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25 October 1914 : Pte Charles Dixon

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Charles originally joined the Army in early 1904 and was a reservist still living in the town (37 Old Hall Street) at the time of his re-enlistment in Preston in August 1914. Arriving in France (Le Havre) with the 1st Battalion on 22nd August 1914, he took part in the Battles of Le Cateau, the Marne and the Aisne before falling in action …

8 November 1914 : Sgt Martin Brennan

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Martin was the son of Martin and Elizabeth Brennan - he came from a large family. Age 17 months in 1881 the infant Martin lived with his Irish born father Martin, his mother Elizabeth ‘May’ and grandmother, two older children aunt and no fewer than five lodgers. All the adults worked in the woollen industry. Age 11 in 1891 Martin lived with his …

11 April 1918 : Pte Jack Whiteley

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Youngest of five children and of three boys: William and Allen and then Jack. Parents, Fenton (a foreman at a woollen cloth manufacturer) and Ann Elizabeth (née Relsish), at the time of her son’s death his mother was living at 273 Scout Hill, Dewsbury. At the 1911 Census, the family of seven lived in a 4 roomed dwelling in Ravensthorpe. Jack's…

A Sobering Aspect of the Christmas Truce : 25 December 1915

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Many of the accounts of the Christmas ‘Truce’ in 1914 focus on the exchange of gifts and the supposed playing of football…but in at least one instance, there was a more serious and sobering aspect to the fraternisation that took place. Above: British and German officers meeting in No-Man's Land during the unofficial truce. (British troops from t…

Christmas Day 1914 – Goodwill to all men?

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Much has been written about the Christmas Day ‘Truce’ on 25 December 1914 – while the popular image of Christmas Day 1914 might be that ‘peace reigned’, this was not universal across the western front. Above: the Christmas Truce 1914 Indeed, the CWGC records the deaths of 78 men on the western front on 25 December 1914 – whilst just over 30 of…

Albert French Commemoration

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This year MK WFA and The Friends of the MK Rose are organizing the commemoration for Albert French, the sixteen-year-old lad from Wolverton who lied about his age to join up and was killed in action a week short of his seventeenth birthday. Readings from his letters home, music, British Legion standard bearers, wreath laying, and a bugler sou…