BRAVE Tadley men who died during the First World War were the focus of a moving exhibition.

The profiles of 31 men listed on the Tadley War Memorial were on show at Tadley Community Centre, thanks to the work of the Tadley and District History Society.

Visitors, including Sir George Young, MP for North West Hamp-shire, were able to read details about each of the men, including where they lived in Tadley and how, when and where they died.

Among the fallen was William James Monger, the eldest son of 12 children, who lived in a cottage near Bishopswood Lane before being enlisted when the First World War broke out in 1914.

Serving with the Hampshire Regi-ment, he died on Thursday, October 19 of wounds sustained at the Battle of the Somme, just four days before his 19th birthday.

Society secretary and project manager Ian Burn said the exhibition was the culmination of two years of work, using sources such as the Hampshire Archive in Winchester, old copies of the Hants and Berks Gazette, and testimony from relatives.

He said: “We are happy with the end result. It was difficult going, with a lot of false trails, and we are in no way saying that what is in the hall is 100 per cent accurate. But it’s a fitting record of these people that did not exist before.”

As well as the profiles, visitors could read a timeline of events during the war years, with news from the front mixed with news from Tadley, such as a man being fined £1 and 5s 6d in costs for keeping a dog without a licence. Schoolchildren also made models of trenches for people to view.

Dave Bowley-Booth, of Whitedown Road, Tadley, was among those who came to look at the exhibition.

The 52-year-old said: “It’s really good and you can tell a lot of work has gone into it.”

The society plans to make the information available in the future, both online and as a permanent display.