It was one of the biggest disasters of World War One, the war to end all wars.

Over 310,000 British and 260,000 German soldiers perished at the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium a hundred years ago.

The third battle of Ypres fought between the end of July until December of that year was infamous for the enormous scale of casualties and amount of mud, the soldiers nicknamed it the Battle of Mud.

At least 97 soldiers from the Bournemouth area died in the five month conflict and in excess of 1,120 men with an established connection to the town perished during the Great War from 1914-1918.

St Peter's Church on Hinton Road, Bournemouth, held a special 'Local Heroes: Words and Music' service yesterday evening to commemorate those who died at Passchendaele, including men from Bournemouth.

The event was organised by Bournemouth Libraries in conjunction with St Peter's Church's Stone and Voice project which was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and involved the church's community partners Bournemouth Libraries, Wave Music Service, Dorset History Centre and the Arts University Bournemouth architecture department.

The project researched 24 fallen soldiers connected to the church whose names are in the Chapel of the Resurrection in the grounds of St Peter's Church, built as a war memorial and mortuary chapel in 1925-26.

Attended by the Mayor of Bournemouth Cllr Lawrence Williams and the Mayoress Mrs Williams, stories of local men were read by Major Duncan Fraser, Nick Mason, Jan Marsh, John Cresswell, Alice Miller, Jenny Young and Rod Arnold.

The bells of St Peter's Church were rung at the end of the service and afterwards there were refreshments and a chance to view St Peter's and the Stone and Voice exhibition.