HUNDREDS of residents of a village which suffered high losses during the First World War joined soldiers and veterans at a ceremony to honour its fallen soldiers.

The commemoration event at Helperby and Brafferton War Memorial marked the centenary to the hour of when a group of Green Howards 4th Battalion soldiers became the first men from the village to die in the conflict, after being hit by a German shell at the Second Battle of Ypres.

Nigel Denison, who served in the Green Howards for 22 years and as chief of staff at the Infantry Training Centre, Catterick Garrison, told the service, that was attended by descendants of the fallen soldiers, the incident had a devastating impact on the village.

He said while new recruits to the Western Front were normally sent to a quiet section of the trenches on arrival, the men from Helperby, near Thirsk, had been dispatched to an area of intense fighting almost immediately.

Mr Denison said the men, some of whom had never travelled further than the next village before signing up, had helped stop a German advance and seen an unexploded shell land in their trench.

Privates Thomas Banks, Robert Brabiner, Thomas Morrell and George Render, Maurice Goodwill and Frankland Richardson were forced to soak their clothes in urine during a gas attack, which was among the first of the war, two hours before the bombardment which killed them.

Mr Denison said: "The marksmanship of the men would have been vital in repelling the attack.

"There were no stretcher bearers available, there was much heroism."

After revealing personal details about the 29 men and a female nurse from the village died during the course of the war, Mr Denison added that villagers had rallied around when tragedy struck and had borne the effort of carrying on everyday life without the soldiers.

Highlighting the impact on the village, which had 379 male residents at the time, he said the nearby villages of Cundall and Norton le Clay had escaped the confict without any fatalities.

The service, which saw bugle and drum calls by Yorkshire Regiment soldiers and Green Howards officers lay wreaths at the war memorial, featured pupils from St Peter's Brafferton Primary School reading out the names of the fallen soldiers and laying crosses.

The service also included a reading of the poem In Flanders Fields, which was written by army doctor John McCrae at Ypres, three days before the Helperby men died.

After the service, Virginia Arrowsmith, of the Green Howards' Museum, Richmond, presented information about the soldiers alongside a display of artefacts in the village hall.