A memorial has been unveiled at a cemetery in Hartlepool as a tribute to Durham Light Infantry soldiers who failed to return from the battlefields of France.

Karen Westcott reports.

EIGHT soldiers who died during the Second World War have finally come home with the unveiling of a memorial in their honour.

The bodies of the eight members of the Durham Light Infantry all lie in graves in the village of Saint Venant in Northern France, where they died during The Battle of the River Lys.

However, on Tuesday - 68 years to the day that they died - family and friends of the fallen gathered at Stranton Cemetery, in Hartlepool, for a service in their honour, before a headstone was unveiled.

Corporal Henry Hugill and Privates Ronald George Victor John Ablett, Ernest John Fowler, Robert Hogarth, Oswald Legg, David Norman, John Roache, and Thomas Rodgers, died on May 27, 1940. They were all from Hartlepool. Four lie in marked graves, and four in unmarked graves, meaning their families have been unable to pay tribute at their resting places, or lay flowers.

But George Rodgers, the younger brother of Thomas, said he finally felt that he had closure.

For four years, he tried to uncover what had happened to Thomas, and his search finally took him to a patch of farmland in Saint Venant, where his brother had originally been buried in a communal grave by a local farmer.

The 71-year-old, who is the youngest of 21 children, has written a book about his search, but said he also wanted to unveil a memorial locally, where the relatives of the fallen could visit.

He said his efforts were also in tribute to his parents, James Henry and Amelia Jane, who had brought up their large family in Wingate, County Durham.

His mother died of cancer only four months after Thomas was killed, without knowing that her son was dead.

His father died in 1959, frustrated at knowing very little about his death, and unable to travel to France to pay tribute.

"I never knew my brother as I was only three when he died, but my older brother, James, was just two years younger than Thomas and he remembers him very well," said Mr Rodgers, of Hartlepool.

"They both joined the services in 1938, but they never saw each other again as when one was on leave, the other was away.

"James was very, very emotional at the service on Tuesday, as were a lot of relatives.

"There were sons and daughters of the fallen soldiers there, as well as brothers and sisters.

"If our dad had been alive, he would have felt very sad, but also relieved that at last Thomas had been brought home."