Chorlton stories from the Great War and other conflicts

Now that the First World War has passed from living memory it seems all the more important to record many of the local men who served and in some cases died and also those who passed through the township and were looked after as they recovered from their wounds.

So on this day I have posted a link to the stories of the men and women who made a contribution in that struggle.*  And during the next few months to those who were involved in the other conflicts.

They include the stories of young men like William Lunt, the work of the Chorlton Red Cross Volunteers, and the words of some of the service men who passed through and were grateful for the care they were offered.

These have survived on our war memorials in the army records and in letters and photographs, and in this silver cup.

The inscription reads, Presented to the Wesleyan Church by the Wounded Soldiers of the Wesleyan School Hospital Xmas 1917.  I doubt whether many people know that during the Great War we had two voluntary hospitals here in Chorlton.

One was in the Methodist Sunday school building on Manchester Road and the other in the Sunday School of the MacLaren Memorial Baptist Church on the corner of Wilbraham and Sibson Road.  Sadly little has survived in the form of records.

We have a few newspaper references, letters from some of the medical staff and patients, and a contemporary account in a Red Cross book of the work undertaken to care for the recovering soldiers. So this silver engraved cup is an important object recording not only the gratitude of the soldiers but the voluntary efforts of the people of Chorlton.*




* http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20and%20the%20Great%20War
http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/memories-of-distant-wars-quetta.html

Pictures; from the collections of Andrew Simpson Philip Lloyd and the Lloyd collection.  

George Bradford Simpson and friends date unknown, the silver cup presented to the Methodist Church, and a young William Lunt from Sandy Lane who served in the Great War