'Rare' WW1 ledger found miles away returns home

A rare WW1 ledger has been returned to its home region after it was discovered in a car boot sale hundreds of miles away.

The century-old register lists about 900 volunteers from north-east England who signed up to serve in the war over just four days in December 1915.

Most were workers from Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company in Jarrow, South Tyneside, which had recently been devastated by a German Zeppelin raid, killing 17 workers and injuring 72.

The Durham Light Infantry (DLI) Friends bought the ledger in an auction and it can now be seen in The Story in Durham, which holds the DLI Collection and Archive.

The document went under the hammer near Derby in February.

It had been found by a builders' merchant from Maldon in Essex, who did not wish to be named.

Hansons Auctioneers' militaria expert Matt Crowson said books like these were "extremely rare", because records were supposed to have been destroyed after the war.

"How it came to light hundreds of miles away we may never know, but I am very glad it did," Crowson said.

"There's no doubt the raid would have brought home the seriousness of the war to the brave Jarrow workers many of whom would have wanted retribution."

The volunteers named within the ledger signed up under the Derby Scheme, the final national recruitment campaign before conscription was introduced in 1916.

Their names, ages, heights, chest measurements and distinguishing marks are written across 23 double pages.

DLI Friends trustee Sid Patterson grew up in the Salt Meadows estate in Gateshead, where many of the men were from.

He said some even lived on his street.

"It was a very close-knit community when I lived there, and the fact so many men enlisted following the attack on Palmers – despite shipyard workers being a reserved occupation - shows it was then too," Patterson said.

"Reading their names and knowing so many didn't make it home is very moving."

The ledger can be seen in The Story's collection room by appointment.

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