Private Edward Hope

EDWARD Hope was the community's only soldier to have won a Distinguished Conduct Medal.

Villagers were so proud of him, they raised £30 in a few days and were planning to present a gold watch, valued at £25, on his return home.

Private Hope, who was a signaller with the 15th Durham Light Infantry, was only 16 when he won the medal for bravery - perhaps the youngest holder of that honour.

The citation said he showed conspicuous gallantry during an intensive and prolonged bombardment of the enemy when he and Private Coats remained in their signal station maintaining communication.

He repaired wires under heavy fire and, when their station was demolished, they took it in turns to carry messages across 150 yards of open ground to the company commander.

Pte Hope's homecoming was delayed by the pending Battle of the Somme and, in letter to his family, he had a foreboding, as he reflected: "A chap has only to die once."

The next day, on July 1, 1916, the first day of the battle, he fell victim to a sniper's bullet, not yet 18.

He has no known grave and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial in France.

Private John Clasper

The Clasper family of Grange Villa suffered a double blow when father and son died within a month of each other.

In a public memoriam, his wife wrote: "In loving memory of my dear husband, Private John Clasper, Medical Unit RND (Royal Naval Division), 15 Pine Street, Grange Villa, who was killed in action on October 26, 1917, also Robert, the dear little son of the above, who died November 28, 1917, aged two years.

"Sadly missed by loving wife and two boys, Jack and Freddie."

Historian Clive Bowery said: "It must have been an awful time for his wife. First to lose her husband and, barely a month later, to lose a son. His brothers could very well still be alive somewhere."

Private JG Middlemas

MANY families held out the hope that their sons would eventually emerge safe after being reported missing in action.

One such family was that of Private John George Middlemas, the son of the clerk to the Pelton parish council.

A notice appealing for information was placed in a newspaper by his distressed parents, in October 1918, noting that he had gone missing within days of arriving at the front, in April 1918.

A further public notice was published in January 1919, after the Armistice, again an appeal for help.

The notice states he was 18 years, eight months when he was last seen by a mate being wounded.

The family ask "will any returned prisoners, or other soldiers who can give any information concerning him, kindly communicate with his anxious parents".

Final acceptance of his fate is found in a Roll of Honour published in July 1919.

It says he is "now presumed to have died".

It adds: "When the roll is called up yonder, and the Saviour counts the brave, his name will be among them for his precious life he gave."