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Fifty years ago on November 11, 1918, llie sound of battle died away in Europe. Men the world over could put away their guns and think again of peacetime occupations. The war had taken a dreadful toll, but despite the carnage, many still lived to tell the tale. Today, those who survive are in their seventies. This is how some of them remember
the Armistice.
JT WAS a day good enough for anything. The sun had already risen over Pcndlc. and was climbing
into a clear blue sky. At six in the morning, the
.streets of CUtheroc were thronged with people who had gathered to watch an 80-strong band of men—some of them, indeed, little more than boys— march the H
miles into Blackburn. It was August 1914, and the
Great War was only a few days old. The men were mem bers of the 4th Battalion the East Lancashire Regiment. As Territorials, their train
ing made them among the first to be sent to oppose the might of the Kaiser.
Clatter When war was declared,
thev had been under canvas in their summer camp at Caernarvon. Now they were at the start of a journey which, for many of them, was to have no return.
On the command, they
stepped out purposefully to wards Blackburn, the crisp clatter of their boots echo ing from the terraced houses lining Whalley Road.
At Primrose Bridge, the
civilians who accompanied them — fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters, sweethearts — stopped sh o r t , waving, cheering, crying.
on up the hill, round the corner and out of sight, with the early morning sun warm ing their faces. Today, under
But the soldiers marched
boarded the troopship that dria, the Suez, and places which only a few weeks before might as well have been on another planet, for all their significance to the Lancashire lads. But if they had needed any
reminders that the new game was being played in deadly seriousness, the orders to the
Of the 80 or so men in the picture, only nine still
survive, so far as we can tell. They were the first Clith eroe men to go to war, members of the 4th Battalion the East Lancashire Regiment. If you remember them, or took part in the 1914-18 war yourself, please write to us and tell us of your experiences.
skies more suited to the gentler pastimes of cricket or picnics in the country, the shopkeepers and millworkers of Clitheroe were going to war.
At Coronation Street, Bar
racks, B la c k b u r n , they handed in their red and blue walking-out uniforms, and
were re-equipped for the battles ahead. Soon they were on their
way over Darwen moors to Bury, where they were joined by other untrained volunteers from their home town.
Then they were off to Southampton, where they
sentries must have been suffi cient; was to take them to Alexan- ‘‘Challenge, then shoot to
kill,” they were told. For the first time, they were firing in anger. Of the original 80, only
nine are still alive today, so far as we have been able to discover. Many were killed at Gal
young to have lived through those four fateful years, the
lipoli; their names are now remembered on war mem orials throughout the district. Others survived the war, but have died since. To those of us who are too
immense scale of the slaugh ter, the savagery of the fight ing and the horror seem to be of such magnitude as to be almost beyond comprehen
sion. Yet one of the most strik
ing things to emerge from a talk with Mr. Tom Gregory, one of the survivors, was not
so much the detail, but the matter-of-fact way in which he was able to describe the events.
"This sort of thing was to
be seen everywhere," he said, pointing to a picture in a a history book, which showed the bodies of soldiers, lying as they had fallen, one on top of the other.
"There were burying parties
for weeks on end.” Mr. Gregory, who now lives
in Waddington Road, was transferred from the East Lancs, to the King’s Own Royal Regiment in 1915. His war came to an abrupt
After spending some time in hospital, he was returned to continue his Army service in
Britain. He had been one of the , ,,
volunteers who Joined the Territorials at Bury. They joined on the Friday, and were off to Southampton by the following Wednesday. In November, 1918 he was
a member of the Military Police at Chester. The news of the Armistice, when it came was something of a surprise, although it had been in file air for some time. “I was on night patrol, and
the orders were not to make any arrests unless absolutely n e c e s s a r y .” He didn’t, although in normal times there would have been oppor
tunity enough. Now aged 75, lie lives in St.
Mary's Street, Clitheroe. and is still quite active, despite his
age. For Mr. Dan Briggs, aged
76. of Waddington Road, the
end in April, 1918, when he was wounded in his right leg. When the Armistice came,
50 years ago on Monday, November 11, 1918, he was in hospital at Liverpool, where he was to stay, in all, for four years. He and Ws fellow patients
were pleased by the news all right, but there was the more important task in hand of getting well. He was, at that time, just 20 years old. Mr. Albert Hartley’s over
seas tour ended in November 1915, when he received a bullet wound in the head.
end of the war meant the end of his service in the Military Foot Police which lasted for two and a half years.
Wounded The end. he remembers,
was a mass of shouting and cheering, and although he had to stay wdth the police while the soldiers came home, most of the time was spent
idling around. But Dan did not emerge
from the war without any scars for he was wounded twice’ during bloody battles at
Gallipoli, and to this day has a bullet lodged between his third and fourth ribs.
It was June 6 when he was
first wounded with a bullet through his chest. He recalls;
" I was transferred to a hos pital in Alexandria where I stayed for about eight weeks.
“But the one thing out
standing in my mind was the day in which We were sent back to fight—none of us was fit.
" I remember particularly, a
journey in an old German ship which we had to sail ourselves, being transferred to a minesweeper and then to another smaller boat for landing. The waves were tre mendously high when we landed, and we had to jump about eight feet in full battle kit.
“Our captain nearly went
mad and played hell with the sailors who were making us all jump, calling them all the names under the sun. We were all still regarded as in valids.” Into action again went Mr.
Briggs and was wounded for the second time, the bullet entering his neck and drop ping down Into his ribs. That wag the last he saw of fight ing, being moved from one hospital to another. Although Mr. Briggs lives
next door to another survivor. 75-year-old Mr. Jim Norcross, he never saw him on the battle field. It was cheers all round and
tin hats flying for Mr. Nor cross when he first heard of the Armistice, while moving with his unit towards Pales tine. “There was a great atmos
laymcnt of £ 100,000 for a iootballer?”
FINANCE VERSUS SPORTSMAN SHIP. . . L e tte rs to the Editor
- — ‘ ’What’s wrong with the ‘Follower’
:hurlishly interrogates, to w h ic h my instant, if equally abrupt retort is,
’What’s right?” 1 thought I had made my
,oint as to that crystal ;lear. Apparently not.
Those outrageous transfer
ees, ridiculously high wages, wnuses and other emolu- nents. apart from admit tance charges to the ground.
What’s wrong with our
national sport Is its modern jommerciallsation, the buy
ing and selling of human beings under the guise of sport.
Isn't that sufficient? A SHIPS CARPETS NEW AND SECOND HAND
tualltles unobtainable else- f here Made specially for hard
nd Government battleships large selection of all sizes
ear for shipping companies T. FOWLER 177 CHORLEY ROAD,
S'ALTON-LE-DALE, PRESTON. Tel: 35175
football club is not, or .should not be an auction mart or slave market. The buying and selling of human beings is reminiscent of that ugly feature of the dark ages, and should not happen or be countenanced In the realm of
demnation of the menacing encroachment of finance in to our otherwise glorious national pastime, recreation and spectacle, I withdraw nothing, neither do I apolo gise if I
sport. From my emphatic con
inadvertently
trample on the dubious sus ceptibilities of those who must have their football at whatever cost financially or indeed morally. I shall continue with my endeavour to thwart any such mode of thought favouring commercial success to good honest, clean and delightfully spectacular sportsmanship in commendable rivalry. To “Follower” I am grate
ful for giving me this oppor tunity to emphasise my reason for objecting to present trends to reduce football to the level of a com mercial transaction. The more I read about the disastrous invasion of com-
mercialism into our sport the more disgusted I become.
Instead of becoming in
creasingly popular it is, sad to relate, developing features that are calculated to even tually kill the popularity of a contest and exhibition of skill and real sportsmanship that should be encouraged. One can now read of a
“buyer’s and seller's market” for footballers, an unmistake- able indication that there Is something wrong and of that “market” having go n e
crazy. With Sir Matt Busby I am
wholly in agreement that ‘this is now a world game.’ We do not like some of the
practices of the Continentals, their obstructions and shirt pulling, but we must accept that there are parts of our game, due, I believe, to the monetary incentive, which do not go down with them— especially hard tackling. I agree with Sir Matt that
_ S t a r s a r e
n o t t h e a n s w e r
I do not agree with “Fol
lower’s” letter (September 27), “What’s wrong with paying?” I say everything’s wrong
with paying. Since the big transfers of players and high wages, football is b e in g ruined. Follower writes: "Pay the
money and get the stars.” It doesn’t always work, for if Blackburn Rovers were back in the First Division and had a team of Bobby Charltons, Bests and Laws, etc., they still wouldn’t command the gates Manchester U n i t e d reserves get, which are be tween 20 and 30,000. I rem em b e r Blackburn
the two continents are gradually leaning towards each other, and that one day •there might be a universal standard for the good of foot ball and all healthy sport and pastimes. Any differences in soccer
w. FORSTER
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Telephone: Padiham 12811 (Home) Clitheroe 4293-
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19 CURZON STREET, CLITHEROE.
Tel: 4168 or 3305 NOW O P E N P E T E R F IE L D
16, Castlcgatc, Clitberoe Tel: 4246 (daytime)
Tel: Chatburn 482 (ovenings)
C a s t le g a t e A n t iq u e s in C l i t h e r o e
Pottery, Figures, Guns,
Swords, Oak & Mahogany Furniture, Oil Paintings, Water Colours, Prints, Silver. Pewter and Brass
Anything Old and Interesting
tion. Harold R. Broughton, Pimlico Road, Clitheroe. A N T IQU E S WANTED FOR CASH
The Antique Shop Barrow, near Whalley. Tel: Whalley 3611-
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21 WOODLANDS RISE, HAWORTH, KEIGHLEY
Tel. Haworth 3519
24-hour Telephone Service. Dstance no object.
CLEANING SPECIALISTS
We clean carpets In new or old houses.
Carpets cleaned at home or taken away.
'Suites cleaned. Floor polishing.
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3 WARWICK DRIVE Tel: CLITHEROE 3475
I n t h e e n d , y o u ’ l l p a y
y o u r s h a r e The introduction oE the
5d. postage is one of the greatest impositions which has been thrust on a gul lible public since graduated pensions. T o it should now be added the Is. 3d. which has been sneaked on to a bag oE coal this
week. Perhaps you haven’t heard
about it yet. You will! The 5d stamp scandal, and
its twin brother, the 4d post card which will make itself felt at Christmas, Is some thing which should never
•have been allowed to happen, and its incidence must be laid firmly at the door of the present Government. “Ah I" you may say, rubbing
your hands' With glee, “it won't affect folks like me who
only write one letter a month.
There is no hurry with any correspondence, so it can still
go for 4d." Don’t kid yourself. You’ll
pay your share like everyone else. Industry must perforce use
the 5d. stamp in the end. Business cannot afford to
Rovers’ pre-Great War team, which included such stars as Crompton and Cowell, full backs; Walmsley. Smith , and Bradshaw, half-backs; and Simpson, Shea and Eddie Latheron among the forwards. They were as good as any
on the two continents can be smoothed out by conferences, broadmindedness and tolera
of the stars of today, and equal to Manchester United at Its best, but did Blackburn Rovers get the gates? They were lucky then to
have 20,000 unless it was a Derby game with Burnley, Bolton or Preston, and if I remember rightly, the ground
admission was only M. in Lancashire and Is. down
south. I remember about two years
before Blackburn dropped out of the First Division, about Christmas time, they were at the top of the League, playing one of the leading teams on a fine day, and the crowd less
than 20,000. I believe every,thing Mr.
Broughton writes about foot
ball Is true. A. Barnes, Mossfield Road,
Kearsley, Bolton.
C l i t h e r o e We are reading lots
about the rough roads of Clitheroe—these being the side roads or back streets o f the town. B u t what
about the main road? For many travellers like myself, I would like to know how lo n g the Highways Department axe planning to maintain the “skid pans” on the main roads entering the town. These are in Whalley Road
and Chatbum Rood. Granted, the road works
are marked with the men working signs, but not with slippery surface signs. Anyone driving between
the Grammar School and Park House on the Chatbum
Road naturally slows down for this section, but in either wet or dry weather, there is always a danger to drivers. I know that these roads
have to be re-ccrvered, but please tell us about the skid ding possibilities of these roads— or do we need an accident to prove these dangers? I f the resurfacing of these
roads takes as long as Clitheroe’s “by - pass / ring road” we will still be sliding into Clitheroe in the 1970s (but by then we will have a major by-pass to miss Chat bum, Clitheroe, Whalley). I for one-will use-the side
roads and back streets to get in t o town, or by-pass ditheroe altogether.
Regular by-passer. Chatbum. T E L . 5 2 5 2 5 « d 5 2 5 2 6
phere when wo heard and it was amazing how the ten sion lifted and cares were
wait on the whim of the Post master General for their
nn Ika iirkim />
letters to and fro. Traders, however, will not
carry the extra cost, and pools Arms will charge it against expenses and so re duce the money available for dividends. That is where you come in.
Just a flea bite, you think, but wait and see. All you say may be true,
but sweets can scarcely go up by less than Id. a quarter, detergents to be reduced by less than l oz. per packet, and a little more water In the liquid commodities should
do the “trick”. Oh yes, you’ll pay all right.
The gullible public will pro
vide starehoders with an in creased dividend through In creased profits as a resut of a rise in price, or a reduction in quality or quantity, quite out of proportion to the in cease in costs due to the 5d. stamp. And so it goes on, the eternal spiral which hits us all, rich and poor, and to which we turn a convenient
blind eye and say “Somebody should do something about
it.”- Once again that over
worked nonentity, Mr. Some
body. The public citizen always
suffers in the long run. Let’s have a strike! All
right, what happens? Up go wages, up go costs, up go prices, up go profits, .up go dividends, up goes the boss’s wealth, so let’s have a strike! —ad infinitum. To quote the old tag,
“There’s nowt dafter than folk.” Charles M u s so n , Pimlico Road, Clitheroe.
S l i d i n g i n t o
forgotten.” he said. “After we heard, we joined up with a party of engineers dis mantling telegraph poles and
escaped injury, he became seriously ill because of the
other equipment, working our way to Jaffa. Although Mr. Norcross
T O B A C C O
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FOR EXCELLENT DELIVERIES and SERVICE
E S T A B L I S H E D O V E R 1 5 0 Y E A R S
terrible conditions he was having to fight under. He does not wish to remember the millions of flies, dirty water, filth, mud, stench and bodies.
But the end of the war and
the return to home, although long waited for brought its problems of trying to find work.
Continued next week.
yL s g o o d a s n e u D r e s s A g e n c y
50 PARSON LANE CLITHEROE
Let us dispose of your UNWANTED CLOTHES
Good prices for — Winter Coats, Suits, Two-Pieces. Dresses, Etc.
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Only garments in very good condition aocepted.
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BEDFORD VAN TYRES Normally 10 gns. Our Price £6-iss.
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