Of sacrifice

pany. He was fatally wounded in the Ypres Salient, Belgium, in January 1916 when a German shell landed near his trench.

Pte Jonas was born in Blyth and was a professional footballer for Clapton (later Leyton) Orient in the years before the war.

When the professional game was suspended, he joined the 17th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, known as the Football Battalion. He died in July 1916 during the Battle of the Somme.

Pte Jones of Darlington was the first British soldier to lose his life on English soil in the First World War. He was killed on December 16, 1914, while guarding the Heugh Gun Battery in Hartlepool, when German warships bombarded the town, targeting an iron works and shipyards.

The three were chosen by Mr Boyle to represent a range of interesting stories covering a range of ranks and regiments, from doctors to munition workers, privates to lieutenants and majors.

He said: “For MARK PINDER many of them it was their last sight of home.”

The poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, was invited by Mr Boyle to write a new poem for the event.

Her work The Wound in Time was read out by individuals, families and communities as they gathered on beaches

Keith Merrin, chief executive of Sunderland Culture, who was responsible for producing the Pages of the Sea event in Roker and Redcar, said: “We were surprised how many people were at the beach for 11am, but the twominute silence was perfectly observed.

“The tone was perfect throughout the whole event, informal but respectful.”

As well as the main image of 2nd Lt Carr on Roker beach, dozens of smaller images were created by members of the public.

A Pages of the Sea choir, led by Cathy Stephens of the group the Cornshed Sisters, performed a specially-written song, while Easington Colliery Brass Band performed throughout the afternoon, as did a Northumbrian piper.

Members of the public were also handed headphones through which they could listen to Carol Ann Duffy’s poem which had been recorded by local people, including Second World War Prisoner of War Len Ginson, 97.

Elaine Murray, who attended Pages of the Sea with her family from Durham, said: “I was really quite moved by the whole event.

“We were there for the two-minute silence at 11am, which was beautifully and reverentially observed.”