SOMBRE bells tolled out across Darlington in honour of a soldier from the town killed during the bombardment of Hartlepool.

The Durham and Newcastle Diocesan Association (D&NDA) of Church Bell Ringers rang out the bells at St Cuthbert’s Church in memory of Lance Corporal Alix Liddle .

L-Cpl Liddle was a 25-year-old accountancy clerk who used to ring the St Cuthbert’s bells in his spare time.

He joined the 18th Battalion of Durham Light Infantry and was killed by the first shell fired during the German bombardment of Hartlepool on December 16, 1914.

On the anniversary of the bombardment, the D&NDA rang the bells in L-Cpl Liddle’s honour as part of their campaign to commemorate the region’s 41 known bell ringers who lost their lives in the Great War.

A piece of leather was tied to the bells’ clappers to give their tone a more mournful sound as they rang out across the town for more than half an hour.

The association will continue their campaign over the next four years, visiting churches across the region to ring out the bells in memory of each area’s fallen bell-ringers-turned-soldiers.