The
Feature page
of
The Laverick's
&
The Lancashire Fusiliers
3 Generations of the Laverick's and Lancashire Fusiliers

Dennis is a major contributor and participant in the
LF Website as Photo Editor now Webmaster
and
Webmaster for the Association web site

Major J.N.Laverick DCM

 

Born on 22nd February 1887, Major Laverick has completed 39 years service with The Regiment, with the exception of a short period when he was detailed for service with No. 1 Technical Training Centre, REME, for six months.

Enlisting on 25th May 1905,( under an alias name of John Astbury why we are not sure normally they did that if they where under age to join up) he served the usual recruits period of three months at the Depot. From there he was posted to the 2nd Battalion at Fermoy, in September 1905. In 1908 he was posted to the 1st Battalion in India, and after completing six years there, returned to England to join the 2nd Battalion at Dover in August 1914, in time to proceed with the 2nd Battalion to France and Belgium, where he served until April 1919, and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal on July 1st at The Somme.

He proceeded to India for a second time, this time with the 2nd Battalion in October 1919, and returned to the 1st Battalion in England in June 1924.
Again, serving overseas took him to Egypt with the 1st Battalion in February 1928, and from there to Gibraltar in May 1929, returning once more to England with the 1st Battalion in February 1930.

After a further spell of five years in England with the 1st Battalion, he was posted to The Depot in 1935, where he remained until detailed for service with No 1 Technical Training Centre, REME in February 1942. From there he was appointed to the Command of The Depot in September 1943.

Major Laverick was promoted to Sergeant in November 1911; W.O.2 in May 1915; W.O.1 in September 1921; gazetted Lieutenant (QM) in October 1926; promoted Captain (QM) in October 1931; promoted Major (QM) in October 1938.

In addition to the Distinguished Conduct Medal, Major Laverick holds the 1914 Star, The British War Medal, The Victory Medal, King George V Jubilee, King George V1 Coronation, War Medal 1939 -1945 and The Long service and Good Conduct Medals.

The appointment of Major J. N. Laverick to command the Depot will no doubt be viewed with pleasure, especially by the Old Boys of "F" Company, 1st Battalion. Of those happy Meerut and Mooltan days.

The Major will be remembered for his fine sportsmanship, his cheerfulness, comradeship, and loyalty, a credit to a famous Regiment with a great record.
A "pukka" fellow. May higher appointments come his way.
F.R.McD.



Pte. J.N.Laverick
in 1905 ?

 


This is a photo of it says James Astbury on the back
B
elieved to be
J. N. Laverick
see letter 1D

The back of photo says
222
Corporal Astbury
( I am still trying to check the details out )
It looks like he joined under a false name as he was under age.
(See letter)

War Diary
12th July 1916

London Gazette 22nd Sept 1916 and Medal card

Just before they went over the top my granddad was hit in the head by shrapnule and was knock out on return to this officer fell on top of him
War Diary
16th Oct 1916

3 months after he he awarded the DCM


Minden Day 1926



Major J.N. Laverick's
sword in LF Museum


Ships log India to Plymonth
15th Jume 1924


List of all the
Commanding Officers
at Wellington Barracks


CQMS J.N. Laverick
Highlighted

Nowshera India 1921


Lt J N Laverick
Dover 1927

1927 Dover
Lawrence Cup Winners



Belived to have been taken in 1905


this is James Laverick with Margret his only Daughter

Jim Laverick his 2nd Son


A silver salver Andy Harris (Asst Sec at the Tower) has at home, presented to Gen Surtees (Andy's Grandfarther)
when he was Col of the Regt Lancashire Fusiliers 1945–1955

Look just to the left of the LF Crest my Granddads Signature


Jim Hodgkinson speaks of his father, Private JW Hodgkinson MM,
2nd Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, by Catherine Goodier, Editor Blind Veterans Association


As we mark the centenary of the Battle of the Somme I interviewed members
of Blind Veterans UK whose family were involved in the Somme Ofensive. Jim
Hodgkinson from Manchester joined Blind Veterans UK in 2008 and I spent an
afternoon with him and his wife Ruby, as Jim told me about his father and his
father's time in WWI when he Served with 2nd Bn Lancashire Fusiliers.


Although his father never spoke of his experiences during World War One
Jim knows of his father's bravery from the War Diary of Lieut Hawkins, 2nd
Bn Lancashire Fusiliers. We have reproduced Lieut Hawkins's war diary from
October 12th 1916 below.

October 12th 1916 was the day that Private Jim (Ginger) Hodgkinson 4088, 2nd
Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers saved the life of Lieut Hawkins during the Battle
of the Somme. For that outstanding act of bravery he was awarded the Military
Medal. We begin Lieut Hawkins's account:

At 2.30am I started of to the assembly position with my Co. H.Q. which
consisted of C.S.M. Laverick of D.C.M., my runner Ginger Hodgkinson, my
servant Hargreaves and the Co. Signallers and Orderlies.

At about 6am the preliminary bombardment began and lasted all day until Zero
Hour. It was very slow and very regular. A few shots fell short into 'D' Co., but
nothing very exciting happened at frst. (The rest of the diary is written by hour
and minutes as the events of the day become somewhat crowded).

12.15pm: Several Huns running and crawling in No Man's Land carrying a
machine gun. Had a few shots at them.

12.30pm: Twelve Huns came into our line and surrendered. Some excitement.
Things assume a rosy aspect and point to a fairly easy show.

1.0pm: Watches sent to Bn. H.Q. for synchronising.

1:30pm: Watch sent back and following additional orders received from Brain,
Zero hour 2.5pm. The Duke to attack the length of trench occupied by the Hun
between A Co. and then at 2.25pm the rest of the Division to attack.


Accordingly we sat down and waited for Zero hour.

2pm: Bombardment increased. Bayonets fxed.

2.3pm: Hun plane few straight down own line about 300 feet up, may have
seen trenches crowded with men. None of our planes in sight.

2.5pm: Fiendish Row. Zero hour. Heavy enemy barrage on 10th Brigade
Machine Gun Barrage. Dukes attacking on our right but can't see much.

2.10pm: Shrapnel shell on top of us. Laverick hit on steel helmet and stunned.
Several casualties.

2.15pm: Awful noise impossible to make oneself heard. Several men got excited
and went over the top on their own. Keen as hell to go.

2.20pm: Shell landed on CO. H.Q. all Co. signallers and runners knocked out
except Ginger. Hargreaves badly knocked.

2.25pm: Johny Greaves and 5 Platoon of followed by the rest of the Co. Johny
shot through the lung fve yards in front of our parapet. Enemy machine gun
barrage pretty unhealthy. Our own barrage which should have waited for us has
gone on with the Dukes and 25 mins. in front of us.

Ginger and I follow the Co. over. Run like hares and fnd ourselves well away in
front of the Co.

2.50pm: Fifty percent of Co. already down. Whole Bde appears to be held up.
L/Cpl. Fenton one of my Lewis Gunners has got his gun going in a shell hole on
my left. Awful din can hardly hear it yelled at Sgt. Manin to take the 1st wave
on. He's lying just behind me. Ginger says he's dead. Sgt. Mann on my right of
7 platoon also dead. Most of the men appear to be dead. Shout at the rest and
get up to take them on. Find myself sitting on the ground facing our own line
with a bally great hole in my thigh, doesn't hurt much but bleeding like hell.
Ginger also hit in the wrist. Awful din still. Most of the Co. now out. Ginger ties
my leg up and I put my tie round my leg as a tourniquet. Fortesque on my right
about fve yards still alive. He had a bullet through his steel hat and another had
broken the skin on his nose. Funny how one noticed these things.

Yell at him to come over to me. Show him my leg and tell him to carry on. He

gets into a shell hole to listen while I tell him what to do. Shot through the heart
while I'm talking to him, Addison also wounded and crawling back to our lines.
That all the Ofcers and most of the N.C.O.'s can't see anything of Bolton and S
Pl. Start crawling on back, back to our own lines. Bump. "What's that Ginger?"
"Dead man Sir." Dam. Turns over and drag along on my stomach. Ginger helps
me along. About 75 yards to go, leg still bleeding fast, and my trousers have
been cut of me. Feel rather naked. Beastly uncomfortable also rather faint.
Bloody row still. Make another efort and roll over our parapet on to Laverick
who has recovered and is just coming up. Ginger dives of for stretcher bearers.
Awful shindy still. Feeling rotten. Streatcher bearer arrives. Takes my Field
Dressing of. Hole in my thigh. I can put my fst into it. Full of mud too. They tie
me up and cart me of to a small hole somewhere near in original assembly
trench. Laverick goes of to collect the Co. Only 12 men left out of a hundred.

2.40pm: Johny Greaves carried along and put in another small hole. Badly hit in
lung. Can't get away till dark.

3pm: Got an awful pain. Laverick has collected the remnants of the Co. in the
front line. Himself Sgt. Bolton and a dozen men. Attack an absolute failure.

5pm: Feeling rotten. Keep losing consciousness. Beard a Subaltern in the Dukes
passes. Asks how they did. He says he is the only Ofcer left. Nine Ofcers killed,
six wounded. Ask him if he is going to Bn. H.Q. He is. Will he tell Brain how
things are, and that Johny and I are here. He will. Must have fainted again.

6pm: Still in this beastly hole. Johny very quiet. 10% reserves come up.

11pm: Stretcher Bearers come up and Johny carried of.

Another stretcher party come along and take me away. Beastly journey down.
Essex and King's Own all coming up. Stretcher bearers have to get into the
open. After a long time we get to the road. John Carr and L/Cpl Owen meet us
with a stretcher. Take me over and send S.B's back for someone else. John and
Owen start of with me, to Bn. H.Q. Drop me of stretcher twice, John keeps
patting my head and telling me I am O.K. Reach Bn. H.Q. Brain and Blencs come
out and give me a drink. Willis sends me a message to say, I'll soon be in town.
Cheers me up a bit. Brain tells me our casualties.

Poor Old Daddy Mansell killed. Robin, Greaves, Kirkland, Addison and others
wounded. Bolton missing. Watkins and Sammy Howarth only two to get

through. Whole show dud. The doctor decides to send me on at once. I am
lying on a stretcher in a trench near Batallion H.Q. Damned shell bursts near,
and covers me with mud. Don't seem to mind a bit. Seem apathetic since
getting hit. Am sent of to a Dressing Station near Givenchy and thus sever
connection with the Bn. again after 'months' spell.

Although Lieut Hawkins wrote that he severed all connections with the Bn. he
did not sever connections with Ginger. The two would stay in touch for the
remainder of their lives. Here Jim Hodgkinson junior speaks of his father.

Jim said: "My father was a very quiet man. He was a good father and after the
war he joined the railway where he worked hard to look after his family. He
would occasionally go to the music hall and I would go with him and to the pub
too as he liked a pint and game of cards, but never to excess. We'd talk, but he
never talked about himself, he always wanted to talk about me, or anyone else
but him. I wish I'd asked him more questions about his time in WWI, but I doubt
he'd have answered them.

"I know that he was wounded twice. As Lieut Hawkins writes he was shot in
the wrist during the Battle of the Somme. That was when he was awarded the
Military Medal for saving the life of Lieut Hawkins. I know my father was gassed
in France as I have a photograph of him in his blues when he was convalescing
in the South of England. Again I only know about that because once a year
he would go into hospital for treatment. As the railway only gave him one
week of leave a year he would go in for treatment during his holiday. He never
complained. He just got on with it.

"My father was a Foreman/Timekeeper at Central station in Manchester. Each
day he would pin his ribbons on the lapel of his railway jacket before he walked
the two miles from our home in Monsall to Central station. His colleagues
nicknamed him Rainbow, but my father didn't take any notice of them and
he wore his ribbons as they told the story of his time during WWI and he was
proud to have fought for his country in the Great War for Civilisation. During
the Second World War he joined the Home Guard as so many of the First World
War men did. He would wear his ribbons on his uniform and on Remembrance
Sunday he would proudly wear his medals to the Service of Remembrance.

"Although my father didn't speak of the war he told me one thing: that on one
day in 1916 three telegrams landed on my grandmother's doormat. One told
her that her youngest son John, who was only 16, had been lost at sea,

presumed drowned. He was Serving onboard HMS Hampshire that carried
Field Marshal Lord Kitchener on a diplomatic mission from Scapa Flow. Their
voyage should have fnished in Russia, but it is believed HMS Hampshire struck
a mine laid by a German submarine. Another telegraph told her that my father
had been wounded, there was no further information, just that he had been
wounded. The third telegram was to inform her that her eldest son Alec had
been captured and made a POW. Like my father Alec did return home at the
end of the war, although unlike my father he was never the same as he sufered
from what would be recognised today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sadly
my uncle John did not return home, his fnal resting place is at sea.

"My father's association with Lieut Hawkins lasted for the rest of his life as they
kept in touch and he would send my father money and gifts. My father didn't
expect these gifts, although they were of course welcome. My father was
happy that they remained friends throughout their lives, but Lieut Hawkins
never forgot what my father had done on that day of October 12th 1916. When
I was a young boy a box was delivered for my father. It was from Egypt where
Hawkins, was posted. I opened it up and it was full of hay and I fshed around
inside until I found a large £5 note, which was equivalent to two weeks wages.
There was also a bronze plate that Ruby and I still have today, it's engraved with
hieroglyphics that show the story of Egypt from the birth of the Nile.

"The young Lieut Hawkins with whom my father had Served rose to become
Brigadier V F S Hawkins, DSO, MC.

"Today my father's Military Medal, his ribbons, papers and photographs are
with my son Jim. On 12th December 2013 Jim and I decided that when it is the
appropriate time we will give them to the Lancashire Fusiliers, their rightful
home."

You can read the War Diary of 2Lt Hawkins, 2nd Bn Lancashire Fusiliers, The
Somme at: www.lancs-fusiliers.co.uk The full link is: www.lancs-fusiliers.
co.uk/gallerynew/2LFWW1/2lfww1somme/2lfww1somme.htm We would
like to thank Captain Eastwood BEM, CQSW of the Lancashire Fusiliers website.

I asked Jim how he heard of Blind Veterans UK, and I don't know why I
was surprised by his response, as the person who frst told him about us is
responsible for bringing in many new members.

Jim began: "Ruby and I were on holiday in Scotland in 2008 when we took a
bus. During that bus ride we spoke with a charming woman from Lancashire
who was on a walking holiday. She asked about my failing eyesight and if I had
Served in the Armed Forces. I told her I had and she gave us her phone number
and told me to phone her when we got home and she'd tell me about Blind
Veterans UK. I did and that was the frst step to getting my life back, as that
charming woman was Maria Pikulski, and she helped me to join Blind Veterans
UK. Until then I thought things were over for me and I'd sunk into depression.
Now I once again have a full life thanks to Maria Pikulski, Blind Veterans UK and
my Welfare Ofcer Sharon Gradwell. I can never repay them for all they have
done.

"The frst thing Sharon did was to arrange my training. She has since arranged
for a stair lift to be put into our home and for a workshop to be built in the
garden as I go in there to do the mosaic work I enjoy. I learnt mosaic work at the
Brighton centre. I also did computer training and that is another lifeline. I use
a telephone with large buttons and a very basic mobile phone that the ROVIs
taught me to use. The level of training is incredible and from that frst meeting
with Maria Pikulski, the frst meeting with Sharon Gradwell and the frst time I
entered a Blind Veterans UK centre for training my life was put back on track."

Picture: Private Jim 'Ginger' Hodgkinson is shown kneeling in the front row
second from the left. The photograph was taken when he was in hospital in
England recovering from his wounds


WO2 Leslie John Laverick


1. 1939-45 Star. 2. French German Star. 3. Defence Medal 4. War Medal 1939-45. 4. GSM Palestine 1945-48 . 5. TAVR Efficiency Medal.

Born in Cherat India 1922 in the Lancashire Fusiliers the 3rd son of Major J N Laverick served with the 4th Dragoon Guards during the WW2 In about 1947 joined 5 LF and finished WO2 CSM C Coy at Bury, He was awarded the Lord Lieutenants award for his services to the TA , he left 5LF was made a company in the first of the army cut backs


Les's Birth Cert born
into the LF's in
Cherat India


Cpl Dennis John Laverick

Joined the junior soldiers as a drummer in 1964 at Sutton Coalfield moved to Weeton Camping 1966 to join 1LF into the Corp of Drums moved to A Coy 1 Plt until I became company driver to Major Ian Cartwright in Hong Kong I was in the athletics team the swimming team and cross country team, when the LF's disbanded I went to 2RRF for six months in Berlin before returning to Bury with 72 Army Youth Team returning to 2RRF at Catterick I did 4 tours of Ireland after the 1st tour of Ireland I moved to the signals plt leaving the army in 1972. When I left the army I joined the association and was for 12years Treasurer of the LF Club. Then I started the Fusiliers Krypton Factor Competition. My team and I ran this competition for 14 years and raised ¼ of a million pounds mostly for the Army Benevolent Fund and Fusiliers Aid Society; I received the Fusiliers Regimental Commendation and medal for my work for the Fusiliers Associations Aid Society, and for services to the Regiment.

I feel so honoured to be given the Number 1 Membership card


Jungle warfare school Malaya

newspaper cutting that goes with that photo


Junior soldiers at Sutton Coalfield


This photo was taken in the RHQ the old QM's (my Grandads) Office
it was in
Lancashire Life
Dave Roberts and Terry Jolliffe also on Photo


Receiveing the Regimental Certificate and medal at a Krypton Factor Presentation Night


My Regimental Medal given to me in 1989

Looking at my granddads sword in the Museum


Pat, Dennis and Tracey at Buckingham Place before going into the Royal Garden Party


The 90th Anniversary
Somme Parade
Victoria Station
2006

The Naming of the
Lancashire Fusilier
Tram
With Tony Dale and David Godley
Serco Metrolink MD


4RRF Colours for
Athletics
(not many of these about)

1LF Atheltics
Hong Kong runner up
to Brian Hobbs


1LF Breast Stroke relay team
Winners
A Coy


Presentation of the Regimental Medal of Merit by Col Cartwright and Maj John Hallam
in 1989

Click Here
The story of the Krypton Factor Commpetion when we raised £250.000 for Charity mainly the Fusiliers Aid Society and the ABF