A VILLAGE headmaster who became the historian of the Durham Light Infantry has died only a month after his wife of 66 years passed away.

Harry Moses was headmaster at Aycliffe Village School for 23 years until his retirement in 1993, and his funeral cortege will pass the schoolgates so that people can pay their respects.

Harry was also the official historian of the DLI, recording veterans’ stories for the Imperial War Museum, writing several books, organising battlefield tours and giving talks.

“He was everything to the DLI,” said Major Chris Lawton, chairman of the DLI Association. “I don’t know how we are going to spread our word without him. He was a mega-part of the regiment.”

Harry was born in Tow Law in 1930. “I think it was coming from a pit village and being a young teenager during the Second World War which gave him such an association with the working men who went off to war,” said his son, Michael.

After Harry’s own national service, he married Audrey, who also came from Tow Law, and trained as a teacher at Bede College in Durham. He discovered that during the First World War, the college had had its own company in the 8th Battalion of the DLI which suffered terribly at Ypres – 102 men, all young County Durham schoolteachers, like, Harry, were waved off to the front on April 15, 1915, but six days later just 21 remained at post, the rest all dead or injured.

“That gave the connection with the DLI and it became his passion,” said Michael.

Harry’s first teaching post was in the history department at Egglescliffe secondary school, before he became headmaster at Aycliffe in 1970.

“He was a lovely person to work for, and he really cared about the school and its children,” said deputy head Anne Brown. “He never lost his links with the school, even after he retired, becoming a governor. There are now lots of parents of children who remember him as headmaster and one of our teachers, Joanne Vest, was a pupil of his and has fond memories of him reading stories in assembly.”

Harry became involved with the Imperial War Museum project to record veterans’ stories, which led to him meeting Major Ian English of 8DLI who had escaped from a PoW camp in Italy, walked the length of the country to freedom and led the DLI into Normandy on D-Day. This led him to co-write a book, Assisted Passage, with Maj English, and another one recording the experiences of other Durhams in captivity.

He wrote histories of the sixth and ninth battalions, and also told the story of the Fighting Bradfords, the only brothers in the First World War to win the Victoria Cross, who came from Witton Park, and his book inspired a play that was performed at the Gala Theatre in Durham.

“We wandered around the Somme on many occasions looking at all the places where the Bradford brothers had been,” said Michael.

Harry was involved in veterans’ organisations, and arranged battlefield tours for the DLI Association. He was a founder of Aycliffe Village Local History Society and was chairman until his death.

“He will be sorely missed by all our members and the village community where he was held in high regard,” said the society’s David Lewis.

Harry was also passionate about his family. He had two children, Margaret and Michael, three grandchildren, Leanne, Steven and Emma, and two great-grandchildren, Henry and Edith.

After 66 years of marriage, Audrey died on December 17 and Harry died six weeks later on Saturday. He hadn’t quite completed his latest book, on the 68th Regiment of Foot, which became the 1st Battalion of the DLI, but it is hoped that the manuscript can be finished for him.

His funeral on February 17 will be private due to the current restrictions, but the cortege will leave his home in Millfields in Aycliffe Village at just after midday and will go past the school.