Today marks the centenary of the death of my great great uncle, killed in action in the First World War. John Douglas Robertson, known as Dougie, was born in Reedsmouth in Northumberland in 1898, and was just 19 years old when he died on a battlefield in northern France. The middle name Douglas has subsequently been carried by my granny (born just two weeks after he died), my father and my nephew. I visited his grave in 2007, and was touched by an inscription I read in the cemetery: ‘To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die’ (from a poem called Hallowed Ground by Thomas Campbell). I have been gathering material for a small book to commemorate his life... I’m starting work on it today, and I hope to complete it by Armistice Day. Gone but most definitely not forgotten.