TINY Poppy Dominick took her first steps to the cenotaph with big brother Tommy to honour their great, great grandfather’s five brothers who were killed in First World War.

The story of the sixth brother, their great-great grandfather Wilfred Smith, who survived, has echoes of the film Saving Private Ryan, after a vicar’s wife wrote to Queen Mary pleading for Margaret Smith’s youngest son to be returned from the Western Front.

The Northern Echo:

Poppy was born on September 19, coincidentally the day her great, great grandfather’s brother Robert, aged 19, became the first of the five brothers to die – in the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

The youngsters’ mum Ruth, 30, from Spennymoor, said: “Poppy being born on the anniversary of the death of the first of the Smith brothers was a strange coincidence.

“We always remember them as a family and Poppy’s name is actually in honour of my own grandmother, who was known as Nana Poppy, because she loved her poppies.”

The Northern Echo:

All six Smith brothers signed up in 1916 when Wilfred was just 17. Five were dead within two years and, back home, their father John died leaving wife Margaret with just one surviving son.

Vicar’s wife Mrs Bircham wrote to Queen Mary, the wife of King George V, begging for the last son to be spared to save his mother further heartache.

A Royal reply weeks later revealed he would be pulled off the frontline and as a result Wilfred survived, married Hannah, had four children.

Now, four generations later and 102 years on, at least 37 people owe their lives to Mrs Bircham’s letter – including 14-month-old Poppy and Tommy, aged four, who laid a wreath at the war memorial in Barnard Castle.

The Northern Echo:

Wilfred’s granddaughter Amanda Harrison, 54, of Barnard Castle, whose mother Dianne Nelson, 76, was the youngest of the couple’s four children, said: “Without that letter written to Queen Mary by the vicar’s wife none of us might have ever been born.

“It’s important for the family to have Poppy and Tommy following in the family tradition and laying wreaths at the memorial with the five brothers’ names on, so that future generations will always remember the sacrifice made on their behalf.

“It’s different this year with lockdown, but we made the wreaths and a posy for Poppy so they could visit the memorial.

“When Wilfred got home he had suffered in a mustard gas attack, but was able to marry Hannah and they had four children, their children had ten children – including me – and our generation had another 15 children and now there is another generation of eight great, great grandchildren.

“It is remarkable to think of the sacrifice of my great grandmother Margaret, who lost all the men in her life in the space of two years, but then she got Wilfred back and the family has lived on.

“It may be 102 years on now, but we will always remember them. We know Margaret was heartbroken waving all her sons off to war and was heard saying on the platform: ‘You should never have boys as they only become cannonfodder’.”

Inside months of leaving home in 1916 Wilfred’s elder brother Robert, 19, was killed on September 19 at the Battle of the Somme – which is incredibly the date of Poppy’s birth. Two months later on November 5th another brother George, 26, also died at the Somme.

It was July, 31 1917 when third brother Frederick was killed at Ypres and in autumn that year the eldest son Sgt John, 37, also died in Flanders on October 9.

About nine months later Wilfred’s fifth brother Alfred, 30, died on July 22, 1918 in France at what the family understand was the Battle of the Marne. It was after this tragedy and the death of his father John that Vicar’s wife Mrs Bircham wrote to the Queen imploring Wilfred be saved.

The Northern Echo:

The family at the time lived in Poor House Yard,Barnard Castle, and the vicar’s wife knew Margaret having helped her through the difficult days after the loss of her sons. To this day the town’s war memorial is inscribed with the names of the Smiths who died in the Great War.

Amanda added: “I’ve watched Saving Private Ryan and it is heartbreaking, but Saving Private Smith could be a movie with even more heartache in it as Margaret lost five sons and her husband.

“When Armistice Day comes around every year you think about your own kids and what a remarkable sacrifice those young men made so we can live the way we do today.

“If they hadn’t made the sacrifices in World War One and World War Two – we would very probably be living in a very different world today.

“It was only when we were at school that Wilfred’s wife Hannah my grandmother told us some of the stories, we pass them down in the family, so fresh generations like Tommy and Poppy will always be aware of the sacrifices of their forefathers. My son Craig and daughter Charlene, who has given birth to baby Reuben just seven months ago, know the family history.

“It’s our duty to always remember them and without that letter to the Queen we all know that we may never have been born.”