THERE were, said JW Raine as he stood before the new war memorial in Middleton-in-Teesdale 100 years ago this very afternoon, the names of 32 local men inscribed on the grey Dalbeattie granite obelisk, “some of whom were buried in foreign lands, others who have found unknown graves and some who have been returned to us broken to find a resting place in the churchyard”.

“But,” he said, “their sacrifice has not been in vain - our fighting heroes have secured this land for us in blood and tears.”

The Northern Echo: Middleton-in-Teesdale war memorial. Picture: Gillian Hunt

The people of Middleton-in-Teesdale have returned on several occasions over the last century to add more names to the memorial. In 1929, they found room for three more men who had died as a result of their war service, and then in 1947, they added another 10 who had given the ultimate sacrifice in the Second World War.

Now, in the centenary year, there are moves to add the name of an RAF wireless operator who was shot down over Germany.

Each name, of course, represents a life cut short and a family plunged into mourning.

Among the 32 from the First World War are three sets of brothers: Robert and Charles Bainbridge, Adam and John Brunskill, and Maurice and Geoffrey Nelligan, the only sons of the village doctor, Dr James Neligan. Geoffrey, a lieutenant in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, died just three days before the armistice of November 11, 1918.

When the 10 names from the Second World War were added, it meant the memorial had an unusual father and son combination on it: George Morton, who was killed in 1917, and his son, John, who was killed in a car crash when on leave in 1945.

A consultation process is currently under way concerning the name of Sgt Arthur McBay, whose mother, Sarah, was the daughter of the Middleton miller. She’d married William, from Sunderland, in a big wedding in the village at the start of the war, and Arthur was born there in 1916.

However, after the First World War, the McBays emigrated to Argentina as William worked on the railways. When the second war began, Arthur voluntarily returned to the UK and joined the RAF, only to die aged 26 on February 26, 1943, when his parachute failed to open.

The Northern Echo: Welcome to Middleton-in-Teesdale

One hundred years ago today, when Mr Raine had made his opening remarks, he handed over to Lord Barnard, who had himself served and been wounded during the war, and who had only inherited his title because his elder brother had been killed in northern France in 1917.

Lord Barnard unveiled the monument and asked that in the future, all who looked on it “would think proudly of the men who had made the great sacrifice”.

Then they sang Abide With Me before a firing party from the Durham Light Infantry fired three volleys – at a cost of 16 shillings – and the buglers sounded The Last Post.

Relatives of the 32 First World War fallen completed the ceremony by laying about 50 floral wreaths on the monument that symbolised their loss.

L With thanks to Gillian Hunt