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Details for an annual event to remember the devastating Bombardment of the Hartlepools have been announced by organisers.

The community will once again come together to pay tribute to all those who lost their lives in the shelling of the town in December 1914, which claimed the lives of more than 130 men, women and children.

Staff and volunteers of the Heugh Battery Museum, on the Headland, which played a pivotal role during the bombardment, are organising the annual poignant ceremony.

As usual, it takes place on the anniversary of the tragic event on December 16, which this year falls on a Saturday.

Standard bearers and members of the community in Redheugh Gardens at last year's Bombardment commemoration service.

The museum, in Moor Terrace – the UK’s only First World War battlefield site – will be open from 7.30am.

At 8.05am a parade will leave the battery and assemble in Redheugh Gardens nearby.

Then at 8.10am, a gun salute will mark the start of a minute’s silence and the time the first shell fired by three German navy battleships struck.

The names of all service personnel and children killed will be read out and individual crosses planted in their memory.

Relatives of Bombadier JJ Hope visiting the Heugh Gun Battery with his medals and citation from the King.

The day after the 1914 Bombardment - rare cine footage captures the devastation ...

Earlier this year, the museum was visited by the family of Bombardier John James Hope, a member of the Royal Garrison Artillery who, along with Bombardier F W Mallin, was awarded the Military Medal for his participation in the Bombardment.

They were the first two MMs to ever be gazetted when the medal was introduced in 1916.

Although Bombardier Hope was the lowest ranking gun captain on the day, he fired most rounds from his position on the Heugh Gun Battery.

Bombardment damage after the 8am attack on December 16, in 1914.

His family visited with his medals and his memorial plaque, known as a death penny.

Heugh Battery Museum manager Diane Stephens said: "It is because of men like John James Hope that we come together every December to mark the date of the Bombardment, to remember those servicemen who gave their lives and the civilians whose lives were taken.

"It is for families like the relatives of Hope that we ensure their name does live on.”

Wreaths will also be laid during the event and afterwards people are invited back to the battery museum for refreshments.

Then at 11am the museum hosts a group of re-enactors who will play a game of football similar to during the Christmas Day Truce.

Details confirmed for annual ceremony to remember the 1914 Bombardment of the Hartlepools during First World War