Three lost soldiers of WW1 eventually take their rightful place alongside comrades on South Hylton War Memorial

Sunderland Echo

The names of privates Charles Rathbone, Thomas Littlefair Howarth and John Edward Wake have now been added to South Hylton War Memorial 100 years after it was erected to honour the fallen heroes of WWI.

Transcript

00:00Okay then David, how does it feel to be asked to come and do the engravings for these three

00:16people on this memorial here and does it get you thinking about the battle story of these

00:20people?

00:21Yeah, it's really nice.

00:22I gather this is 100 years old today, this memorial, and it's nice to be able to add

00:30new names to it in the same style of lettering, the raised lead letters that were used when

00:37it was first installed.

00:40Do you think about the back story for these people?

00:41I do, I don't know who these guys were, but I know a little bit about the war since both

00:49my grandparents were involved.

00:52My maternal grandfather, he did his training and didn't quite get to the front.

00:59His older brother went to the front and had a pretty grim time of it and remembered going

01:08back with his uniform, absolutely lousy, taking it off, throwing it in the scullery to get

01:17cleaned up, going out in civvies, and he was handed a white feather, it appeared he was

01:24not doing his duty.

01:27My other grandfather fought and lost a leg, sort of fighting around what they called wipers

01:34in those days.

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