Shocking: WW1 casualties from Tynemouth and North Shields, North East England.

[big ned]

I just came across this webpage and video on the net, and found it extremely moving and horrific at the same time. It shows every casualty of the Great War house by house, street by street and family by family. Some lost 3 members. It's absolutely shocking how the borough was devastated by the losses in that conflict, it's hard to get your head around what it must have been like then in this mostly working class North Eastern part of England.

The population of the area was 58,000. There were 1700 casualties (latest research suggest another 300 should be added) from Tynemouth and the North Shields area, that's 3% of the total population, and all men and boys, 78 of them on the first day of the Somme. It seems entire streets lost someone from every house, I suppose a lot of this was due to 'Pals Battalions' like the 4 that were part of the Tyneside Scottish Brigade, but some were Royal Navy and RFC/RAF.

It's amazing how something as devastating as this never seems to linger in common memory to this day, it must have been an awful time during and after the war. How we would cope with such a situation if it were to occur again today, has left me with much food for thought, but it can never happen again....We must hope.



It maybe necessary to go to this link to see the video full screen. All the details are also there:

Tynemouth World War One Commemoration Project

Regards, Ned.

[Stinkpotpete]

I think it was a podcast from the BBC History Magazine had an article about this for the centenary. This sounds familiar, but it was a while ago when I listened to it. I'll have to try and find it again, but they were doing something about putting memorials up around the town to let people know about this now.

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Many northern communities suffered heavily because of the system of recruitment, and formation of the 'Pals' back in 1914. Their first true test was on the killing fields of the Somme. I would argue that these devastating losses DO still linger in common memory. When I was invited up to Accrington after the publication of my book, I met with several relatives of men who lost their lives on the slopes in front of Serre on 1st July 1916. Everywhere you go in the town there seems to be a reminder of the 'Accrington Pals.' The same can be said for many northern towns - where the descendants of these brave men still live. They still take great pride in honouring their sacrifice every year.