THE man who created Seaham’s iconic statue of a war-weary soldier has been lined up to replace a community’s memorial to its fallen, decades after the original went missing.

Ray Lonsdale, whose statue Tommy, officially known as 1101, has won much acclaim, has designed a new figure for the First World War memorial at Tursdale, in County Durham.

Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of the Sicilian marble statue that stood on a stone plinth at Tursdale from 1922.

Stories locally suggest that drunken road builders who lived in caravans while constructing the A1(M) between Bradbury and Bowburn in the 1960s knocked the soldier’s head off with a spade.

It was taken away in the 1970s to be repaired but never seen again.

The centenary of the First World War brought it back into the minds of residents and Cornforth Parish Council, whose boundary it now lies within, turned to South Hetton-based Mr Lonsdale for help.

Inspired by his sculpture at Seaham and other works, the council asked him to design a new figure to top the memorial.

Mr Lonsdale came up with Not Much To Ask, a 6ft steel statue of a soldier taking a second to have a drink and longing for it all to be over so he can return home to County Durham.

Cornforth parish clerk, Ray Sunman, said: “There have been attempts over the years to track it down but we feel it is time now to move forward and reinstate a soldier on the memorial.

“We don’t have the original or enough information to get a replica so we thought of Ray Lonsdale, he is successful but also has a sensitivity to the subject matter.

“His is a modern interpretation but so emotive, everyone who has seen his sketch agrees it is a fitting tribute to the fallen.”

Mr Lonsdale said: "It is nice to have the opportunity to put something back, it has been an empty plinth for some time so it will be nice to get a figure back on top to commemorate the men from the area in a fitting manner."

Chairman of Cornforth Parish Council, Alan Hodgson, said after the war miners put a portion of their wages towards the memorial in tribute to the 41 men from Tursdale Colliery that went to war and never came back.

He said: “The people of Tursdale paid for the original so it seems right that we try to have something back on the memorial by 2018, to remember the fallen.

“Without a soldier the memorial is like a plant pot without a plant.”

The council has saved money for four years so the piece can be commissioned and hopes to raise around £20,000 to have it in place by the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day in November 2018.

Mr Lonsdale has penned a poem, which he wrote to help him during the design process:

I need to put this gun away,

Put it away and move back from this place.

Back from the dirt, through grass, then over sea.

Put this gun away and close my eyes.

Then see without having to bear witness,

Listen without being forced to hear,

And just stand,

Just stand at peace in my Durham home.

Not Much To Ask, Ray Lonsdale