Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette - Monday 18 August 1924 (page 4) reported:
WAR MEMORIAL, UNVEILING CEREMONY AT SOUTH HYLTON. GIFT OF A SITE. The unveiling of the War Memorial at South Hylton on Saturday afternoon was an historic event in the village, and it was unfortunate that rain fell rather heavily during the latter part of the proceedings, which had to be shortened on this account. There was a large and representative attendance, and the ceremony was impressively carried though. The memorial, a granite stone 14ft. high, has been erected on a site (given by Mr John William, senr.) at the east side of High Street, not fat from the railway crossing. It contains the following names of men who served in the forces, and lost their lives in the War: J. J. Allison, M. H. Anderson, G. Barker, W Barker, W. Barwick, W. W. Bell, J. B. Bentley, G. Browell, H. Burge, C. Burge, J. Carter, A. Charlton, T. W. Clarke, G. Cunningham, S. D. Davey, J. Dinsdale, W. Dinsdale, T. Donaldson, C. English, J. Ferguson, J. R. Gibbon, J. W. Gibbon, E. W. Griffin, T. Hall, M. C. Henderson, G. Irwin, J. Liddell. J. McLean, T. W. Morrison, J. T. Naisbitt, J. Railton, E. F. Renwick, W. Rundle, W. Rathbone, J. C. Scrowther, A. H. Stothard, J. Stothard, J. Stothard (Navy), A. Thompson, T. W. Wheatley, and T. W. Wild. Underneath the names are the words: "ln Abiding Remembrance.” Before the unveiling ceremony a procession marched through the main streets of the village. It was headed by the band of the 7th Battalion Durham Light. Infantry, troops of the Durham Light Infantry, under Captain and Adjutant Thomas, ex-Servicemen, clergy, relatives of the fallen, members of the Rural District Council and Parish Council, members of the Memorial Committee, members of the Oddfellows' Friendly Society, and of trade unions, and members of the general public. Recompense in Reformation. Mr G. Lawson. Chairman of the War Memorial Committee, presided over the ceremony, and among present were...'
'...Major Wigham then uncovered the Jack from the memorial stone, and the bugles of the D.L.I. sounded the "Last Post.'’ He said he felt he was acting in dual capacity. He was representing his father, who was asked to perform the ceremony, but could not see his way to do so. and he felt he was representing those men of the village who served in the War. Many of the men whose names were on the roll of honour were associated with him in earlier and happier days, both the Church Lads’ Brigade and the Scout movement. The memorial served two purposes; first was that of ever keeping fresh in their memories the names of those men who made the supreme sacrifice, secondly was to remind them that there were times when all personal considerations had to take a back place for their country’s good. It had been said they were late in erecting the memorial, but it came at a time perhaps when their memories needed refreshing. The memorial would ever keep in memory the names of the fallen and would remind those who saw it that they owed a debt to the memory of these men and to their dependents. The Rural Dean then dedicated the memorial "In the faith of Jesus Christ, and in abiding memory of the men of this Parish who laid down their lives for in the Great War. whether land the sea in the. air."
The Chairman spoke of the difficult of the Committee in securing site the memorial, and acknowledged Mr Wigham’s generosity in providing them with that site. He mentioned that 396 men from the village served in the forces during the War.
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