A PERMANENT reminder of a community's wartime hero was unveiled in a short ceremony yesterday.

Durham Light Infantry (DLI) stretcher-bearer Thomas Young was awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) for his bravery in rescuing nine comrades during trench warfare in no-man's land in the Somme, northern France, in the last year of the First World War, in March 1918.

Private Young, a miner in peace-time, survived the war and was given a hero's reception on his return to his home village of High Spen, near Gateshead.

Unlike many of the DLI's VC winners, whose medals were awarded posthumously, Pte Young saw service in both world wars, surviving the Second World War with the Volunteer Regiment.

He died in 1966, but it is only in recent times that lasting tributes have been made to record his bravery, including a dedication set in stone at the DLI regimental museum, in Durham.

Former soldiers in South Tyneside set about creating a memorial to him in Boldon Colliery, where he was born in 1895.

A fundraising drive to raise more than £3,000 by the South Tyneside Ex-Service Veterans resulted in the commissioning of a stained glass window, produced by Consett glass artist Maralyn O'Keefe.

It was unveiled and dedicated at Gibson Court Medical Centre, Boldon Colliery, yesterday after veterans marched there from the Colliery Tavern, near Young's birthplace.

The medical centre was considered an appropriate location because of Pte Young's role as a life-saver as a stretcher-bearer.

Jarrow MP Stephen Hepburn unveiled the window, featuring Pte Young's portrait, before it was blessed by the Venerable Stuart Baine, Archdeacon of Sunderland.

Among those who attended yesterday's event was Captain Richard Annand, one of only a handful of surviving VC holders in the world. He was accompanied by his wife.

Capt Annand, of the DLI, was awarded his VC for outstanding gallantry in the face of the enemy during the retreat to Dunkirk in the Second World War.

Following yesterday's service the ex-servicemen paraded back to the Boldon Royal British Legion club for a reception.