A muffled peal of bells rang out from a village church to remember a fallen hero.

Harold Comer from Great Ryburgh, near Fakenham, was one of 860 young men who lost their lives when their troop carrier was torpedoed on August 13, 1915.

Pte Comer, 27, was on board the liner Royal Edward en route to Gallipoli when she was sunk by a German U-boat in the Aegean Sea.

A century later, villagers gathered to honour his sacrifice in the church of St Andrew, where a Ryburgh Remembers exhibition commemorates those who fell in the First World War.

The parish commemoration was attended by Pte Comer's great niece, Pauline Smith, who was born 15 years after he died.

'To us Harold was just a name,' said Mrs Smith, from Dereham. 'We knew him just as a name, he was my granddad's brother, no-one really spoke about him.'

Ryburgh Remembers has established that Pte Comer was married to Eva Dunman, a 22-year-old servant, on June 25, 1915 – less than two months before he died.

He had transferred from the Norfolk Regiment to the Essex Regiment, volunteering to serve at Gallipoli, before his ship set sail from Bristol.

Steve Bushby, from Ryburgh Remembers, said: 'He gets married, then a month later he's on the Royal Edward on his way to Gallipoli.

'There were 1,500 on board and nearly 1,000 died. They did a lifeboat drill before it was torpedoed, so they'd left their life jackets down below.

'They didn't have a chance – six minutes and it was under.'

As well as the exhibition, a carved screen in the church, which carries the names of the fallen, has been restored with the help of a £9,000 lottery grant. It was built in 1919, paid for by subscription.

As part of their lottery bid, parishioners researched First World War food and the home-made austerity cakes and Anzac biscuits sent out to comfort the troops.

Authentic cakes and biscuits were served up at afternoon tea in the church, as the bells rang high in the flint tower above.

Ryburgh Remembers plans to commemorate all 23 of those named on the village war memorial, who lost their lives in the 1914-18 conflict on the 100th anniversary of their deaths.

Is your community honouring a fallen hero? Email chris.bishop@archant.co.uk.

To see the EDP's First World War roll of honour, visit www.edp24.co.uk/news/east-anglia-at-war

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