Son buys watch his war hero dad had to sell 80 years ago
Cancer girl’s dream dance with her Royal Ballet idols
A GOLD pocket watch a war hero miner was forced to sell during the Great Depression has been bought back by his son eight decades later.
Lieutenant Arthur Wardle was presented with the timepiece by the people of the pit village of Castletown in County Durham when he returned from the First World War.
The soldier, sporting a bandage over his face from where he had been shot in the nose, was given a hero’s reception.
During the conflict he had been twice decorated for bravery and promoted from sergeant to officer. First, he captured a German A BUDDING ballerina who survived cancer has achieved her dream of dancing with stars from the Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker.
Charlie Tait, 11, developed kidney cancer as a baby.
She had the organ removed and underwent chemotherapy.
She started ballet aged three to help gain her strength back and is now a junior associate at the Royal Ballet School.
Charlie, of Sevenoaks, Kent, practised with the Prince (Benjamin Ella) and the Sugar Plum Fairy (Yuhui Choe) to mark the launch of the Cancer Research UK Kids & Teens Star Awards which machine gun while under heavy fire. A month later he single-handedly covered the withdrawal of a heavily-outnumbered patrol, inflicting several casualties on the enemy with his Lewis gun.
A miner before the war, he returned to the pits when peace came but later found himself unemployed
Hero Arthur Wardle after being shot celebrate the courage of children with cancer.
Charlie, a past winner, said: “To be in The Nutcracker would be amazing.
“For other kids going through cancer, I just want them to follow their dreams – and when they’re feeling down to hold on to those dreams.”
First soloist Choe said yesterday: “To think what Charlie’s been through already – she has so much potential.”
Her mother, Merran Tait, said: “Charlie was what she called ‘nervous-cited’ but seeing her dancing with the ballerinas was just wonderful.” during the early 1930s. He sold the gold watch, inscribed “for gallantry in France” to help put food on the table.
Now his son Alan Wardle has bought the treasured memento back for £2,000 after learning it was up for sale at C&T Auctions of Ashford, Kent.
Lt Wardle, born in 1893 worked down the pits before answering the call when war broke out in 1914. After training, he was sent to France in May 1915 and served with the 2nd and 6th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry.
He received the Military Cross for showing “conspicuous gallantry, cool judgment and initiative” while seizing the machine gun at Bois Grenier towards the end of the war on October 5, 1918.
Lt Wardle is thought to have also sold his Military Cross and Bar but their whereabouts are unknown. The seller of the American-made watch has not been named.