DURHAM CITY IN THE GREAT WAR

The day after war broke out in 1914 a battalion of the Durham Light Infantry set up camp in the city centre, accompanied by the Royal Field Artillery trundling their heavy weaponry. A recruiting drive had begun which was ultimately to see 360 of Durham's young people killed in warfare. When Corporal Bellaby was wounded at Mons in October it made the local news, but by the end of 1914 tens of thousands of soldiers had lost their lives, including members of Durham's mining community. 1914 had been a great year for England's rugby team, and local hero Arthur Dingle, who graduated from Oxford and then returned to teach at his old school in Durham, was a rugby international player. By the end of the war, 11 of the 30 members of the pre-war team had been killed, including Dingle who died at Gallipoli. 1915 saw the death of colourful Durham coal-owner Charles Stewart Vane Tempest Stewart, the 6th Marquess of Londonderry, who had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and a Conservative politician. The Durham Light Infantry managed to raise a total of 43 battalions during the whole war, including a "bantam" battalion where the height requirement was reduced to five feet. In 1916 the Mayor of Durham took delivery of a captured German field gun, and although the purpose of the acquisition was unclear, the Dean of Durham Cathedral made a rousing speech. Many aspects of life went on as normal, and in 1917 two men were up before the magistrates charged with spitting on the floor of a train. Women were active in the town's two Voluntary Aid Detachment hospitals during the war, mainly in nursing and catering. 144pp, paperback, photos.