Emily and her friends were the children of an umbrella maker, a potter, an ex-convict, foundry worker, school teacher, barber and blacksmith. They were the daughters and sons of men who worked as labourers, on the railways, down the mines and in the shipyards.
In the early 20th century, their fathers were the ordinary men of Stockton, working hard to try and build a future for their town and their young families.
When war broke out in 1914 these men left their families and their town to defend them and their country but never returned alive. Some are buried in Stockton, others overseas, while many are just a name on a wall, their bodies never recovered or given the decency of burial.
Stockton on Tees’ book of remembrance gives us these fathers’ names, the 1245 Sunflowers project revealed the names of the children they left behind. The Edelweiss project will now attempt to find out what life was like for these fatherless children.