Yesterday with the help of Kim I came across a bit more of the story of Private Sidney Bone, who lived in Withington, was wounded during the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, and was buried four years later in St Paul’s Church, in Withington.
I knew that he had enlisted in the November of 1914 in the 7th City Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, and as such was one of thousands of young men who volunteered in the first few months of the war.
The records show that he was discharged from the army on October 12th, 1917, and died in Broughton House of his wounds on November 2nd, 1920.
Broughton House had been opened in 1916 to care for disabled servicemen who “through paralysis, wounds and amputations will never be able to follow any trade or occupation. They must receive special care and constant attention which could not always be provided in their own home. Most of these men will be entirely dependent on the ministrations of others, even more so than the ordinary home for incurables”*
And that was pretty much it, other than he had described himself as an “Office boy for a Bleacher works” in 1911.
But at that time a search of firms connected with the textile industry listed in the Manchester City Battalions Book of Honour, 1916 drew a blank, and I reasoned he might have sustained his injuries at Third Battle of Ypres in 1917.
But his battalion had been transferred to Italy in the November of that year and given the fearsome treatment it had received a year earlier at the Battle of the Somme I rather doubted, their participation at Passchendaele.
Leaving me just to make a not that I should research the war diaries of the battalion.
And as so often happens a fresh bit of the story pooped up in the form of a comment from Kim McMahon-Thompson, who had discovered a newspaper clipping from the Manchester Evening News Saturday July 15th 1916
"Dangerously wounded by shrapnel Private Sydney Bone of the Manchester Pals is in hospital at Rouen.
He was employed by Messrs Latham & Wilson, Indian House, Whitworth Street. His parent live in Hill Street, Withington’”.
The news clipping placed Private Bone at the battle of the Somme which had begun in the July of 1916.
The 7th Battalion were part of the attack on Fricourt, on the first day of fighting and received heavy casualties.
Of the 796 men engaged on that day, 472 were casualties, and the battalion was withdrawn from the fighting on July 3.**
So Private Bone will have received his dangerous shrapnel wounds during those first few days and will have been treated in a field hospital before arriving at Rouen on July 15th.
The same newspaper account offered up one other piece of information which was that before enlisting in 1914. he had worked for Latham and Wilson.
A search of both the Roll of Honour and the directories revealed that Wilson, Latham and Co, were Merchants located on the First floor of India Houses on Whitworth Street.
I doubt I will ever know how many staff were employed by the firm, but the Roll of Honour records that eleven of them joined up, with five enlisting in the Manchester’s.
In the fullness of time I think I will go looking for all of the ten who left with Private Bone, but for now it is enough to have got a little closer to the young man who died at the young age of 24.
Pictures; gravestone of Private Bone, 2020, from the collection of Daniel Daly, Book of Honour, 1916, the Bronze plaque of Private S Bone, from the collection of David Harrop,Wilson, Latham, and Co Roll of Honour from The Book of Honour, 1916, and St Paul's Church, Withington, 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
Additional research, Kim McMahon-Thompson
*Disabled Soldiers Progress of the East Lancashire Scheme, the Manchester Guardian, October 20, 1916
**The Twenty Second Service Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, http://www.themanchesters.org/22th%20batt.htm
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| Private Sidney Bone, 2020 |
The records show that he was discharged from the army on October 12th, 1917, and died in Broughton House of his wounds on November 2nd, 1920.
Broughton House had been opened in 1916 to care for disabled servicemen who “through paralysis, wounds and amputations will never be able to follow any trade or occupation. They must receive special care and constant attention which could not always be provided in their own home. Most of these men will be entirely dependent on the ministrations of others, even more so than the ordinary home for incurables”*
And that was pretty much it, other than he had described himself as an “Office boy for a Bleacher works” in 1911.
But at that time a search of firms connected with the textile industry listed in the Manchester City Battalions Book of Honour, 1916 drew a blank, and I reasoned he might have sustained his injuries at Third Battle of Ypres in 1917.
 |
| Bronze Plaque, Private Sidney Bone, 1919 |
And as so often happens a fresh bit of the story pooped up in the form of a comment from Kim McMahon-Thompson, who had discovered a newspaper clipping from the Manchester Evening News Saturday July 15th 1916
"Dangerously wounded by shrapnel Private Sydney Bone of the Manchester Pals is in hospital at Rouen.
He was employed by Messrs Latham & Wilson, Indian House, Whitworth Street. His parent live in Hill Street, Withington’”.
The news clipping placed Private Bone at the battle of the Somme which had begun in the July of 1916.
 |
| Wilson, Latham, & Co, Roll of Honour, 1916 |
Of the 796 men engaged on that day, 472 were casualties, and the battalion was withdrawn from the fighting on July 3.**
 |
| St Paul's Church, 894 |
The same newspaper account offered up one other piece of information which was that before enlisting in 1914. he had worked for Latham and Wilson.
A search of both the Roll of Honour and the directories revealed that Wilson, Latham and Co, were Merchants located on the First floor of India Houses on Whitworth Street.
I doubt I will ever know how many staff were employed by the firm, but the Roll of Honour records that eleven of them joined up, with five enlisting in the Manchester’s.
In the fullness of time I think I will go looking for all of the ten who left with Private Bone, but for now it is enough to have got a little closer to the young man who died at the young age of 24.
Pictures; gravestone of Private Bone, 2020, from the collection of Daniel Daly, Book of Honour, 1916, the Bronze plaque of Private S Bone, from the collection of David Harrop,Wilson, Latham, and Co Roll of Honour from The Book of Honour, 1916, and St Paul's Church, Withington, 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/
Additional research, Kim McMahon-Thompson
*Disabled Soldiers Progress of the East Lancashire Scheme, the Manchester Guardian, October 20, 1916
**The Twenty Second Service Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, http://www.themanchesters.org/22th%20batt.htm
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