Heslop's Local Advertiser
“On November 16th, at the Grand Hotel, Pelaw, Mr. J.F. Simpson presiding, Sergt. Thomas Waddle received his Military Medal from Major Crouch, D.S.O., D.C.M., who said it was as great an honour to him to present the medal as if he had been accorded the honour himself. Just a favoured few, he said, got the decoration; it was so hard to discriminate who should have them. But he considered that everyone who faced the enemy and who was prepared to lay down his life on the filed deserved the highest honour that could be given to them. Sergt. Waddle had been one of the first to enter the Hindenberg lines, and only those who had seen those lines knew what that meant. Capt. Scott, in presenting the watch, etc., on behalf of the Committee, paid a fitting tribute to the Durhams, who, he said, had made themselves a great reputation.”
