Soldier Record

Mobilised at the outbreak of war in August 1914, he immediately proceeded to the Western Front with the British Expeditionary Force, and took part in the Battle of Mons. He was taken prisoner on August 26th, 1914, after being wounded at Le Cateau, and was held in captivity at Doeberitz Camp, Germany, where he suffered many hardships. He was repatriated in December 1918, and eventually discharged in February of the following year, and holds the Mons Star, and the General Service and Victory Medals. (Taken from 'The National Roll of The Great War, 1914-18: Manchester. Page 212.) I knew Grandad for so few years before he died. I used to visit after school and he would sit by the range and listen not talk. I never heard him talk of his War experiences.

The family tell that Grandad went to the Boer War as a drummer boy, keeping his drum, served in the Great War and repeatedly lied about his age to enlist for the Second World War.

He married Grandma on 3rd August 1914 before going off to France and my mother didn't know her father until she was 4, telling how they ran into the street when they heard he was coming and she said this enormously tall man scooped her up. She remembered her face buried in the coarse uniform and that he couldn't stop hugging her.