A WIMBORNE stalwart is paying tribute to every man from the town killed during the First World War.

Town crier Chris Brown has been performing special cries about the lives of each man listed on the town's war memorial on the 100th anniversary of their deaths.

Yesterday, he recalled the life of Victor Hammett, the chauffeur of Lady Wimborne, during a performance on the Minster Green.

The soldier, who was killed at Passchendaele, had driven Winston Churchill from the train station to the Wimborne family home in Canford Magna.

Two of Mr Hammett's granddaughters attended to hear the tribute.

Mr Brown said: "I've been researching each of the names on the war memorial as much as I can - not just their military history, but their lives too.

"I've been giving a cry on the date of their death 100 years ago.

"If I can find any relations of the men, I'll invite them along to Wimborne to hear it.

"It's been very moving and the reaction has been wonderful."

Last week, Mr Brown met the descendants of Hubert Holroyd Charles Wareham, killed on the first day of Passchendaele at the age of just 19. His parents, Charles and Annie Wareham of Eastbrook - now Park Lane - learned of their son's death more than two weeks later, on August 18 1917.

Mr Brown said: "When I started looking into Hubert's life, I was to discover there was a picture of him as a youngster at the Priest's House Museum.

"He was wearing lots of medals.

"His identity at that point wasn't known, but he received all those medals for school attendance.

"Nothing more was known about the lad's identity, but it was known that he had never missed a single day of his school career.

"I realised he would have been about the right age to have been called into service."

Mr Brown immediately began trying to track down the youngster's identity. Mr Wareham's great-niece also visited the museum during her own research and recognised the photograph.

"That's how we managed to identify him - she said, 'I've got that picture at home'," Mr Brown said.

"It's absolutely beautiful, how it all unfolded."

Mr Brown and his wife have since visited Mr Wareham's grave, close to where he fell in Artillery Wood Cemetery near Boeshinghe in Belgium.

"His mother wore a picture of him in a pendant every day of her life," Mr Brown said.

"He attended the county school for boys, which is now Wimborne First, and we've been there to speak to children about him.

"The pupils were able to relate to the lad, because he grew up here and went to the same school.

"It's been absolutely brilliant and extremely moving to be able to tell his story."