It captured everyone's imagination

A letter penned in 1897 by a Sunderland choirboy has inspired an origami quilt of memories. Bill Gibb finds out more.

UNCOVERED by sheer chance, only good fortune stopped a letter hidden in a U Sunderland church pew from being thrown away.

It was written 125 years ago by an orphanage choirboy asking whoever found it to "keep it in remembrance of me".

The poignant plea touched hearts all over the world when word got out, and further investigations revealed the remarkable life of young William Elliott.

The anxious lad went on to become a US Navy war hero and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Now his "remembrance" plea is being kept alive with a moving paper memory quilt, and even talk of a TV programme about his life.

The letter was discovered during a redevelopment of Holy Trinity Church into the Seventeen Nineteen venue by the Churches Conservation Trust.

"The letter was found by a heritage joiner who was restoring choir pews," Tracey Mienie, centre manager at Seventeen Nineteen, explains.

"He spotted what looked like a piece of floorboard on the pew that just didn't look right.