Heywood Soldiers WW1

KILLED: Lance Corporal Harvey Alston,
1st 5th Bn Lancashire Fusilier, was shot in the back during a bayonet charge on Turkish positions at Gallipoli. He was in his early 30s, lived in Starkey street, and worked at the Sun Iron works. He had a wife and child and enlisted as a professional soldier in 1910. His brother-in-law, Corporal James Babut, who also took part in the attack, wrote: "We got to the enemy trenches, but were driven out again. Harvey had to be left with many more wounded."

KILLED: L/Cpl Samuel Aspinall,
aged 35, of Union Street, had only enlisted in the 1st 8th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers three months before his death. He was killed leaving the trenches to come home on Christmas leave. The Heap Bridge paper mill worker had told his wife and three children in a letter her would arrive at the Summit from Bury at 8pm. They waited in vain for him until 10pm that night. He never came home
.
ILL: Pte William Fitton,
of the Lancashire Fusiliers, who wrote home from Gallipoli while recuperating from a slight bayonet injury and bronchitis. He told a harrowing tale, as one of three snipers who fired into bushes and killed a Turkish woman. As they looked more closely at her they found her to be camouflaged in green and had 43 British army identification discs around her neck - trophies of soldiers she had killed.


KILLED: Pte Ernest Goodhall
1st 5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers had been wounded at Gallipoli and wrote home saying he was resting after six weeks in the fighting zone. He was killed in action at 10am on 12 July and died within five minutes of being hit while being offered a drink from Pte Devonshire, of Gregge Street. He was buried alongside Pte George Noble, of Walton street.


SURVIVOR: Pte J C Jolden,
a Lancashire Fusilier, of Buxton Street, wrote home: "It's a miracle I am still alive. A bullet went through my haversack, toothbrush, razor and mirror and stuck in a pack of 20 rounds of ammunition, sticking in five rounds and twisting them. They luckily didn't go off."


WOUNDED: Pte S Mills
was shot in the back on a mission in the Dardanelles. He wrote to his Middleton Road Post Office home from the Cairo hospital where he was recovering: "It was a hell-hole, with bodies all over. It took me 30 hours to work my way back to the trenches."

WOUNDED: Pte Walter Reeve,
a Lancashire Fusilier, of Manchester Road, was struck by shrapnel as he was at the top of a cliff in the Dardanelles. He fell 200ft to the sea below, but survived and was recovered by boat. He was taken to a Cairo hospital. He had two serving brothers, Sgt Herbert Reeve of the Royal Field Artillery, who was wounded in action, and Yeoman of Signals George Edward Reeve of the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, who was drowned when HMS Hampshire was sunk en route to Russia with Kitchener on baord in June 1916
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1916

DIED OF WOUNDS: Company Sergeant Major Thomas Bleackley,

9th Bn Lancashire Fusilier, had been mentioned in dispatches earlier that year and was the holder of the DCM for gallantry at Sulva Bay the previous year after leading his men ashore under heavy fire after two officers had been killed. He organised the platoon, leading them into the attack. He died of severe wounds at a French hospital, received in another action. His widow, of Heap Bridge, was presented with his medal.
This medal is in museum he is Lisa Stansfields Great Granddad and is already on site on
https://www.lancs-fusiliers.co.uk/gallerynew/9thBn1914_18/9thBn1914_18.htm


DIED: Sgt John Robert Carruthers,
9th Bn Lancashire Fusilier of Taylors Buildings, did not survive typhus contracted while a prisoner of the Turks. Letters home said he had been wounded in three places and had been captured and held in four or five prison camps before his death. An experienced soldier, he had left the army before the war, but re-enlisted in September 1914 to fight for the King's Shilling.

INVALIDED HOME: Corp John Clare
, a Lancashire Fusilier, came back to his Rochdale Road, Captain Fold home, via hospital, after being hurt at Gallipoli. He wrote from there: "I was lucky to escape death when a bullet passed through my helmet and grazed the top of my head. We went over the top in a bayonet charge on Sunday August 7th. The bullets were like hailstones. Many men fell as soon as they topped the parapet. They were like heroes. The Turks met us hand to hand. It was absolute murder. Not many survived or returned."

DIED OF WOUNDS: Lt John Ernest Hartington,
5th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers att to 164 Coy Machine Gun Companywas the first Heywood manto be awarded the Military Cross, on 16 November 1916. He had shown gallantry in the field by continuously passing through enemy bombardments to supervise the efficient working of field guns. He was decorated by the King at Buckingham Palace the week before his death, from wounds of the abdomen. He was 21 years old and had lived in Highfield House, Manchester Road, Hopwood.

MEDAL: Sgt J Ridings
,
2nd 7th Bn Lancashire Fusilier, was awarded the Military Medal for dangerous patrol work. The enemy was on the opposite side of the canal at Nieuport in Belgium and Ridings was asked to swim 150 metres across to obtain detailed information on the enemy's position, which he succeeded in doing. The william Street man was later awarded the French Croix de Guerre and was also recommended for a Russian honour.

MEDAL: Corp Edgar Warrington
, a Lancashire Fusilier of St James' Street, was awarded the DCM for action in France on 1 July 1917. He carried messages under shell fire for three days. The trenches were waist deep in mud and shell holes full of water, making it necessary to stay at ground level. He was also awarded the French Croix de Guerre and the Russian Garter of St George.

MEDAL: Pte Norman Turner,

2nd 5th Bn Lancashire Fusilier of Wild Street, was awarded the DCM for bravery during a bombing raid in April 1918. He was a member of a storming party and was involved in hand to hand bombing for six hours. He climbed onto an enemy parapet while under heavy machine gun and rifle fire and drove back the enemy enabling the rest of his party to advance. Though wounded, hecontinued to bring messages and refused to leave his officer who was also wounded, holding the advancing enemy for some time alone.

WOUNDED: Pte George Unsworth,
a Lancashire Fusilier, of Melton Street, was wounded twice in the leg and once in the arm on the first day of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916. The following year he was wounded in the face, and was in hospital in November 1918 for his fifth war wound, this time to the arm just before the Armistice. He was discharged time expired ... and re-enlisted a week later.