A SPECIAL ceremony has marked the completion of a project that commemorates victims of both world wars in Hartlepool.

Saturday's Service of Dedication at North Cemetery remembered the heroic efforts of the town's 81 victims of the First and Second World Wars are either buried or remembered.

For a gallery of pictures from the ceremony, click here

During the 1970s the cemetery fell into decline and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), which is responsible for maintaining the graves of 1.7 million Commonwealth servicemen and women who died during both wars, decided instead to commemorate the war dead with a memorial at the town’s Stranton Cemetery.

However, the CWGC – working in partnership with Hartlepool Borough Council, the Friends of North Cemetery Group and Hartlepool MP Iain Wright - has now been able to reverse that decision.

Work to reinstate war graves in North Cemetery and to commemorate those whose individual graves could not be identified or marked began last year and has been carried out in two phases.

Phase one was completed last year and involved the construction of a new memorial to commemorate 40 war casualties while phase two saw the erection of new headstones on 41 graves.

Councillor Christopher Akers-Belcher, the Leader of Hartlepool Borough Council, said: “I am delighted that all parties have been able to come together to guarantee the success of this project and I would like to thank everyone involved for their hard work and dedication.

“The new memorial and headstones in North Cemetery are a fitting tribute to the victims of war, and I hope people will come along to Saturday’s Service of Dedication and share in what is sure to be an emotional occasion.”

Jane Shaw, the chairwoman of the Friends of North Cemetery, added: “The group has a long-standing commitment to protect and develop the historic North Cemetery. We want to raise awareness of the presence of war graves and to ensure that the victims of war buried there are never forgotten, so we are delighted that work on the new memorial and headstones is now complete."

While the town's MP Iain Wright said: “It’s an honour to play a role in the dedication of the new North Cemetery war memorial. Eighty-one people, many of them not just from Hartlepool but also the streets around the cemetery, died as a result of war and it is fitting that they are remembered at the specific location where they now rest in peace.

The service included an introduction by the Lord Lieutenant of County Durham Sue Snowdon and Mr Wright carried out a “Reading of the Names”.