We will remember them,

November 1915         

Unlike October, November 1915 was a “thankful” month – one when no young men from the village died in the war.  It will be remembered, however, that two men from Alderley Edge died in October: Private J W C Brocklehurst was commemorated in last month’s article and this month, therefore we commemorate Private G H Clarke. 

George Henry Clarke was born in Alderley Edge in 1883, the son of Henry William Clarke, a gardener, and his wife Esther.  The 1911 census shows the family living at 21 Chorley Hall Lane.  George Henry is described as a labourer for the Urban District Council, single, age 28. 

He is one of the few local men whose service records were not destroyed in the blitz in 1940.  From them we learn that he enlisted at Wilmslow on 14^th June 1915 and was posted from the Cheshire Regiment depot in Chester to the 3^rd Battalion on 21^st June.  On 9^th September he was posted to the 2^nd Battalion, which was part of the British Expeditionary Force in France.  Three weeks later the battalion was moved south from the Ypres area to take part in the Battle of Loos. On 3^rd October Pte. Clarke was wounded in the chest.  He was transferred to the No.1 Canadian General Hospital at Etaples, where he died on 16^th October. In a letter to his mother, quoted in the Advertiser, a sister at the hospital wrote,

‘He had a terrible chest wound and there was scarcely any hope of him getting better. We tried hard, for he was such a good patient. Everything possible was done for him. We had a special night nurse and the Chaplain came to see him every day.’

He had been in France for less than six weeks.  He is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery.

Footnote: His sister Lucy married James Beckett in 1918. James is also commemorated on our War Memorial: he died in 1920, probably from the effects of war service. 

If you know of Alderley Edge men who served in the war

 and returned home afterwards, we should be glad to hear of them.