We are once more reaching the time of the year when we especially remember and honour, the men who laid down their lives for us during two world wars.

On Remembrance Sunday along with other groups at St Cuthberts (Hillside) Church at Marley Hill, the Society Vice Chairman will be laying a wreath on behalf of the Sunniside Local History Society, dedicated to those servicemen from our villages who gave their lives.

We are most grateful to Church Warden Martin Garfoot and his wife Janice for supplying the photographs.

Memorial plaques dedicated to the Marley Hill Colliery Miners who left the colliery to fight in WW1 and the villagers who gave their lives during WW2.

Memorial plaque dedicated to the Marley Hill Colliery Miners who left the colliery to fight in WW1

My great uncle James Shearlaw was the young brother of my grandmother Margaret Shorten (nee Shearlaw). Their family moved to the Sunniside area c1860’s from East Lothian Edinburgh, possibly to seek work. My grandmother became a Maid at Streetgate Farm and her brother James a coal miner at Marley Hill Colliery. He joined the Cameron Highlanders during WW1 and never returned home, his remains were never found. Details of the death of James were never given, I wrote to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and received the above letter stating that he was killed on the 18th October 1916, his name is added to the Thiepval War Memorial in France on Pier 15 face B. James Shearlaw’s name also appears at the head of the centre column on the memorial in Marley Hill Church (pictured above) dedicated to the Marley Hill coal miners who died serving in WW1.

F G Newman

Thiepval War Memorial in France with a photograph of James Shearlaw's name. The family are most grateful to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for their help.