Thorne author's WWI villagers' stories revealed

Suns of Home, by local historian, David Seymour, is published on Saturday February 17, when the author will be signing copies at Misterton Library from 10am to noon. It is the first of three books about those brave souls from Misterton and West Stockwith, and covers the period leading up to the First World War.

The second and third books If I Should Die and Some Corner of a Foreign Field will be published later this year.

Some 200 men and women from Misterton and West Stockwith, in north Nottinghamshire, enlisted in the ‘war to end all wars’. Fifty of them, including one woman, were killed. Many others returned home with life-changing conditions.

David said: “If I Should Die covers the optimism of the first few months of WW1 reflecting a belief that it would be ‘over by Christmas’, a time which saw the first local casualties in the war, including Nurse Kitty Jollands. Some Corner of a Foreign Field describes local people’s involvement in the big conflicts of the war, including Gallipoli, Ypres, the Somme, and Passchendaele – and village life after the war.”

This book also includes the death of the local doctor from cholera in India, the death of a boy soldier from West Stockwith on the first day of the battle of the Somme and the death of a medic from Misterton on the sister ship of the Titanic. David added: “These three books chronicle those changes using lots of local primary resources, including photographs, newspaper extracts, and oral history records to give a local slant to changes felt across the whole world.” The limited edition, 200-page paperback book is £12. For a copy call David Seymour on 01427 890936.