In Lanchester All Saints’ Churchyard is the Commonwealth War Grave of :-
4/10145 Private
I. Wilson
Durham Light Infantry
22nd December 1914 Age 36
Ian Murray has submitted the following:-
Isaac was born in 1878 in Wrekenton, Gateshead to parents George and Dorothy Wilson. In 1881 the family lived in Red Row, Oxhill and by 1891 they were living in Gillow Street, Cornsay Colliery.
On 22nd October 1898, in Hamsteels Church, Isaac married Margaret Gristwood from Cornsay. By 1901 they had had their first child, Clara, and they were living at 136 Chadwick Street in Cornsay Colliery and, like many others, Isaac was a coal miner.
In 1911, Isaac, still a coal miner, was living with his wife and, by now, six children, in Queen Street, Gateshead. A seventh child, Robert was born the following year.
Isaac enlisted on 5th September 1914 into the Durham Light Infantry, giving his age as 34 years and 11 months when in fact he was almost 36.
The family moved to Dormand’s Cottages, Lanchester. Tragedy struck the family several times in the following months. On 11th October 1914, the second eldest child, Dora died, aged 13, of Enteric Fever (Typhoid) in Tanfield Isolation Hospital. Only six weeks later, another daughter, Margaret Lily, died, aged 8, of the same disease in the same hospital. At this time, Isaac was based in Wallsend and was admonished and forfeited 3 days pay for going absent, presumably to join his family at this difficult time. Four weeks later, Isaac himself, took ill while at his father’s residence, 2 The Garths, Lanchester, and was admitted to Tanfield Hospital on the 14th December suffering, like his daughters, from Enteric Fever and he died on 22nd December.
At this time, his wife, Margaret, was also in the same hospital suffering from the same disease and tragedy struck again when on Christmas Day, the oldest son, Robert died aged 10. His cause of death is not known but it is more than likely to have been Typhoid. Lanchester Rural District Council minutes 25th December 1914 reports 7 cases of enteric fever at Lanchester. Margaret survived but the CWGC grave registration report indicates that she was an inmate at the Durham County Mental Asylum Hospital, Winterton.
Isaac was buried on 27th December 1914 in the graveyard of All Saints’ Parish Church in Lanchester. He did not qualify for any service medals, having not entered a theatre of war. His grave as befits a serving soldier, is marked with a Commonwealth War Grave headstone. The Headstone Report gives Isaac’s next of kin as his brother George of 2, Victoria Terrace, Lanchester.
Isaac Wilson is remembered at Lanchester on L62.01
