It seems appropriate to write about Remembrance Sunday with it once again being celebrated on Sunday 9th November at the Cenotaph in Memorial Park in the village centre. The club has always laid a wreath down and more recently sold pin badges with the poppy and the clubs badge on for the British Legion.
I am writing this in relation to a service that was held on a beautiful evening in the summer to mark the start of World War One 100 years ago to that day. 4th August.
The service was beautifully constructed and contained readings of the men who lost their lives during the Great War and that is what I want to share with you today.

Thomas Jackson’s body lies far away from Shevington, in the cemetery in Basra, Iraq. One hundred years ago he was living less than 100 yards from this memorial, at no. 10, Shevington Lane, where the new house is now. A miner, he went from the cold and damp of the pit to die in the hot, dry sands of Mesopotamia.

John Marshall never let the grass grow under his feet, having been at various times a miner, a mate on a barge, and a worker at Roburite. He proudly joined the colours but died in the mud at Passchendaele, leaving a 28-year-old wife Elizabeth, and two children, Walter, aged 9 and Catherine, 7. His body was never found.

John James Hill was 20 years old when he died in the waters of the north Atlantic, to the west of the Orkneys Islands. He was a stoker on board H.M.S. Hampshire which struck a mine and sank within 15 minutes, taking with it Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, and stoker, 1st class, John James Hill of Moorfield Houses, Crooke, Wigan.

Robert Henry Davies and two of his friends enlisted almost as soon as the war began in August 1914. One year later they were all wounded in the Gallipoli campaign. Robert recovered sufficiently to be sent to the Somme, where, in August 1916 he received the news of the death of his mother. She did not live to hear of his death in November, 1916. His body was never found.

Richard Hooton’s mother, Mary, was a widow, living in a cottage at Standish Hall. Richard was very devout. After his death, religious artefacts were sent back to her. Richard had moved to Northumberland as a miner, where the money was better, but the colliery gave him £2 to join up. Richard died at Passchendaele, and his body was never found.

William Halton was just 20 years old when he died in France. He had been the eighth of nine children in a family of farm workers from Dalton. The inscription on his grave, chosen by his family, says, We loved him well, but Jesus loved him best.”

Harry Kitchen At 7.30am on the 1st July, 1916, the whistles blew, and three quarters of a million men of British and Commonwealth forces rose out of their trenches and charged the German lines. By nightfall, twenty thousand of them were dead, one of whom was Harry Kitchen, of 87, Crooke Village. His body was never found

William Holland was already a professional soldier when war broke out, and he was immediately sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force. Five weeks later he was killed in France, one of the first British soldiers to died there. He left a widow and a young child, living at 33, Gathurst Lane, just about where the Co-op is today. His body was never found.

Frederick Hodge When Frederick’s captain wrote to tell his wife Catherine that he had died, he described him as an “earnest, Christian fellow, sound and sincere in his faith for God.” Fred had married Catherine towards the end of 1915, and they been together for less than two years when he was killed. His body was never found.

Edward Stopforth In St Anne’s churchyard lies the body of Nancy Stopforth. Two of her sons died in the war – James Tunstall, a son from her first marriage, and Edward Stopforth, a son from her second marriage. They lived at 79, Gathurst Lane, where St Anne’s vicarage is now. Edward’s body was never found.

Edward Dean lies far from this place, in the sands of Iraq. He was a coalminer, married to Jerusha Fairhurst, with two children; but as a soldier he had been taken to Mesopotamia to fight the Ottomans, and he died at the siege of Kut about 300 miles north of Basra. His body was never found
Oswald Wilson’s brother, Albert, joined up at the beginning of the war, served all the way through it, and came out without a scratch Oswald joined up in July 1918, and was wounded two days before the armistice. He died in Rouen Hospital. His gravestone says: “We have loved him in life. Let us not forget him hereafter.”

Robert George Bentham was a man from Shevington Moor, He lived with his widowed mother, and he worked with the dogs at Wrightington Hall where the owner, Robert Gerrard, was fanatical about blood sports. Robert died near Arras on 5th May, 1917, and his body was never found.

Harry Randolph Taylor was a student. His family home was Wellsdale, a substantial house on Gathurst Lane, down near the new estate, which is still to be seen. The house was built by Harry’s father. Harry had studied in Glasgow to become a farmer, but he died in France and his body was never found.

John Grundy The first news about John to his parents, in March 1918, was that he was a prisoner of war. 2 months later came the news that he had died. Both John’s parents worked on the barges; John himself worked at Roburite. He is buried at Le Cateau Military cemetery alongside 5,000 German troops.

Thomas Gladman’s mother Alice probably could not read or write. She signed her marriage certificate with an X. Her first husband, Thomas’s father, died young, and Alice married again, to Henry Pilkington, the great uncle of Sylvia Williams, who is buried in St Anne’s. Thomas died in France but his body was never found.

Lest we Forget RIP.