A UNIQUE memorial to the fallen of a whole community which became the first online tribute in Britain is being updated and improved to mark the centenary of the First World War.

Steve Metcalfe created the online memorial in 1996, in the early days of the internet, securing a permanent record of the life and death of each of the men whose names are recorded on the war memorials of Northallerton and the villages of Romanby and Brompton.

He was inspired by his grandfather Lance Corporal Sidney Metcalfe who served in the Green Howards during the war.

Mr Metcalfe said: “He was wounded three times but survived to inspire my interest in the war in which like so many others, he fought and suffered.

“When I started collecting the information I did think they were becoming more and more nameless names and if something wasn’t done it would be too late.”

He managed to gather large amounts of information on many of the men, finding poignant letters and information from devastated families, stitching together the tragic stories of the young men whose lives were lost.

One particularly harrowing story was about 2nd Lt John Brown from Northallerton who served with the Yorkshire Regiment.

“In August 1917 John's parents received a telegram informing them that their son had been killed in action on 1st August,” said Mr Metcalfe.

“Imagine their joy when they received a postcard from their son, dated August 4, informing them that he was 'still in the pink' and that he had moved 'a little nearer the line'. It was another 2nd Lt John William Brown, who had been killed.

“Tragically, their joy was to be short-lived. John was killed on September 16, 1917, aged 24, while he was searching for wounded men during the Battle of Passchendaele. His body must have been lost in the morass of the battlefield as he has no known grave.

“There were in fact three 2nd Lt John William Browns who lost their lives serving with the Yorkshire Regiment, it is stories like these that really must not be lost,” he added.

His aim is now to update his on-line memorial but there are still details he does not have and he is keen to hear from anyone who can help.

“It was such a national trauma, there are so few people even now whose family wasn’t affected at the time,” he added.

The Northallerton Memorials War Project can be viewed at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/scmetcalfe/ .