Recently I ordered one of the Passchendaele WW1 Centenary pins produced by the Royal British Legion.  Each pin represents a casualty of the conflict and mine belongs to Private Lawrence Peterson.  Since receiving it I have undertaken some intensive research and I know that Pte Peterson enlisted early in 1915 in the 9th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's Own) and was 22 years old when he died on 27th August 1917.  He was the elder son of Peter and Amelia Petersen, both born in Denmark, who ran a small Public House in North Shields.  His name is engraved along with others of his Regiment on the Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing in Flanders.  The commemorative pin has been recast out of metal from 1917 British brass shell fuses and the red and green enamel contains finely ground earth recovered from the battlefield.  I hope I have fulfilled my responsibility to Private Peterson in marking the centenary of his death by putting together this pictorial tribute.

http://www.everyoneremembered.org/

Judith COOKE