“MAJOR Robb was shot down when we made the bayonet charge and he was lying 40 yards in front of the Germans, who were waiting for anyone who attempted to rescue him,” wrote Pte John Warwick in a letter back to his wife, Ada, in Darlington, in the earliest days of the First World War. “I do not know what made me do it but I went out to bring him back.

“I got him on his feet and started to run with him.

“A poor young chap belonging to Bishop Auckland called Nevison rushed to help me. We got within 50 yards of our trenches, when all were shot down. Nevison was shot through the brain, so they told me, and I also believe our major died shortly afterwards.”

Escomb War Memorial. Picture: Mary CookThe body of Pte John Nevison, 20, was never recovered but his name was inscribed on the war memorial in his home village of Escomb, in St John’s churchyard. When he knew it, St John’s was a Victorian church built to accommodate the growing population of coalminers and ironworkers in south Durham, but the church was pulled down 50 years ago when the churchyard was abandoned to nature.

Howard Chadwick with the stones he has cleared in Escomb churchyardThe memorial was never allowed to be overtaken by overgrowth, as the rest of the headstones in the cemetery were, but a group of volunteers led by Howard Chadwick has been clearing the headstones and they have ensured that the memorial looks its proudest for this year’s remembrance season – the area has been smothered in red poppies knitted by Mary Cook.

READ MORE: THE RESTORATION OF THE HEADSTONE OF FR KRAJICEK WHO BROUGHT 200 REFUGEES TO WITTON PARK IN WW1

Escomb's new church, which was demolished in 1971 leaving the graveyard with flattened headstones to natureIt was unveiled on October 2, 1921, by Lord Gainford, who “congratulated the village on the fact that out of a population of 700 no fewer than 88 joined the forces and served in the war”.

Of those 88, the memorial records the names of 17 villagers who didn’t come back – they were joined after the Second World War by a further 16 names – and the first to make the ultimate sacrifice was Pte Nevison.

He was one of five children born to Sarah Ann Nevison between 1880 and 1901. All five were born in Bishop Auckland; all five took their mother’s surname and none of the five had a father’s name registered.

By 1911, Sarah was living in New Row, Escomb, and John was working as a grocer with Mr Gallons.

Durham Light InfantryHe joined the Durham Light Infantry in 1912, and his papers show he was 5ft 6½ inches tall, weighed 121lbs (that’s 8st 6lbs), was of good physical development, had a fair complexion, grey eyes and light brown hair. He was, therefore, perfect material for the British Army.

On September 8, 1914, he was part of the DLI’s 2nd Battalion which landed at St Nazaire in France to back up the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). It was a month since the Germans had invaded Belgium, sparking the war, and everyone back home expected the BEF to put them in their place by Christmas.

John was among the first to show how impossible that was.

For 10 days, the DLI marched 435 miles east to the frontline in the valley of the River Aisne, landing in the trenches at Troyon on September 19.

And by the end of Sunday, September 20, John was dead.

At 6pm that Sunday, Major Alexander Kirkland Robb – known as “Tubby” to his friends – ordered the 2DLI to leave their trenches and attack the enemy. He, of course, led the way. He was that sort of officer: born in India to a military family, trained at Sandhurst where he excelled at rugger, joined the DLI in 1893 and served with great bravery in India and Burma, and was lecturing in military matters at Durham University when war broke out and, aged 42, he rejoined his regiment.

And he was gunned down leading that first action of the DLI’s first day at the front.

So were many of his men.

This was a bloody operation for 2DLI. Between September 19 and 25 in those trenches, the battalion lost five officers and 57 other ranks, most of them falling, like the major and the private, on the first two days.

World Cup winner Pte John Warwick tried to rescue those who fell. He’d been born in Barnard Castle in 1885. He worked as a flax dresser and lived on The Bank with his wife Ada until early 1914 when they moved to Grasmere Road in Darlington and he worked as a labourer at Cleveland Bridge.

West Auckland World Cup winning team of 1911. Pte John Warwick was the goalkeeper, so he must be the one in the black jersey immediately to the right of the trophyPlus he played football, most notably as a goalkeeper for West Auckland. He was one of the stars in Turin in 1911 when West – who had won the first ever World Cup in 1909 – retained the trophy.

First, with Pte J Howson, of Darlington, he went out into no man’s land and brought back the wounded Lt Twist. Then the two rescuers went back out and retrieved Pte Maughan. Both Twist and Maughan survived.

Finally, Pte Warwick discovered that Maj Robb – an officer who obviously stirred devotion among his men – was missing.

In a letter to the Teesdale Mercury, Pte Warwick told how he “crawled on my stomach, taking cover behind the dead, until I found him, shot through the chest.

“I waited until our artillery started up and with the help of a comrade called Nevison, half-carried and half-dragged the Major through a rain of bullets to within 15 yards of our own trench”.

Warwick was then shot in the back, and wrote his descriptive letters home from a hospital in Manchester.

His commanding officer recommended that he should be awarded the Victoria Cross – the first such recommendation of the First World War – and he was given the Distinguished Conduct Medal because, according to his citation, “he voluntarily assisted in the rescue of a wounded officer under heavy fire”.

He recovered from his injuries, returned to the front, and in peacetime, played football for South Shields and worked at Glaxo in Barney.

The major, though, died later that evening of his wounds, and his body lies in the British cemetery at Vendresse.

And Pte Nevison received a bullet to the head. His body was never recovered, and his name is among the 3,740 of the missing from the BEF on the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial.

Pte Nevison's name is on the La Ferte-sous-Jouarre Memorial to the Missing in FranceHis name is also on the north side of the memorial in his home village of Escomb, where, 25 years later, it was joined on the south side by the name of his brother: William Nevison.

William was two years the junior. He joined the 6th Durham Light Infantry, and, just as John was an early victim of the First World War, so William was an early victim of the second, dying in northern France on May 22, 1940. He was 43 years old, and was buried in Boulogne.

Two brothers, two wars, their names on two sides of the memorial, but they shared the same fate in giving their lives for their country.

The newly cleared Escomb churchyard dressed up for Remembrance Sunday

  • Information from many sources, but especial thanks to Kevin Richardson