Our local war memorial

More family war heroes.




I have been very busy, still researching my grandad's family.



My cousin's young son is studying the first world war for his history gcse, and he rang me and asked if we had anyone in the family who had served in WW1. I was able to give him details of John Peters, my granddad's cousin who was killed in Mesopotamia in 1916.



But those who know me, know I don't rest on my laurels, and I thought let me look at what happened in Mesopotamia in 1916, so I googled it, and whilst it was interesting, it wasn't anything really of interest to our family history.



So I added another word to the search that of "Earlestown" and amongst many other websites came one about our War Memorial at Earlestown, and a heading 39 soldiers who died in the Great War, but none have names on the war memorial.

I thought mmmm this should be interesting, and it was because there amongst the list of names were two more of my granddad's cousins.
http://nlwmemorial.tripod.com/nlwmemorial/index.htm

Walter J Stokes and Peter Edwards - i did a search on cwgc (commonwealth war graves commission) and could find neither - well I found their names but didn't think it would be them as wrongly I presumed they would both be in Lancashire regiments.

http://www.cwgc.org/
I then found a site where people are in dispute with the cwgc for not including their relatives in war graves, so i had a look at that site and decided to contact them.

http://www.cwgc.co.uk/
A nice man called Jack Clegg emailed me, asked for my relatives names - he came back to me with both of them on the cwgc site, Peter Edwards, although from Earlestown served with the Gordon Highlanders, andWalter J Stokes with the Field Artillery.

I also found that another of granddad's cousins George Green had served in the 1st world war but had survived.

So that was three of the four branches of my granddad's family who had a serving soldier or one that died.

No doubt if I search further I will find relatives on the other side of my family.
Interestingly enough, I looked through the list of the war dead and found a soldier called Wilfred Reeves, and something on that page caught my eye. Wilfred was killed but his brother Ernest, who had been wounded twice had survived, and had married in 1917 - my granddad's cousin, Mary Peters.

Apparently there was a mention of the wedding in the Newton and Earlestown Guardian in March 1917, so I am off to the library next week to find the article.

I am also pursuing with our local council and The British Legion why these 39 soldiers' names are missing off our war memorial and starting a campaign to get them added. I am enlisting the help of my brothers and cousin and their families to get the names of Peter Edwards and Walter J Stokes added.
I think my Grandad Stokes's family did their bit, don't you?

Served and made the ultimate sacrifice

John Peters, age 23, East Lancashire Regiment, April 1916 in Mesopotamia
Peter Edwards, age 28, Gordon Highlanders, July 1916, France and Flanders
Walter J Stokes, age 27, Royal Field Artillery, June 1915, in Mesopotamia.

Served and survived
George Green.
Ernest Reeves, husband of Mary Peters. (sister of John Peters, cousin of Peter Edwards, Walter J Stokes and George Green)

Thank you all for your sacrifice for my freedom and the freedom of my family.



Linda