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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Lancashire => Topic started by: jeffH on Friday 02 December 05 21:26 GMT (UK)
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My Great-Grandfather was a member of the Army Service Corp during WW1 serving May 1915 to Jan 1920. In July of 1915. He married his first wife in Ormskirk in July of 1915 and this is given as his address on their marriage certificate.
Does anyone know why he might have been in Ormskirk two months after enlisting in the Army? Were there any military bases or training camps there during the war? Or perhaps a military hospital or Red Cross hospital?
Neither he nor his wife had any family connections in Ormskirk (or Lancashire) that I know of. Both were Welsh and my GGrandfather had only been back in the UK 6 months after spending 6 years in Canada.
Any assistance greatly appreciated.
Thank You
Jeff
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what was his name jeff,mack
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Mack,
My Great Grandfather was Sgt William James Harries. On the absentee voters list of 1918 his rank is given as Sergeant and his regimental number as R4/106935. I know from my Grandmother he did some time in France and from post-war photos we can make out the ribbon for the 14/15 star on his uniform.
The regimental number and service dates I have appear on his WW2 atestation forms (he served in the Canadian Veteran Guard). I have not been able to find a MIC with regimental number R4/106935. I know he was awarded the trio so I guess his MIC went missing or the medals are on a MIC with a different number.
The closest MIC I have found which appeared to be that of my Great-Grandfather was for a Sgt. William Harris T4/SR/0255. I've had a look-up made of the medal rolls and this man served Apr 1915 to Jan 1919 so it's a bit of a hard sell.
Thanks for you interest,
Jeff
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Hi, is this not him then.
He would maybe have a different number if he left and rejoined.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=2722534&queryType=1&resultcount=4
Kev.
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Thanks for checking Kev. For a while I thought that was him too but the BWM/Vic medal roll has that William J listed as a William John, not James.
jeff
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Hi Jeff
there was a big Army camp in Litherland, not far from Ormskirk the RWF, was base their, I'll dig out what I have on the camp
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Hi Jeff
there was a military base there HMS Ringtail.
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Hi folks,
I have been trawling some old posts and thought it might help to put my two penn'orth into this one.
HMS Ringtail only came into being during WW2. It was on the outskirts of Burscough - about 3 miles north of Ormskirk.
However, there was a military camp at Lathom during WW1, where the cavalry horses brought in from Canada were acclimatised and trained with their new British riders. It was called the Lathom Remount Depot.
Lathom is only about 3 miles north of Ormskirk but adjacent to and to the east of Burscough.
Hope this helps
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I hope the original poster sees this because it's likely his reltive was part of the Royal Ordnance Depot at Burscough. That was set up in WWI and only closed in the 80s. He says he was part of the Service Corps, which was separate from Ordnance, but he could well have been attached to oversee movements of munitions?
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Thanks for that prompt, Lal.
Only lived in Burscough since 1977, and completely overlooked the Depot!! :o :o
I know about the remount depot because my son did a dissertation on Lathom House when in the sixth form. There was a railway spur from the Ormskirk - Skelmersdale - Rainford Jcn line directly into the depot.
The ROD at Burscough also had its own spur from the Ormskirk - Preston line which accessed the Southport - Wigan - Manchester line via the Burscough Curves.
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BurscoughLad, have you seen the book by Ernest Rosbottom - Burscough, The Story of an Agricultural Village? I'd borrowed it from my mother months ago, and it's well worth finding a copy if you've not got one, it's one of the best written local history books I've read and I'm always looking something or other up in it.
In it, he writes that the site for the Ordnance depot was acquired in 1890, it had previously been Williamson's Table Baize Works, only itself set up in 1879 but a business that didn't turn out as successful as had been hoped. The military liked the site because it was so close to both the canal and the two railway lines. The stores were to be moved from Chester Castle to Burscough Junction and initially included holding tents and 'certain wares' (wonder what that might be...). With WWI, the depot also held gun stores.
Between WWI and the 1950s, the depot was apparently the biggest employer in the area with 300-400 people having jobs there. I can just about remember it being there, but it must ahve only had a skeleton staff by the 70s!
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Hello Lal,
Happy New Year.
Yes, I do have that book. It is quite a significant reference for Burscough.
In 2005, I was asked to put together a PowerPoint presentation for the centenary of Crabtree mission (St Andrew's in New Lane). It was surprising what photographs surfaced!! I have photos of all the vicars from 1905 onwards, together with some of the curates and readers from the same period, as well as group photos going back to the early 20th C
The naming of the missions is confusing for people coming fresh into the area.
Crabtree mission is in New Lane
New Lane mission (now a private house) is in Marshmoss Lane
Drummersdale mission is in Merscar Lane.
St Andrew's was started in the loft of the barn, now part of the Slipway pub, in Crabtree Lane in 1899 and the name moved to the new site.
I also have a book called "Burscough Boatmen - Their marriages and their boats" by Robert Cheetham-Houghton. Worth a look for anyone doing genealogy of the boat families.
Best wishes
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I've a fair few in my extended family tree who lived at New Lane, and also some who worked on the canal boats! Have you seen the Boat Families website? I've put the link here if not, as it's got a great database of names on there - it's recently helped me in solving a mystery on my family tree and uncovered some new branches. The book is one I'm currently after, along with the one about Martin Mere - Lancashire's Lost Lake, as almost all my father's family are from the area (and me!).
Crabtree Mission always used to interest me because it's very similar to the Good Shepherd Mission in Scarisbrick (where we used to go to Sunday School as children) - both satellite churches, set up in the same decade and almost identical in design. The Good Shepherd was actually sent in pieces from Wigan down the canal to be rebuilt in Scarisbrick - always known locally as 'the tin mission'.
http://www.boatfamilies.org.uk/pages/canal-01v08/individuals1.htm
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Lal,
I wonder if you knew Nellie Glover who lived on "the bank" until recently.
After she had a stroke and was hospitalised, she went into Park Grove Rest home a couple of months before Christmas.
Sadly, she had another stroke and died in December.
Nellie used to go to Crabtree and we would sometimes bring her home from the village - if she wasn't on her bike!!
I have a photo of her as a young girl on one of the barges. It was used in the Crabtree PowerPoint presentation.
Ian
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Sadly no, but my father might know the name through being a Sidesman at the Good Shepherd, they used to have fucntions/services with other churches as far as I remember...It's likely my grandparents might have known her, my grandad (a Leatherbarrow) used to work on threshing teams moving round the farms in the area and they seemed to know everyone!
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Was it Mrs Leatherbarrow from Scarisbrick Cottage in New Lane?
We knew her - - quite some time ago now; but she was here when we first moved in.
BL
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No, my grandparents lived at Hurlston Green and then on the edge of the moss at Wyke Cop in Scarisbrick. I'm trying to trace other Leatherbarrows off side branches of the family tree though and she could be related somewhere along the line - I'm having to go very far back as our branch seems to have dwindled over five generations just to us. :(
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BurscoughLad - thanks to the information in your postings you have helped me to identify the history of an old postcard. It is printed with a rhyme entitled "A Happy New Year to all from Lathom Park".
It ends with the lines -
"So a happy New Year to everyone,
Is the wish of every heart,
Of the Remount boys of the A.S.C.
In their camp at Lathom Park."
The poet signs himself A.H.
It was printed by Hutton of Ormskirk.
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Fantastic set of photos on the BBC Lancashire website today featuring the men and horses of Lathom Park:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-16599597
The camp looks to have been very large, and there's also something about how staff at Lathom Park who were engaged on working with the horses were simply enrolled on the military payroll as this was easier!