The tragic Canadian airman buried in Startforth Cemetery

A church has stood on this site since Norman times, but its current form is Victorian in style. It was built in 1863 by a stonemason whose monument, decorated with an angel, to his wife who died in childbirth, dominates the hill of the churchyard, which slopes down to the river.

Startforth Church in the 1880s, almost 20 years after its rebuilding in 1863. This picture, taken from the grounds of Barnard Castle, shows how many trees have grown since then

The memorial is surrounded by other gravestones and monuments, some of which date back to the centuries when the low Norman church stood on the plateau.

If only these stones could speak, what stories would they tell?

And what about the murder of a 19-year-old orphan girl in 1813 by an unknown person described in her monument as a “bloodthirsty villain”?

READ MORE: THE SAD STORY OF BARNARD CASTLE'S ECCENTRIC QUARTER WHO BUILT MANY OF DARLINGTON'S WEIRDEST BUILDINGS

What about the Horse Guard who died at the Battle of Beaumont-en-Cambrésis, when 50,000 French and British soldiers clashed in 1794? His tombstone states that he “fell in the service of his countryman (in) an engagement in which the French army was defeated” and “his body was buried on the field of battle, guarded, honoured and mourned by every officer of the regiment.”

The gravestone is dedicated to John Kipling and other members of his family. He was killed in northern France in 1794 while serving in the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards

And what would they tell us about the events of September 22, 1863, just a few months after the Victorian church was completed, when 76-year-old Thomas Sowerby married 86-year-old Catherine Tinker.

The path from the cemetery gate down to Startforth Church – what scenes were there in 1863 when 76-year-old Thomas Sowerby married 86-year-old Catherine Tinker?

Newspapers across the North reported that Catherine had “previously been blessed with two husbands.”

And they said: “The incident provoked a violent demonstration by the villagers, who crowded near the church so heavily that the police had to clear the way into the church to allow the wedding party to pass through.”

If only the stones could speak and tell us why this marriage scandal so enraged the local population that police had to clear a path for the happy couple to walk—or perhaps, given their Biden-like age, stumble precariously—from the mortuary gate past the old gravestones and into the new church.

However, some of the stories hidden between the stones can be told…

Pilot Officer Larry Logan

“WHEN I was a small boy my mother was tending the grave of one of her good friends in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, Startforth, and I was dragged along too,” writes Peter Holmes of Barnard Castle following Memories 683, as we reported on the 80th anniversary of the Victoria Cross-winning self-sacrifice of Canadian airman Andrew Mynarski.

“One gravestone has always particularly touched me. It is that of a young Canadian pilot.

“I found it sad that he was buried so far away from his home and family.”

READ MORE: HOW ANDREW MYNARSKI WON A VICTORIA CROSS POSTHUMOUSLY AFTER HIS FLIGHT FROM RAF MIDDLETON ST GEORGE

It is a Portland stone memorial to a man who died in active service, and even today, more than 80 years after it was placed among the yew trees of Startforth, it stands out as whiter and cleaner than any in the vicinity, having been cared for for decades by the mistress who ensured that the Canadian was buried so far from home.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission's tombstone is dedicated to Pilot Officer Albert Lawrence Logan – known to his friends as “Larry” – who died in a plane crash a few kilometers away on March 1, 1942. He was only 22 years old.

He came from Beamsville, Ontario, which today has a population of 13,000 (about twice the population of Barnard Castle).

Beamsville was founded after the American Revolution by Jacob Beam. He was loyal to the British crown and when the Americans gained their independence in 1776, he moved from New Jersey to Canada to found his own town where he could swear his allegiance to King George III of Great Britain.

Perhaps it was this loyalty that prompted Larry, a Beamsville Canadian Bank of Commerce clerk, to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force on October 16, 1940, just one year after World War II broke out in faraway Europe.

In April 1941 he received flying training for his wings, and in December 1941 he was transferred to 122 Squadron, stationed at RAF Scorton Base, a satellite airfield of RAF Catterick Base on flat land a few miles from Richmond.

A volunteer at their air base was Jean Norton, a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service whose father Arthur ran a glove factory at Barnard Castle.

And so the boy met the girl.

READ MORE: THE DAY A DALES BRIDGE COLLAPSED AND PEOPLE WERE THROWN INTO THE TEES LIKE SHELLED PEAS

Larry, the tall, handsome Canadian, became a regular visitor to the Norton family home at Fair Lawns on Abbey Lane, just a few hundred yards from Holy Trinity, up the Church Bank.

At the end of February 1942, after three months stationed at Scorton, Larry had two pieces of news for Jean.

First, he had been summoned for vaccinations on March 1 – a sure sign that he would soon be transferred abroad.

Secondly, there was a formation flying exercise planned over Teesdale that afternoon, so she was to look out for him as he passed Startforth and he would wag his wingtips at her.

On 1 March, after receiving his injections, he took off from Scorton at 15:40 and met up with his group leader over Scotch Corner. The two Spitfires flew in formation westwards, following the River Tees on one side and the A66 on the other.

It was slightly overcast at Scorton, but as the two aircraft approached Barnard Castle the weather worsened. The group leader decided that the clouds were too low for formation and ordered the exercise to be abandoned. He turned around and made his way safely home.

But Larry had promised Jean.

So he flew on for a few seconds, using Egglestone Abbey as a marker. Jean and her sister Pat were playing tennis in the garden at Fair Lawns and saw a Spitfire roar past on time, then turn south and disappear into the low clouds.

Her heart must have leapt for joy. Her plane flew low over her house…

But moments later, at about 4pm and less than two miles away at the top of the valley, people on the A66 saw a Spitfire flying low over the road crash into a field at Dent House Farm in Brignall, just behind what is now Cross Lanes farm shop and restaurant.

Several people rushed to help the pilot, but it was in vain. He had suffered a severe blow to the head during the crash and was dead, still strapped into the cockpit.

It was Larry, of course.

The official accident report blamed the weather for the accident. It was assumed that the pilot had lost his bearings in the low-hanging clouds and did not have enough altitude to regain his flight altitude when he saw the ground approaching.

It made no mention of the low-level flying, nor did it explain why the group leader was able to safely turn around and fly home while Larry continued flying…

This week's Teesdale Mercury reported the story in one paragraph.

It said: “Larry Logan, aged 22, who was killed by an accident at Cross Lanes, Barnard Castle, earlier this month, was a Canadian, all his relatives living in Canada. He was a pleasant lad, and a representative gathering was held at the funeral on March 5th in Startforth Cemetery. The expenses of the funeral were met by Mr. A. H. Norton, of Fair Lawns, Abbey Lane, Startforth. The funeral service was performed by the Rev. C. F. Gittens, officiating vicar of Startforth, and wreaths were sent by friends, quite a number of whom he had met during his brief visits to the area.”

Larry Logan's gravestone in Startforth cemetery with the church behind it

On behalf of his grieving daughter, Mr Norton had lobbied the authorities to ensure that Larry's body was not buried in a military cemetery such as Stonefall in Harrogate, where many Canadian airmen, such as Darlington's hero William McMullen, are buried, but instead in Startforth, where Jean could care for him.

Mr Norton even arranged for Larry to be given a fitting send-off, and the funeral was attended by many members of the Scorton Squadron, who then paid their last respects to Jean at Fair Lawns.

And for the rest of her life, Jean took care of the grave, even after she found happiness and got married.

In 2006, after Jean's death, her sister Pat said in the Northern Echo's Teesdale Talk column: “Larry was a lovely man and the love of Jean's life. I'm sure they would have married if he hadn't been killed. We were all devastated when he died.”

“We also had visits from other Canadians from his squadron. They were all really great men.”

His comrades, who knew firsthand the medical preparations for their upcoming overseas deployment, suspected that it might have been a side effect of that morning's vaccinations that caused Larry to faint and lose control of Brignall.

To add to the tragedy, Pat said that all the really good men from 122 Squadron who had visited Jean at Fair Lawns were deployed overseas shortly after the funeral and only one returned.

The Portland stone gravestone of Pilot Office Larry Logan in Startforth CemeteryREAD MORE: RESTORATION OF GRAVESTONE OF BELGIAN WORLD WAR I PRIEST WHO BROUGHT UNEXPECTED FAMOUSNESS TO SOUTH DURHAM