July, 1916, another story from Tony Goulding

 he whole month of July, 1916 was a devastating period for communities across Europe and beyond as the appalling loss of life on the Somme battlefields continued relentlessly.   

The Guillemont Battlefield

The fourth week of this bleak month proved particular painful for the people of South Manchester. 

I have written previously on this Blog (22nd June 2016), of the losses suffered on the 20th July, 1916 by the 19th battalion The Royal Fusiliers. 

This was one of “the public schools battalions” raised in Manchester with many recruited from local Grammar Schools.   While researching for another story, I discovered that just three days later, 23rd July, the 19th battalion of The Manchester Regiment were in action near Guillemont and also sustained horrific casualties.

This unit comprised of men from all districts of Manchester and Salford with many others from the surrounding towns. Chorlton-cum-Hardy and its neighbouring areas of Moss Side, Whalley Range, Withington and Stretford were all represented among the almost 150 fatalities of the 23rd July.

Two of the soldiers, that had a Chorlton-cum-Hardy connection, who died that day were Victor John Edward Prickett and John Pedley. Private John Pedley, (No.18098), enlisted in Manchester in the autumn of 1914 having travelled from his home in Wilmslow, Cheshire. He was initially attached to the 20th (5th City) battalion, ‘C’ company, IX platoon but was later transferred to the 19th battalion. John was born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, on the 11th November, 1895. His parents, John, a baker and his wife Martha (née Turnbull) were both from the village of Yaxley in Huntingdonshire. The Pedley’s had moved several times since they had arrived in the township; by the time young John was born his father was keeping a shop at 62, Sandy Lane. 

Sandy Lane – Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1910

The family continued to move on, first to 109, Beech Road then to 33, Stockton Road at which address they are recorded in the 1901 census. Soon, however they were to move once more to Wilmslow, Cheshire; John junior enrolling in the Wilmslow Independent British School there. At the 1911 census, John was assisting in his father’s business as an ironmonger and hardware dealer at Grove Street, Wilmslow (their residence) and London Road, Alderley Edge, Cheshire.

In a family of 9 children, John was his parent’s only son, he had 6 older and 2 younger sisters. A third younger sister, Elsie, died in the August of 1900 having just turned one-years-old. She is interred in Manchester’s Southern Cemetery. 

 Unlike Pte. Pedley, Pte. Victor John Edward Prickett (No. 12552) was not born in Chorlton-cum-Hardy. He was born in the Lambeth registration district of London during the March quarter of 1897. He was the second of the seven surviving children of Charles Jonathan Prickett, an electrical engineer, and his wife Alice (née Marriott).

 Victor spent his early life in South East London and Kent with the 1901 census record showing him in Beckenham, Bromley, Kent. Early in the following decade the family relocated to Chorlton-cum-Hardy. The 1905 electoral register includes the father with reference to number of addresses, the latest being 17, Albermarle Road. Later registers show him at 42, Longford Road while the 1911 census and Pte. Prickett’s entry on the Commonwealth War Graves database gives the family address as 20, Grange Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy. In 1911 Victor was recorded as an office-boy in a solicitor’s office. He responded early in the First World War to Lord Kitchener’s “call to arms” to form New Armies of volunteers. He joined Company “D”, Platoon XV of the 19th (4th Manchester Pals) Battalion of the Manchester Regiment

 

One of Kitchener’s Famous Recruitment Posters

As stated above there were several other casualties on the 23rd July,1916 with connections to the area around Chorlton-cum-Hardy. One of those from Stretford was Pte. Victor Henderson, (1) one of three brothers residing at 24, Albion Street, Old Trafford who were killed in the War. Another was Walter Shawcross, a greengrocer’s assistant of 47, Jackson Street, Stretford.(2) Two of those from Moss Side who fell lived, on the same road only a few doors from each other. Pte. Cyril Rowe Willcocks, a mechanical draughtsman born in Cardiff, South Wales in 1889, lived at 23, Monton Street while nearby 16, Monton Street was the home of Lance Sergeant John Henry Sheasby. The suburbs of Whalley Range and Withington were also represented in the general slaughter.

Some more of their stories may be told in a future post.

Pictures: Guillemont Battlefield, in September, 1916 “Daily Mail” Post Card in the public domain

Sandy Lane, Chorlton-cum-Hardy in 1910 m 18194. Courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Archives and Information, Manchester City Council, http://manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Lord Kitchener’s Recruitment Poster from the collection of Tony Goulding.

Notes: -

1) Although Pte. Henderson died on the 23rd July, 1916 it was not at Guillemont. He is listed as dying at the 5th London General Hospital – St. Thomas’s Hospital, London S.E. of the wounds, he suffered earlier on the 8th July. Victor is interred in grave I 231 in Stretford Cemetery, one of its 77 war graves. 

2) Walter Shawcross’s story reveals the frightening speed of events at this time. On the 11th June, 1916 he married Sarah Ann Charnley at St. Mathew’s Church, Stretford. He arrived in Boulogne, France on the 24th June and was killed in action just a month later.