IT may have taken 100 years, but the name of a young First World War hero will finally be inscribed on the Teignmouth war memorial.

Able Seaman Sidney William Back Hatherly, 21, served in the Royal Navy during the conflict, and died of injuries suffered from an accident on board the destroyer HMS Watchman in March 1921.

He is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves section of Teignmouth Cemetery, and after a long campaign by one of his few surviving relatives, Betty Beatty, 82, who now lives in Dawlish, and previously resided in Teignmouth and Kingsteignton.

‘He was my uncle, and I have tried for many years for him to be included on the seafront memorial. Now finally it has been agreed, and I am delighted.

‘He deserves to be remembered with all the other war veterans.’

Brian Hall, chairman of the local remembrance committee, said: ‘Sidney saw action in the Royal Navy during the war, and although he died after hostilities ended, he meets the criteria to be included on the war memorial.

‘The town council and the remembrance committee have a great deal of leeway as to who is eligible to be named on the memorial, and we all feel that as a young local lad, he should be remembered.

‘His name will be inscribed by Newton Abbot stonemasons in time for the remembrance day service at the memorial on November 11.

‘Betty is very passionate that her uncle should be remembered, and we agree with her.’

Sidney was the son of Edgar and Alice Hatherly, and was born in Bishopsteignton in 1890.

The family also lived in Landscore Road and Bitton Avenue in Teignmouth, and Sidney was a grocer’s assistant before joining the Royal Navy in March 1917 as a boy second class. He also served on HMS Zealand.