A war memorial in search of new home

A mystery war memorial which turned up in a council depot has been identified by a local man and is set to be put back into the community once a new home has been found for it.

After Gateshead Council workers found the First World War memorial in a store, other staff at the depot remembered it having moved around over the years, but none of them knew when it appeared. Even the North East War Memorials Project and local studies librarians were unable to help, but after seeing it in the local media, there were dozens of calls from local residents eager to help.

Retired headmaster Peter Yorke from Dunston recognised the memorial as one that he had seen during his childhood. His great-uncle, John Marshall, is one of twenty-seven First World War names on the plaque and he has pictures of it in the Park Terrace Presbyterian Church at Windmill Hills, which was demolished in the 1960s.

Peter York said ‘As soon as I saw the memorial I recognised it. My great uncle John Marshall is on there and my mother knew Jackie Wilson, the only Second World War name on the plaque. Lots of people locally contributed money for the plaque. I have a church booklet that records the donations from congregation members, so it would be lovely
to see it returned to the same area’.

The site of the church is now part of a new housing estate called Village Heights. Gateshead Council is searching for a suitable alternative location for the plaque — and when the plaque goes back, RAF Boulmer has offered to send a chaplain to give an official blessing at the dedication ceremony. RAF Sergeant Flight Engineer Wilson, who was shot down over Munich and is buried in Berlin, is the only Second World War name on the memorial. Known as Jackie to his friends, many people who called up to identify the plaque also said that they had known or heard of Jackie.

Gateshead Council’s ‘Historic Environment Champion’, Councillor Linda Green, says ‘The council is committed to the preservation of local history and war memorials are an important record of the sacrifices made by local people. It has survived in a council yard since the 1960s and has been carefully looked after, so we are looking for an appropriate place for it to go, where local people will be able to see it.