St Peters Church, Stockton-on-Tees: The Soldier Who Made His Own Prosthetic Leg

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William Andrew was married at St Peters Church in Stockton during WW1 and then went off to fight in France. In an interview he did in the early 80’s kept at Teesside Archive, he describes being terrified when he arrived on the front line. He was severely wounded in a shell explosion and lost an arm and a leg as a result. Following the explosion he spent around a year in hospital. Despite army prosthetics being available he made his own “peg leg” out of wood. He returned to the kind of work he had been doing before the war started in an accounts department on Teesside. Chris Parkes is a County Durham soldier who lost a leg in an explosion in Helmand. He says: “I was most impressed he made his own prosthetic. Most squaddies tinker with them.” Location: St Peter’s Church, Yarm Road, Stockton-on-Tees TS18 3PJ