Corners of Sedgefield and Darlington that are forever Belgium

The vivid colours, on an enamel plate, proclaim that this is the last resting place of a Belgian soldier who was driven out of his country by the German invasion at the start of the First World War.

And although this is a story that’s more than 100 years old, someone still cares: in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday, a wooden cross has been placed at the foot of the headstone and on top of it, two polished pebbles with poppies painted on them have been lain. On the back of the pebbles are the initials NB and the black, yellow and red of the Belgian flag.

The pebbles on top of Pieter Vermote's headstone in SedgefieldThe old Sedgefield cemetery was, from 1858, attached to Winterton hospital which stood on the other side of the road. Winterton was “the County Lunatic Asylum”, which gives a clue that this story has a sad twist at its end: the soldier was driven mad by his illness.

Pieter vermote's headstone in the old Winterton cemetery that is now largely left to natureThe headstone is dedicated to Private Pieter Louis Vermote, who, it says, was born in 1884 in Lo, a small town to the north of Ypres, where he was a baker’s boy.

Pieter VermoteHe joined the Belgian infantry in 1904 and in August 1914 found himself amid the “schrecklichkeit” – “the horror” – as the Germans invaded. While hundreds of thousands of civilians immediately fled, Pieter held out, fighting against the invaders until November 3, 1914, when he was wounded at Lombardsijde, near the coastal town of Nieuwpoort.

He was transferred to Calais, evacuated to England and awoke on November 6 to find himself in Netley Victoria Hospital, near Portsmouth. He was taken into the care of the Salvation Army and, on January 1, 1915, was transferred to Sedgefield County Lunatic Asylum.

It could have been because Pieter was suffering a shellshock reaction to the horrors he had been through; it could have been because that there were no other beds in the country available; or it could have been because of something else…

According to his file in the Royal Museum, in Brussels, after a few months he recovered enough to be considered “reformed” – not fit enough for frontline soldiering but strong enough to work in the shell factory at Birtley, near Chester-le-Street, which had been established so that refugees could contribute to the war effort that was defending their homeland.

READ MORE: UNVEILING OF THE RESTORED HEADSTONE TO THE PRIEST WHO BROUGHT HUNDREDS OF BELGIAN REFUGEES TO SOUTH DURHAM

AND: THE STORY OF THE BELGIAN REFUGEE BURIED IN DARLINGTON

As recent Memories have told, in late 1914, hundreds of Belgians were taken in by the people of south Durham, with rooms being found for them from Redcar through Stockton and Darlington to Cotherstone and Arkengarthdale. The former ironworking village of Witton Park, near Bishop Auckland, took in the most, with about 200 being placed in the unoccupied terraces.

Many male refugees began moving to the Birtley factory as 1915 wore on, and in 1916, they were joined by their families as a town, Elisabethville, was built for several thousand of them.

Pieter must have divided his time between Birtley and London where, in late 1915, he married Marie C Vitse. In 1916, they had a daughter, Marcella, born in Marylebone, followed by, in late 1917, a second daughter, Neve, who was born in Lambeth.

But she died within weeks.

Winterton hospital in 1962. It closed in 1996 and was demolished. Its cemetery on the opposite side of the Fishburn road had a little chapel at its entrance but this was demolished 10 years ago as the cemetery was left largely to natureThis cannot have helped Pieter’s mental condition and he was soon back in the Sedgefield County Lunatic Asylum, where, on January 19, 1918, he died of “General Paralysis of the insane”. Because he had suffered from this condition for nine months or more, a postmortem examination was not required. He was 34 and was buried over the road.

However, “General Paralysis of the insane” means syphilis which, untreated as it was in those pre-antibiotic days, in its latter stages, attacks the nervous system. At the time of the First World War, it was surprisingly common: 10 per cent of the population carried the syphilis bacteria, and it was the second biggest killer of British soldiers in the trenches after the Germans.

It could be passed from father to daughter, which might explain why Neve only lived for two weeks.

Poor Pieter fought against his infection – and his war wound – in his battle to save his country, and someone still remembers him for it.

Pieter Vermote's headstone this week, with its cross and painted pebbles

• If you can tell us more about Pieter, please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk

The headstone in Darlington's West CemeteryTHERE is an identical headstone to Pieter Vermote’s in Darlington’s West Cemetery.

In Memories 701, we told how Jules Libert, a marine mechanic in the Belgian navy, had died in Darlington in 1918. Jules, his wife and daughter had been offered refuge by the Cherrington family who crammed them into their terraced home in Shildon Street where Jules, aged 36, passed away.

Near his headstone among the trees of West Cemetery is another with the black, yellow and red enamel flag of Belgium standing out on its top.

It is dedicated to training soldier Albrecht Wolters – full name Albertus Augustus Maria Wolters – who, according to the stone, “stierf von Belgie” (died for Belgium) on March 31, 1916. As he was born in Herentals, near Antwerp, in 1891, he was 24 years old. We think he died in Duke Street.

Can anyone tell us the story of how he came to be in Darlington?

Elsewhere in West Cemetery, we believe there is another Belgian headstone which is dedicated to “Soldat V Detry” who died, aged 32, on March 12, 1918 – just three weeks before Albrecht. His headstone doesn’t have the black, yellow and red flag on it. Instead, it is guarded by a stone Belgian lion.

What is his story?

READ NEXT: THE SELF-SACRIFICING BRAVERY OF THE NAMES CARVED ON A VILLAGE'S WAR MEMORIAL