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Addison War Memorial « Back
Addison War Memorial

On a Saturday afternoon in March 1920, Lieutenant Colonel F. R. Simpson, of Hedgefield House, unveiled the Addison War Memorial Tablet. The memorial took the form of a bronze tablet framed in hand carved oak, the work of Mr. Lynn Miller, a handicraft teacher at the nearby Crookhill School. The finished work hung in the Addison Miners Welfare Institute ( the Jubilee Institute).

The idea for the memorial was discussed at the miners half yearly meeting where it was agreed that something tangible ought to be done to commemorate the lives of their colleagues. Mr. Robert Moody, chairman, and Mr. Thomas Jude, secretary, headed the committee who approached their employer, Colonel Simpson, and he agreed to donate £25 from the Stella Coal Company, he also handed over £5 as a personal donation. A balance of £10 was credited to the Addison Welcome Home Committee and this sum was also handed over to the memorial committee. The Miners Institute donated funds to make up the full cost of the memorial at £100.

During the unveiling and dedication ceremony prayers and speeches were delivered by Father Wilkinson, of Stella, Rev. T. W. Hanson, Vicar of Hedgefield, and Rev. J. G. Soulsby, of Blaydon.

Over four hundred men from Addison Colliery had joined the colours during the 1914-18 war, and fifty nine of those men who failed to return were commemorated on the memorial.

Further tragedy was to hit the mining community of Addison when the Miners Institute was destroyed by a fire on 18th May 1930.  The building of corrugated iron and wood on a brick foundation was completely destroyed.  Sadly the war memorial perished along with the contents of the institute.

Following the end of the 1939-45 conflict the names of those men from Addison Colliery who lost their lives  were added to the Ryton War Memorial Cross of Sacrifice and the Stargate War Memorial.

SOURCES USED:

Blaydon Courier, 30th October 1920.

William ARMSTRONG.
T. BARTON.
C. BEAUMONT.
J. BIRKETT.
D. BLACKBURN.
William BREWIS.
J.S. BUGLASS.
J. CAIRNS.
C. CROMPTON.
C. DAVIDSON.
A. DOWSON.
T. DOUGLASS.
G. FLETCHER.
A. FORBES.
J. GRAY.
H.M. GREGORY.
C. HARBOTTLE.
Wm. HEWITT.
J.B. HOARE.
J. HOLMES.
J. HOPPER.
J. IRVING.
Wm. JACKSON.
T. JOHNSON.
A. LAYBOURN.
J. LEE.
Wm. LIDDLE.
J.J. LIDDLE.
Wm. T. LIDDLE.
F. MACKAY.
A. MAGIN.
D. MARRS.
J. MARRS.
J.B. MAUDE.
J. MAUGHAN.
F. MOODY.
W. MURRAY.
J.J. NELSON.
J.J. NEWTON.
J. NOBLE.
T. ORMSTON.
Arthur PURVIS.
J. PURVIS.
Albert PURVIS.
J. PHILLIPSON.
J.W. REAY.
C. ROCHESTER.
C.F.B. SIMPSON.
H. SPENCE.
R. SPOORS.
M. STEWART.
R. STOREY.
J. TILLEY.
J. TOOTHILL.
J. TUNSTALL.
M. TWIZELL.
F. WAUGH.
C. WOOD.
A. WHITE.
 
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