The North East War Memorials Project are sad to report the death of Simon Raine from Port Clarence on Sunday December 14th 2025.
Simon had spent many happy days’ “hunter gathering” information about War Memorials of County Durham in the 1990s and early 2000’s.
He made meticulous notes about every memorial he found, which usually included a copy of any newspaper reports and a street map, plus any comments about the War Memorials themselves.
Janet Brown made contact with Simon and he willingly shared his information with the fledgling North East War Memorials Project.
Simon sent me the first letter in 2009 just about when my husband Alan and I were going to cruise to Antarctica which explains the penguins!
I had previously borrowed all his War Memorial Files from the Fitzhugh Library which was then at Bernard Castle. I scanned them all and wrote my thanks.
Many thanks for your letter and good wishes. I am more or less rid of it now and back to what ‘s laughingly passes for normal ….
I’m pleased the files were of some use – you should have a medal for reading my writing! The weakness they have is that the names are often incomplete – I tended to approach it from an architectural viewpoint, but mainly I simply did not have the time to get them all down.
If my comments were uninhibited or even caustic, it is because it was an honest opinion (Craghead for example was in a dreadful state of neglect when I saw it) and also I never gave any thought to anyone else reading it.
I agree about the speeches; there was one place where one of the Joicie dynasty had paid for it and took the occasion to ramble on to an incredible extent about trade, income tax, rates, strikes indeed anything but the matter in hand.
Your suggestion of crediting the Fitzhugh for material is very welcome; I have always had a deep distaste of personal publicity in any form – to be avoided if at all possible.
I hope you have a splendid time in the Southern Hemisphere and the Antarctic
Best Wishes
Simon
The second letter was after 2009 but is not dated. Simon had sent me a book on Birtley. I don’t think he ever came to Chester le Street hunter gathering!
The letter includes another drawing showing Simon with a pile of books.
Over the years Project Members encounted Simon at various local history events. He was always a pleasure to meet and talk to.
In latter years Kathleen and her husband from the Fitzhugh Library, now at Middleton in Teesdale, have kept us in touch with Simon.
Thank you Simon for all the work you undertook on War Memorials and thank you for sharing it!
Rest In Peace
Dorothy Hall
Secretary NEWMP
