Les Blackett Database
Research on casualties and men who served from Weardale
We have been very fortunate that Les Blackett has shared his many years worth of work with the Durham at War project. He has amassed an amazing database which includes over 700 names of the men who served during the First World War. This gives a fantastic representation of the contribution made by the men of Weardale during 1914-1918.
Because of the amount of information contained in it, it has been necessary to publish the database to this site so that the writing appears to be rather small when the document is first opened. Please note that it should be possible to zoom in and out for ease of use – the plus and minus buttons should appear in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen to facilitate this (Chrome). It is also possible to do a keyword search within the document by pressing CTRL+F and typing in the word or name that you are looking for.
Les has included a column on the database to record whether a service record exists amongst the “Burnt Documents”. This means that researchers can follow up the men on the database in more detail.
The information is divided here into two spreadsheets; one for those who died (casualties), and another for men who survived the war.
Please note that this is a work in progress and will be updated from time to time.
The National Archives website, page on First World War records, including the “Burnt Documents”:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/service_records/sr_soldiers.htm
Contributed by Les Backett
