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Wigan Borough Remembers

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Wigan Borough Remembers Produced by Wigan Museums & Archives Issue No. 67 August-November 2014 £2 WWiiggaann BBoorroouugghh RReemmeemmbbeerrss:: FFiirrsstt WWoorrlldd WWaarr CCoommmmeemmoorraattiivvee SSppeecciiaall EEddiittiioonn Visit Wigan Borough Museums & Archives ARCHIVES & MUSEUMS ARCHIVES & MUSEUMS Write 1000 words - Win £100! Contents Letter from the Do you have a passion for local history? Is there a local history topic that you would love to 4-5 The Fallen see featured in Past Forward? Then why not take part in 6-7 The 5th Battalion Editorial Team Wigan Borough Environment The Manchester and Heritage Network’s Local Regiment (1908-1914) Welcome to PAST Forward and this special History Writing Competition? Local History Writing 8 News from the extended commemorative edition of the magazine. Competition Archives/Local Studies At the Archives & Museums, our staff and volunteers have spent many 1st Prize - £100 9 Collections Corner long hours working on collections, documenting and digitising 2nd Prize - £75 10-11 Deadman's Penny sources and making sure that researchers are able to share in telling 3rd Prize - £50 the stories of Wigan Borough and the Great War. Since asking for Five Runners-Up Prizes of £25 12-13 Postcard from Africa contributions about the First World War, we’ve been overwhelmed The Essay Writing Competition 14-15 Brothers in War with the response we have received from readers old and new, all is kindly sponsored by Mr and with histories to tell and the lives of men and women to remember. Mrs J. O'Neil. 16-17 From Playing Field to Battlefield Criteria in Past Forward Issue 68. • Electronic submissions are • It will not be possible for articles We wanted to create something that would offer a record for the Other submissions may also be preferred although handwritten to be returned. • Articles must be a maximum of published in Issue 68 or held on ones will be accepted. 18-19 The Unmovable future that showed how people in 2014 marked the centenary of the 1000 words. • You are welcome to include file for publication in a future • You must state clearly that your photographs or images however Arthur Turtle First World War and reflected on the lives lost or damaged during the • Articles must focus on a local edition. If selected for publication article is an entry into the Local they cannot be returned. long years of the conflict. We hope that this special edition does this. history topic within the the Past Forward Editorial Team History Writing Competition. 20-21 1915: Trouble on geographical boundaries of may edit your submission. Submit to the Homefront We have tried to offer a balanced overview of the many wars fought Wigan Borough. • You must include your name, [email protected] OR How to enter between 1914 and 1918; on the home front, in fields and factories, • By entering the competition address, telephone number and Local History Writing Competition, 22 Online Blog you agree to your work being • Articles must be received e-mail address (if applicable). Past Forward, Museum of against loss and grief, as well as in the different corners of the world published in Past Forward. The by e-mail or post by Friday We will not pass your details on Wigan Life, Library Street, Wigan 23 They Also Served where men and women from Wigan Borough found themselves at war. winning article will be published 3 October 2014. to anyone. WN1 1NU 24-25 A Wigan Man's Eastern If you have further stories you’d like to tell of life during the Great Journey: Gallipoli War, we’d be delighted to hear from you. FORWARD Copy Deadline for Issue 68 26-27 PAST Wartime Friends: Contributors please note the deadline for the Zeppelins over Europe Information for Submission Guidelines receipt of material for publication is 28 Lusitania Contributors Subscription Form Friday, 31 October 2014. • Electronic submissions are preferred, 30-31 Wigan Hero Wins We always welcome articles and letters although handwritten ones will Victoria Cross? be accepted for publication from both new and Past Forward Subscription Name 32-33 Thomas Dakin: existing contributors. • We prefer articles to have a maximum Magazine subscription is £9 for An Experience of War If you would like to submit an article for length of 1,000 words three issues (incl. UK delivery). Address FORWARD Payment by cheque (payable to PAST , please note that: • Include photographs or images 34-35 Commercial Advertising WLCT), postal order or credit/debit • Publication is at discretion of where possible – these can be in World War One returned if requested card (telephone 01942 828128). Editorial Team Postcode 35 For worldwide subscription prices and Your Letters • The Editorial Team may edit your • Include your name and address – we will not pass on your details to information, please contact us. Telephone No. 36-37 Edward Williams submission anyone unless you have given us Digital subscription (delivered by email, (1890-1918) • Published and rejected submissions permission to do so Email will be disposed of, unless you worldwide) is £6 per year. Payment options as above. 38 Society News request for them to be returned We aim to acknowledge receipt of all Signed Date submissions. Please state which issue you wish 39 Events Calendar • Submissions may be held on file for your membership to begin at: publication in a future edition CONTACT DETAILS: [email protected] or K Please tick here if you would like to receive information regarding Wigan Heritage Service (Museum, Archives) • Articles must be received by the FRONT COVER The Editor at PAST FORWARD , activities and events.We do not pass your details to other organisations. Images of local men and copy date if inclusion in the next issue is desired Museum of Wigan Life, Library Street, Return to: The Museum of Wigan Life, Past Forward Subscription, Library Street, Wigan WN1 1NU women of the First World War. Wigan WN1 1NU. 2 3 Hospital in Basra. Mary recovered accidental. Margaret is buried at volunteered to deliver the but the disease had considerably Wigan Cemetery (Lower Ince). message before Alfred had all weakened her. On returning Also buried at Wigan Cemetery been killed. Alfred delivered the home to Tyldesley, Mary was (Lower Ince), are Samuel and message through 600 yards of appointed District Nurse but less Jane Tomlinson, husband and heavy machine gun fire. than a year later Mary died from wife who were killed during the Assistance was eventually sent. her weakened state. She is buried zeppelin air raid on Wigan. in Tyldesley Cemetery as well. Before midnight on the 12 April After the war, Alfred opened a 1918, a zeppelin dropped bombs sweet shop at 113 Etherstone The Fallen There are other female casualties on the Whelley, New Springs, Street with his wife Grace but he who are buried in local Scholes and Lower Ince areas of gave this up to work in the cemeteries. Bertha McIntosh [see Wigan. The bombs created huge surveyor’s laboratory at Ann Glacki's article later in this devastation. Six people were Bickershaw Colliery. During the BY HANNAH TURNER, LEIGH LOCAL STUDIES edition] is buried in Atherton killed, five of them outright, Second World War, Alfred Cemetery with her family. Bertha including Samuel and Jane assisted in the home guard. died of TNT poisoning contracted On 18 October 1940, Alfred was One of the most enduring images On the first day alone there were Tomlinson. Samuel, a gas whilst working at a National found dead at work. He had died of the First World War is of the around 60,000 British casualties, inspector, lived with Jane at 35 Filling Factory in Morecambe from carbon monoxide poisoning seemingly endless rows of white 20,000 of whom were killed. Sixty Harper Street. On the night of the making munitions for battle caused by a bird blocking the gravestones, somewhere in a per cent of all officers were killed raid Samuel and Jane were asleep ships. Both Bertha and her sister ventilation pipe. Alfred was foreign field. The Commonwealth on that first day too. A letter from in bed when the bomb fell. The Ida had gone to work at the buried in Leigh Cemetery will full War Graves Commission is a soldier which appeared in the blast from the bomb threw them factory. On the 20 April 1917 military honours. responsible for maintaining Leigh Journal said that, ‘the both through a window and they Bertha had been taken ill, less cemeteries and memorials which trenches were full of dead and died from the impact. Over the years Alfred’s grave fell than a month later she died on stretch from the Menin Gate dying, and some of them have into disrepair. Encouraged by Bert the 13 May at Royal Albert There are of course those who Memorial in Ypres to the Helles been 30 hours waiting for Paxford on behalf of the Old Edward Infirmary in Wigan. fought and survived the First Memorial in Gallipoli. attention. Ambulances are running Comrade’s Association of the Bertha’s family received £50 in World War buried in local about at full-speed, and everybody Manchester Regiment, Wigan compensation for her death. cemeteries. These veterans are Sir Fabian Ware, a British Red is doing his best for them. I have not always in graves which have Council spent around £250 Cross commander, started the seen over a hundred bodies in one Another young lady called memorials commemorating their restoring Alfred’s grave. A black Commission after being grieved at line waiting to be buried’. Margaret Ann Silcock also died service but one that does is that granite cross with the Victoria the number of casualties in the from the effects of poison whilst of Alfred Wilkinson, the Victoria Cross inscribed on it now marks first years of the war.
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