We will remember them ... 
Although there were no major battles on the western front in the early months of 1916, trench warfare continued to take its toll on the Western Front. Among the casualties was another young man from Alderley Edge.
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In Memory of Private Arthur Ashton Massey5297, 20th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, who died on 15th March 1916. Age 19 |
Arthur Ashton Massey was the son of Thomas and Ada Massey, of Alderley Cottage, Congleton Road, and the grandson of Isaac Massey.
Older readers will know that Isaac Massey & Sons were a long-established and highly respected firm of building contractors.
The firm was established by Isaac Massey, who came to Alderley Edge sometime in the 1850s. He appears on the 1861 census as a master joiner employing 10 men, and in 1871 as a builder and contractor.
Isaac died in 1894 and his son Thomas followed him into the business.
Arthur Ashton Massey, born in 1897, was his second son. He was educated at Wilmslow Grammar School and Dinglewood Preparatory School, Colwyn Bay. After leaving school he joined the family firm.
He enlisted in early September 1914 in the 3rd Public Schools Battalion. Five Public School Battalions were formed in September 1914. Young men from public schools joined them to serve alongside their friends, many preferring to be privates in such a battalion rather than officers in the new armies which were being formed.
Several men from Alderley Edge joined Public Schools Battalions, including a number whose names appear on the war memorial and who will be commemorated later in this series. All but one of the Public Schools Battalions were incorporated into the Royal Fusiliers.
Private Massey’s battalion became the 20th Battalion Royal Fusiliers and was sent to France in November 1915. He died of wounds on 15th March;
The report of his death in the Alderley & Wilmslow Advertiser says he was killed by ‘an enemy bomb’.
Private Massey is buried in Bethune Town Cemetery. Since Alderley Cottage was in the ecclesiastical parish of St Mary’s, he is also commemorated on the Nether Alderley War Memorial.
If you know of Alderley Edge men who served in the war and returned home afterwards, we should be glad to hear of them.