COMMUNITIES across Britain made huge sacrifices in the Great War but some bore a much heavier cost than others.

Today’s Armistice Day commemorations mark the signing of the agreement between the Allies and Germany at 11am on November 11, 1918 which brought to an end hostilities which had claimed the lives of almost 10 million military personnel.

Across the UK an estimated 700,000 British soldiers died during the First World War – about 1.7 per cent of the total number of people in the country at the time – but the data shows that towns in the north and Scotland suffered the highest losses.

In today’s Echo we report that two in our region – Durham and Bishop Auckland – were among those that lost the highest percentages of their population in the First World War. In Durham City almost 8 per cent of the population died in the conflict – more than any other place in Britain.

Towns with a high concentration of young, working class men figure high on the list of First World War casualties, in particular those, such as Durham and Bishop, where groups of mates, family members and neighbours joined up to form so-called “Pals Battalions”. No doubt the lure of guaranteed pay, food, an overseas trip – albeit to the battlefields of France, Turkey, Italy and beyond – and the chance to escape jobs in coalmines and factories were also factors that meant men from northern towns were so eager to take the King’s shilling.

This morning’s two-minute silence gives us all the opportunity to remember those killed in the First World War, and this year’s Somme Centenary adds to the poignancy of the occasion.

It is also a chance to honour casualties of the Second World War, the 12,000 British servicemen killed or injured since 1945, and to remember that nowhere in the country has given more to the cause of freedom than the brave men and women of the North-East.