16th Service Bn
The XX Lancashire Fusiliers
(
2nd Salford Pals)
1914 - 1918


From "The Long Long Trail" Website
http://www.1914-1918.net/sacredground/places.htm

The Somme
Authuille Village
1916
On the wall of the rebuilt church in this small village is a bronze plaque that reads "To the eternal memory of three battalions of the 'Salford Pals', the 15th, 16th and 19th Lancashire Fusiliers of 32nd Division, who held the trenches in Authuille from early 1916 and who valiantly attacked the redoubts of Thiepval on 1st July 1916". The plaque was erected by the Lancashire & Cheshire Branch of the Western Front Association.

A
B
C
D
1

Thomas Cockayne
Click on his photo to see
his story


Grandfather
of
Ian Lewis
2

"11789 Fus Harold Mottershead did not make it,he was killed on the 2nd July 1916, probably 2 days after writing the message on the wall. (Joe)"


7PL



3

235093
Private Matthew Lomax
Click here to go to
Lomax family tree

Matthew Lomax service Record

Medal entitlement Roll


sent in by Mel Lomax
4

Taken from the Bury Times
89 year old Arthur Hardman Finally paid respect to the he never meet



12442 Pte J Hardman.
This brave LF was in 11 platoon of C Company of the 2nd Salford Pals(16th Bn The XX The Lancashire Fusiliers when he enlisted and went to train at Conway on the 11th Feb 1915.
His OC was Captain R B Knott and his CSM was WO2 F A Ford.
His Platoon Officer was 2nd Lt R W Sharratt and his Platoon Sgt was Sgt Bulmer.
His Section Comdr was Cpl JJ Hayes and his Section 2i/c was L/cpl Broe
He enlisted with C McKale and they were given consecutive numbers.



57334 Private Leslie Shilton


The Second Salford Pals 16th Bn Lancashire Fusiliers.
Died 4th November 1918 whilst involved in action to cross the Sambre-Oise Canal.
http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=336424
Leslie's resting place was visited by his niece Eileen Sadler (nee Shilton)
and her daughter Elizabeth of Burbage, Leicestershire on April 24th 2008. A peaceful and beautiful place.

"ONE DAY OUR LORD
WAS GATHERING FLOWERS
AT EVENTIDE
HE GATHERED OURS"

11557 Private JOHN JARDINE,


Age: 39
Date of Death: 22/03/1916
Killed in action of wounds
March 22nd 1916.
http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=204919
He enlisted in Salford in 1916 and was placed in 12 Platoon C Coy 16th bn .
His OC was captain R B Knott,his CSM was F A Ford.
His Platoon Commander was Lt F J Hick and his Platoon Sgt was Sgt G Johnson.
Corporal Harry Lloyd BIDMEAD

Service No:12590, aged 23. Buried in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, Pas-de-Calais, France.
http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=584948

The Victoria Cross

"Lt(Acting Col) Neville Marshall VC,MC and bar,Croix de Guerre (Belgium),
Chevalier of the Order of Leopold Belgium."

4th November 1918


"Lt(Acting Col) Neville Marshall VC,MC and bar,Croix de Guerre (Belgium), Chevalier of the Order of Leopold Belgium."
late Irish Guards Special Reserve (Attached)
16th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers
“VC to Lt (acting Lt Col) John Neville Marshall MC, late Irish Guards, Special Reserve, attached 16th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers; “ For most conspicuous bravery, determination and leadership in the attack on the Sambre-Oise canal, near Catillon on the 4th November 1918, when a partly constructed bridge came under concentrated fire and was broken before the advanced troops of his Battalion could cross. Lt-Col Marshall at once went forward and organised parties to repair the bridge.

The first party was soon killed or wounded, but by personal example he inspired and volunteers were instantly forthcoming. Under intense fire and with complete disregard of his own safety, he stood on the bank encouraging his men and assisting in the work, and when the bridge was repaired, attempted to rush across at the head of his Battalion and was killed doing so.

The passage of the canal was of vital importance, and the gallantry displayed by all ranks was largely due to the inspiring example set by Lt-Col Marshall MC”


Name in a tunnel— before soldier’s death on the Somme

THE year is 1916 and behind the front lines of the Somme a young soldier sits in a cramped, dark tunnel waiting his turn to be called above ground to face almost certain death.

For Kearsley soldier 11789 Private Harold Mottershead, of the Lancashire Fusiliers' 2nd Salford Pals, time hung heavy. And as he waited, he carved his name and battalion details on the tunnel walls, to ease the agony and to show he was there.

Within hours, the young married man was dead killed in the first attack on Thiepval one of thousands of British troops lost on the nation's costliest day of a brutal war. His body was never found and he was listed missing in action.

Decades went by and poppies covered the French fields where so many died, and the graffiti in the tunnels from the long-dead hands of British and Canadian soldiers lay undisturbed.

The passages under the church in the village of Bouzincourt, originally created in the Middle Ages to allow local people to hide from invaders such as the Vikings, became dangerous and hard to reach.

But a village official found his way through them to photograph the graffiti as a record of the "war to end all wars".

And a former Bolton woman, who had married a Frenchman and made her life in the area, deciphered them.

Paula Kesteloot, formerly Flanagan, is an ex-Farnworth Grammar School and Bolton South Sixth Form College student who is now teaching languages in French primary and secondary schools.

She knows a great deal about the First World War and its local connections; she worked as a translator and text writer for the Somme trench museum and runs battlefield walks.

She lives in Albert, which was a British garrison town on the western front of the Somme battlegrounds, and was intrigued by the soldiers' wartime words, especially those of Pte Motterhead, who came from Kearsley where she grew up.

"All I know is that his wife at the time, Nancy Mottershead, became Nancy Street and her later address was 434 Manchester Road, Kearsley.

"It was very moving when I read the words the soldiers wrote then, and I just thought that the families and remaining relatives would like to know about how they spent their final hours before they died," Paula explained.

She also wants them to know that, in spite of the years and the distance, the soldiers are not forgotten in 2006. Young pupils in her primary school, Notre Dame, are each adopting one of the 20 soldiers identified from the tunnels as part of the 90th anniversary of the Somme battle on July 1.

They will write a poem for each soldier, and read them at ceremonies at the two cemeteries where the soldiers are buried or whose names are on the famous Thiepval Monument.

Then they will place their poem and a poppy for each soldier's name on the graves to show that, in the hearts of a new French generation, this corner of a French battlefield will be forever England.

l Paula Kesteloot wishes to thank Neil Drum for his book, God's Own, and the Lancashire Fusiliers Museum in Bury in her battlefield researches.