FROM the seeds planted in memory of North-East men who gave their lives in the First World War, historic connections continue to blossom.

To recap, 1,245 soldiers from Stockton-on-Tees died in the Great War and 1,245 sunflowers are being grown in their memory. I am proud to be one of those growing a sunflower and my bloom is in memory of Private John Thomas Matthews, of the 5th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry.

The sunflower project has been organised by Stockton Borough Council with the help of local musician and teacher Mike McGrother, of The Wildcats of Kilkenny.

Mike was recently some letters from 1915 which had been sent home by Private John Leslie Dunmore Lewis, an Army bugler. The letters detailed some of the experiences he had faced while serving in France and his mother had sent them to be published in the local paper.

Knowing of his interest in music and the 1245 Sunflowers Project, the history team thought Mike would be interested in the Bugle Player of Stockton.

It was several weeks later that the library contacted Mike again to point out a far bigger coincidence than his connection to music and the Great War. What had escaped Mike's notice was that the address at the top of letters matched the house where he now lives – in Grange Avenue, Stockton.

"Everything seemed chillingly more real," wrote Mike in an email to me. "John would have sat and eaten in the same kitchen; relaxed and laughed with family and friends in the same garden where sunflowers for his fallen comrades now grow, and kissed his mum on the doorstep for the last time as he signed up to fight for his country."

Mike was inspired to find out more about John, who seemed to be better known by his middle name, Leslie. He discovered that, like my soldier, Private Lewis was in the 5th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry. As a bugler, he was the musical messenger who relayed audible orders and manouvres between the officers and the front line. He was killed in action, aged just 19, in March 1916 and is buried in Belgium.

Mike pressed on with his research and found that a man in Surrey had purchased a framed photograph of Private Lewis in a local antique shop. Further details have since been unravelled. Before the war, Leslie Lewis was an office boy in Appleton's in Stockton, practically adjacent to the war memorial which now stands in the town to remember the sacrifice he and the hundreds of fallen Stockton soldiers made in both world wars.

Mike has chosen to remember Private Lewis in a way he hopes the young soldier's family would have found appropriate. In the garden in Grange Avenue, Stockton, there is a lovely tree under which Mike's own children sit in the shade or play on sunny days. When they look up, the youngsters will now see a shiny military bugle glinting from the branches.

"They – and I – will never forget John Leslie Dunmore Lewis," wrote Mike.

HAVING been presented with a giant custard cream by the pupils of New Marske Primary School recently, I am now compelled to thank Charlie the shih tzu.

Charlie, who lives in Teesville, Middlesbrough, featured in the paper at the start of the World Cup, having had his hair dyed in support of England.

He was so pleased with his 15 minutes of fame that he sent the staff a thank you card and a box of luxury continental biscuits.

Cheers Charlie.