TWO men from the region who fought in the First World War will have their stories told on home soil as part of a nation-wide commemoration for fallen soldiers.

Sand portraits of Second Lieutenant Hugh Carr and Private Theophilus Jones will be drawn on two North-East beaches as part of Danny Boyle’s ‘Pages of the Sea’ Armistice commission.

The film director has been asking the public to gather at one of 32 beaches, across the UK and Republic of Ireland, on Sunday November 11 as part of “an informal, nationwide gesture of remembrance for the men and women who left their home shores during the First World War.”

Each beach will feature a soldier's portrait, drawn into the sand by artists Sand In Your Eye, and the public can join in by drawing silhouettes of people in the sand to remember those affected by the War.

Mr Boyle said as a “small nation, surrounded by beaches,” the locations for the tributes were a “great stage”.

Darlington-born Private Theophilus Jones will be remembered at Redcar beach as one of the first soldiers of the War to be killed on English soil.

Born on September 14 1885 to Lettie Jones, Pte Jones moved to Leicestershire in 1913 where he was appointed headmaster of Thringstone Village School.

A year later, after war was declared in August 1914, Pte Jones returned to the North-East and volunteered for service as a private soldier with the 18th Durham Light Infantry (DLI).

Before he left Thringstone, his pupils presented him with a prayer book, and he kept in touch by sending cheerful letters to the village vicar.

Pte Jones had been gone for two months when a telegram arrived at Thringstone Vicarage announcing he had been killed on December 16 1914 while guarding the Heugh Gun Battery in Hartlepool.

German warships bombarded the town targeting an iron works and shipyards and it was hit by 1150 shells, killing 117 people.

In the breast pocket of his tunic, Pte Jones was found to have been carrying the prayer book given to him by his former pupils.

Second Lieutenant Hugh Carr, from Houghton-le-Spring, will be remembered at Roker beach in Sunderland.

He was born on July 13, 1891, to parents Thomas Carr and Mary Ann Carr (nee Davidson), and was apprenticed as a mining engineer to Lambton & Hetton Collieries Ltd for seven years, starting in 1905.

After the outbreak of war, 2nd Lt Carr enlisted in York and joined the C Squadron of the Household Calvary 1st Life Guards as a Trooper (number 3244).

While based in Ypres Salient in Belgium, 2nd Lt Carr was seriously wounded when a German shell exploded in a trench positioned in the small French village of St Eloi, 5km south of Ypres, on January 21 1916.

He was transferred by train to a field hospital in Remy Siding, Poperinge, with leg, head and arm injuries.

He died of his wounds two days later, aged 25, and was buried in a cemetery next to the hospital - his parents were informed by telegram.

At high tide on November 11, the portraits and silhouettes will be washed away in tribute to the millions of lives lost in the conflict.

A full list of the participating beaches and history of the soldiers can be found at pagesofthesea.org.uk