We will remember them…
December 1914 – ‘Over by Christmas…’
Of course, it wasn’t over by Christmas – and there is little evidence that political and military leaders ever thought it would be. By the end of November, opposing lines of trenches stretched for some 450 miles from the Swiss border to the Channel coast. Through December the work of consolidating the trenches continued. An attack on the German lines near Ypres on 14th December was unsuccessful, but a German attack six days later was beaten back.
Over the Christmas period there were widespread unofficial ceasefires – the famous ‘Christmas truce’, which even included some football matches. Sadly, it is not known whether any Alderley Edge men took part.
Among the men of Alderley Edge who were under arms by the end of 1914 was Claude Worthington, whose name is on this panel of the War Memorial. He had been posted with the Manchester Regiment to Egypt, from where the Gallipoli Campaign was launched a few months later.
Meanwhile in Alderley Edge . . .
The Brookdale Military Hospital was in full swing. On 11th December the local paper reported that there were 24 patients in the hospital – “chiefly shrapnel wounds but several cases of frostbite”. And the Alderley Edge Red Cross Clothing Committee reported having produced 135 nightshirts, 70 bed jackets, 67 vests, 447 shirts, 320 pairs socks, 20 bed socks and various other knitted items to be sent to the forces.
