Cheadle Royal War Memorial, …….. another story from Tony Goulding

This is a return visit to the War Memorial at Cheadle Royal Hospital. 

Of the seven soldiers recorded thereon four have already had their stories told on this Blog. The remaining three men’s histories are detailed here. 

Two of the three joined the Cheshire Regiment while the third although with the 2nd Battalion Leinster Regiment when he died of his wounds, while in German hands as a prisoner of war, originally enlisted into the Shropshire Light Infantry Regiment.

The two soldiers of the Cheshire Regiment both fell in the closing months of 1915. The first to die George Verner S. Swift, a private of the 2nd Battalion, was killed in action on the 2nd October; the other, Private Walter Brown of the 9th battalion was killed in action on the 29th December. 

 George V. S. Swift was born in Reddish, Nr. Stockport, Cheshire in the September quarter of 1882. He was the son of George, a wall paper designer from Derby, Derbyshire, and his Mancunian wife, Jessie (née Schofield). In the 1891 census George was living with his parents and a younger sister, Jessie Margaret S. at 6, Repton Street, Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester. 

Ten years later he was a general labourer residing with his, by then recently widowed, mother, two brothers 7-year-old Arthur and Jack who was 6, and another sister, 3-years-old Ida. 

Their home was 125, Wilmslow Road, Gatley, Cheshire opposite the main entrance of Cheadle Royal Asylum.

George Verner Swift married Alice Derbyshire in the September quarter of 1905 in the Bucklow registration district of Cheshire.

In the 1911 census the family is recorded as residing at the Cheadle Royal Asylum where George was employed as a gardener. At this time George and Alice had three children. A son, George, was born in the June quarter of 1906; followed by two daughters, Alice and Phyllis born in the June quarter of 1908 and December quarter of 1909 respectively. A second son, Leslie, was born on the 24th September, 1913.

Sent to France as part of Kitchener’s “New Army” on the 2nd July, 1915, Private Swift was killed in action on the 3rd October, 1915; one of 152 fatalities suffered that day by the 2nd Battalion, Cheshire regiment as they fought to repel a counter attack by the German Army attempting to retake the Hohenzollern Redoubt during the Battle of Loos. 

Like more than 140 of his comrades in the 2nd battalion, Pte. Swift has no known grave and his name is one of the 20,642 men recorded on The Loos Memorial.

Walter Brown was born during the June quarter of 1892 in Moss Nook, Cheadle, Cheshire. He was one the eight children (six sons and two daughters) of James Brown, a “Hay Cutter on a Farm” and his wife Betsy Louisa (née Bradshaw) On the 1911 census Walter is recorded as working as a domestic gardener and still living with his parents (and his seven siblings) at Moss Nook. The census form also reveals that this family of ten were crammed into just four rooms.

 Walter enlisted, at Stockport, into the 9th Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment. This unit arrived in Boulogne, France on the 19th July, 1915. Before the end of the year Pte. Brown was killed in action on the 29th December, 1915. As he was the only recorded death from his battalion on that day, he was likely the victim of either sniper fire or routine shelling. 

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s records reveal two items of interest. The grave registration document dated 16th July, 1920 shows Walter’s rank as Lance Corporal which may indicate that he was acting in that rank when he was killed and subsequently reverted to his substantive rank. The other item is an inscription on Walter’s headstone requested by his father and next of kin.

 “We cannot Lord, Thy purpose see,

   But all is well that’s done by Thee.” (1)

Private Walter Brown is buried in the Commonwealth War Grave Commission’s St. Vaast Post Military Cemetery, Richebourg - L'avoue, Pas de Calais, France.

The third and final soldier’s name on the Cheadle Royal memorial is that of William Hewitt. He was born on Christmas Day, 25th December, 1885 in Knutsford, Cheshire the son of William Hewitt and his wife Annie (née Berry). His father was a general labourer who would often have to travel to find work. 

The 1891 census records the family at 30, Bedford Street, Oldham, Lancashire with William Snr. working in an ironworks. Young William had three sisters, Annie E., Eva and Rose. Annie E. and Eva were both born in Knutsford, Cheshire in 1885 and the December quarter of 1887, respectively. Rose was born on the 31st October, 1890 in Oldham, Lancashire where her father had found work as a labourer in the local ironworks. 

William Hewitt Snr. died, aged 41, in Oldham during the June quarter of 1891; left with four young children William's mother returned to Knutsford . William and his siblings all attended the St. Cross Church of England School, prior to which he had been at the Egerton Boys School, both in Knutsford. He left school on the 18th May, 1900 and the census of the following year records him working as a carter’s labourer and boarding with Mary Berry (presumably his aunt) on Silk Mill Street, Knutsford. William’s mother is recorded as living at 45, Leicester Street,  Northwich, Cheshire with James Lambert, a “timber carrier’s teamsman” and William’s half-siblings, a half-sister, Elsie, born on the 2nd September, 1894 and a half-brother, Charles, born on 22nd April, 1896 both in Knutsford, Cheshire.

 William married “Lily” Baguley (a near neighbour on Silk Mill Street) in the December quarter of 1907 in Knutsford.

The 1911 census shows William and Lily living at 22, Darley Street, Sale, Cheshire where William is employed as a railway labourer. Also living in his household in the 5-roomed property were his mother, three of his siblings (Rose, Elsie, and Charles) and a young “visitor” 8-year-old Mary Royle.

  William Hewitt enlisted at Stockport, Cheshire initially serving with the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry Regiment but later being transferred to the Leinster Regiment. (2)

   Private Hewitt died of his wounds, on the 6th April, 1918, whilst a prisoner of war in German hands and was interred by them in the Le Cateau Military Cemetry in the Nord Region of France. 

Tony Goulding © 2020

Pictures; Cheadle Royal, 2020, from the collection of Tony Goulding, Le Cateau Military Cemetery. e cateau cemetery, Author -Wernervc, License; creative commons attribution-share alike 4-0 international, "Cross of Sacrifice" author was Rene Hourdry, License; creative commons attribution-share alike 4-0 internationa

Loos Memorial, Author K!roman licensed on Wiki-commons creative commons attribution-share alike 3-0 unported

NOTES: -

1) This commonly used epitaph is derived from a popular hymn written by Sir John Bowring a Victorian businessman politician and writer and one-time Governor of Hong Kong. His Unitarian heritage and education inspired him to publish 88 hymns one of which, “O Let My Trembling Soul Be Still” this couplet is a revised piece of.

2) The full name of this regiment was “The Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians). A somewhat confusing name which comes from one of the original army units raised in Canada in response to the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Appropriately they were also the last British Army Regiment to garrison Canada in Nova Scotia, 1898-1900