Over the course of the war, 5.7 million men from the British Isles served in the forces and 705,000 died. Of these 71 are recorded on the Alderley Edge War Memorial, along with one member of the British Red Cross and a further 6 are remembered in the annual Remembrance Day service.
Every month Michael Scaife will produce articles for the St Philip and St James Church news sheet, with some notes about the war, the War Memorial and to remember those who died in that month 100 years ago.
Below is Michael's most recent article.
In October 1915, two men from Alderley Edge died: Private J W C Brocklehurst and Private G H Clarke. Private Clarke will be commemorated next month.
Private Brocklehurst died in the Battle of Loos. On 25th September 1915 the French and British Armies began a large scale, two-pronged offensive against the German positions. While the French launched the Champagne Offensive, the British aimed to break through the German Front in Artois in what became known as the Battle of Loos.
On October 13th the East Surreys took a German trench. A letter from the Company Sergeant Major to Brocklehurst's sister, printed in the Advertiser, tells us they mounted a machine gun on the parapet to prevent the Germans re-taking the trench, but six gunners in succession were killed by a German sniper.
"They (the Germans) were coming on in hordes and a man ran to me and said, "There isn't a man to work the gun!" He had not finished speaking when your brother said, "Yes there is. I can." And without another word he was on the step. He simply mowed the Huns down like grass, but the sniper had him like the others. His death was instantaneous."
For this act of bravery he was mentioned in despatches.
John William Clarke Brocklehurst was the son of Thomas George and Sarah Ann Brocklehurst, who lived in Duke Street. He was born in 1890 and attended Alderley Edge Council School. In the 1911 census he was living as a boarder in Hackney, where he was employed as a compositor at the Abbey Press Company. He enlisted in the East Surrey Regiment in June 1915 and trained as a machine gunner.
