Brian Walker, Chair, Greatham Parish Council has submitted the following:
Noticed on your website the name of Lt. Paul Putterill and the location of a gravestone in Greatham Cemetery. Regarding request for more info - we obtained this information for the book written about our village during the war.
Located on Greatham High Street, between Sappers Corner and Prospect Farm, was a road block across what was then the main road between Hartlepool and Stockton/Sedgefield. The road block consisted of two concrete blocks between which the road was reduced to a single lane. Obviously this was quite a hazard to traffic, especially at night with the blackout.
One tragedy which occurred at this road block was the death of Lieutenant P. Putterill of the Royal Artillery who road his motorbike straight into the road block and was killed on the 21st May 1943. He was buried in Greatham Cemetery, his grave marked with the usual white headstone. He does not appear on the village war memorial because he was not from the village but posted here (possibly from London).
Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail 22/05/1943 reads:-
The second army motor-cyclist fatality to occur in West Hartlepool within three days resulted in the death yesterday of Lieut. Paul Putterill (28) whose home is at 33 Cedars Road, Chiswick, London W4. Lieut. Putterill was riding the motor cycle along Stockton Road towards Greatham when he crashed into a road obstruction. He received multiple injuries to the head and was dead before arrival at the first aid station. Lieut. Putterill was married. The inquest will be held next Thursday.
