The End of the The Great War

As the centenary of the First World War armistice approaches this weekend we were very grateful to local historian Martin Peagam who delivered a fascinating and moving talk “Light and Shadows: The End of the Great War”. Martin placed the experience of Stockton at war in the global context, highlighting the often contradictory emotions involved in conflict, excitement giving way to grief, jubilation at the ceasing of hostilities to sombre reflection. As part of the talk we selected some stories from our 'Over the Top' publication to give a local viewpoint of the events sweeping across the world between 1914 and 1918. As the centenary period comes to an end all our newsletters are now available to view and download in our World War One Resources section. Also added to that section is a new digital map. Stockton’s Book of Remembrance lists the names of 1245 soldiers who were killed during the First World War. Using census and Commonwealth War Graves data staff and volunteers have researched those 1245 men and added their details to a map of the area. The extent of the loss suffered by the town can be seen as street by street the markers representing each soldier accumulate. View the map below or click here for a larger version.