Jarrow, Rt Revd Mark Bryant re-dedicates the plaque. Alongside him is server Peter Hakin. Picture: CHRIS BOOTH

THE lives of 15 young men and boys killed in action during the First World War have been honoured as part of a community effort to save a plaque bearing their names from being consigned to a dusty archive.

When the doors of Eastbourne Methodist Church, in Darlington, closed for the final time last year, it was feared that the memorial plaque to the 15 soldiers who had lived and worked in the east end of Darlington could be lost.

ETCHED IN HISTORY: The names of 15 men from east Darlington who died in the First World War

ETCHED IN HISTORY: The names of 15 men from east Darlington who died in the First World War

Thanks to the efforts of volunteers and an offer of help from the nearby St Herbert’s Church, in Yarm Road, the plaque will remain a part of the community.

Ron Fairhurst of the British Legion addresses the congregation with standard bearer Andrew Flynn.  Picture: CHRIS BOOTH

Ron Fairhurst of the British Legion addresses the congregation with standard bearer Andrew Flynn. Picture: CHRIS BOOTH

At a rededication ceremony and memorial service at St Herbert’s, the congregation were silent as some of the details behind the 15 names on the memorial plaque were read out.

The youngest of those killed – Thomas Edwin Davey, a member of the Royal Army Medical Corp – was just 16 when he died in Belgium.

The deaths of the other young men – the oldest man was 35-year-old William Thomas, of the Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment – show the global nature of the conflict, with some killed in Iran, Palestine and Turkey, as well as in the trenches of France and Belgium.

A group of volunteers worked together to research the stories behind the 15 names, including Anthony Magrys, who spoke of its importance to local people.

“We thought it needed to be kept as part of the local community,” he said. “The congregation has been very certain about that.”

The brass memorial plaque was officially rededicated in St Herbert’s by the Bishop of Jarrow, the Right Reverend Mark Bryant, who spoke of the difficulty in finding something to say in the face of the overwhelming scale of the war and its futility.

“What on earth can be said that makes any sense of anything?” he asked. “We’ve heard some extremely poignant stories this afternoon. Those stories go on and on and on.

“One hundred years on, from all that we now know that that was not the war to end all wars. We know that remembering those who died year after year has not stopped people going to war again.”