In the years immediately after the 1914-1918 Great War, memorials inscribed with the names of those who had made the ultimate sacrifice sprang up in their thousands in towns and cities across Britain.
They were found on main streets, in schools, in churches, and in business premises, and they came in many forms - from simple rolls of honour, to stained-glass church windows, to ornate plaques, to large stone memorials such as the Cenotaph in Gateshead.
It's 100 years since the impressive memorial on the corner of the town’s Prince Consort Road and Durham Road was unveiled. The ceremony on May 14, 1922 was watched by a colossal crowd reported in the newspapers to be 30,000-strong.
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Only four years after the end of the brutal conflict, the huge loss of life was still keenly felt. Most people would have have known someone lost in the war - a family member, a friend, a one-time school pal or workmate, or even a casual acquaintance.
At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, there were around 30,000 men of fighting age living in Gateshead, "and of that number", reported the Chronicle looking back in 1922, "between 18,000 and 20,000 joined the forces and did their duty nobly and well".
An estimated 1,700 Gateshead men were killed of whom 986 had served in the 9th battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, which was known as the 'Gateshead regiment’.
The inscription on the Gateshead Cenotaph reflected this grim fact. It reads: IN MEMORY OF THE PEOPLE OF GATESHEAD WHO MADE THE SUPREME SACRIFICE FOR THEIR COUNTRY/ IN THIS CHAMBER ARE RECORDED THE NAMES OF MEN OF GATESHEAD WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR/ THEIR NAME LIVETH FOR EVERMORE.
Designers, builders, sculptors, engineers and writers were involved in the creation of the Cenotaph. The Imperial War Museum describes it as being of "classic design raised on a rectangular platform, three stone steps above the ground. Above the base of the Cenotaph, on the principle front and flanked by three-quarters projecting Grecian Ionic Pilasters, is a bronze panel in low relief with a bronze figure. The relief depicts a semi-nude warrior lighting resting on his unsheathed sword with a cross behind him."
Inside was a small room with a stone lectern used to to hold the book of remembrance. The Cenotaph was formally unveiled and dedicated on a Sunday afternoon by the Lord Bishop of Durham, one of the many dignitaries in attendance, as thousands of people looked on sombrely. Roads in the area were closed to traffic between noon and 4pm.
Reporting on the afternoon's events 100 years ago, the Chronicle noted how a "procession of the bereaved" was led by "a mother and an orphan" and many flowers and wreaths were laid by "people of all classes".
There were speeches, prayers and singing and there was "many a tear-dimmed eye", while "the National Anthem concluded the day's ceremony which had taken place in beautiful sunshine".
Our second image shows the same Gateshead scene, a full century after the Cenotaph's unveiling. The inscription on the monument would later be updated to honour to those who fell in the 1939-1945 Second World War.
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