The two world wars left their impact across the country in damaged buildings, interrupted lives, and above all in the loss of loved ones.
After the Great War, monuments were commissioned and paid for by local subscription to honour those who went and in particular those who never returned.
And with the end of the Second World War, the same communities added a second list of names.
Most of those who died on active service are buried where they fell, but some who died later from wounds they sustained in the fighting or from other causes were interred in private graves.
Such are the Withington Four who lie in St Paul’s Church on Wilmslow Road in Withington.
Three date from the Great War and the fourth died in 1945.
I came across them by chance, while researching the story of Private Sidney Bone, who grew up in Withington, enlisted in the Seventh City Brigade of the Manchester’s in the November of 1914 and died six year later of wounds he received at the Battle of the Somme.*
He is buried alongside the wall separating the church yard from the Rectory, and beside him is gravestone of J. Barber, “Flight Cadet”, who died on December 3rd, 1918.
And not far away are the graves of Private G.W. Andrews of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry who died on September 22nd, 1919 and Sergeant Joseph Geoffrey Hammond of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who died on January 2nd, 1945.
So far their stories are incomplete, and what there is is patchy, and needs mush more research.
I know that Sergeant Hamond was a wireless operator and was a member of No. 150 Squadron which in 1945 flew Lancaster bombers.
Flight Cadet J. H. Barber was with R.A.F. 5th Training Depot Station at Wyton in Cambrideshire, and his family lived on Cross Street in Didsbury.
Which leaves G.W. Andrews who remains the most elusive of the four. I know he was 27 when he died in 1919, and that his father is listed as Harry Andrews of Manchester, but apart from his regiment which was the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, that is it.
Not much I know for men who fought for the country and paid the ultimate sacrifice, but it is a start, and I have every confidence that their stories will be added to.
Location; Withington
Pictures;. gravestones of the Withington Four, from the collection of Daniel Daly
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| The graves of Private Bone and Flight Cadet J. Barber, 2020 |
And with the end of the Second World War, the same communities added a second list of names.
Most of those who died on active service are buried where they fell, but some who died later from wounds they sustained in the fighting or from other causes were interred in private graves.
 |
| Sergeant J.G. Hammond, 2020 |
I came across them by chance, while researching the story of Private Sidney Bone, who grew up in Withington, enlisted in the Seventh City Brigade of the Manchester’s in the November of 1914 and died six year later of wounds he received at the Battle of the Somme.*
He is buried alongside the wall separating the church yard from the Rectory, and beside him is gravestone of J. Barber, “Flight Cadet”, who died on December 3rd, 1918.
And not far away are the graves of Private G.W. Andrews of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry who died on September 22nd, 1919 and Sergeant Joseph Geoffrey Hammond of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who died on January 2nd, 1945.
So far their stories are incomplete, and what there is is patchy, and needs mush more research.
I know that Sergeant Hamond was a wireless operator and was a member of No. 150 Squadron which in 1945 flew Lancaster bombers.
 |
| Flight Cadet J.H. Barber, 2020 |
Which leaves G.W. Andrews who remains the most elusive of the four. I know he was 27 when he died in 1919, and that his father is listed as Harry Andrews of Manchester, but apart from his regiment which was the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, that is it.
Not much I know for men who fought for the country and paid the ultimate sacrifice, but it is a start, and I have every confidence that their stories will be added to.
Location; Withington
Pictures;. gravestones of the Withington Four, from the collection of Daniel Daly
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