Every month Michael Scaife is producing articles for the St Philip and St James Church news sheet to remember those local residents who died in that month 100 years ago.
There are 71 men 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.
Below is Michael's most recent article.
Unlike October, November 1915 was a "thankful" month – one when no young men from the village died in the war. It will be remembered, however, that two men from Alderley Edge died in October: Private J W C Brocklehurst was commemorated in last month's article and this month, therefore we commemorate Private G H Clarke.
In Memory of Private George Henry Clarke 26931, 2nd Bn., Cheshire Regiment who died on 15 October 1915. Age 33
George Henry Clarke was born in Alderley Edge in 1883, the son of Henry William Clarke, a gardener, and his wife Esther. The 1911 census shows the family living at 21 Chorley Hall Lane. George Henry is described as a labourer for the Urban District Council, single, age 28.
He is one of the few local men whose service records were not destroyed in the blitz in 1940. From them we learn that he enlisted at Wilmslow on 14th June 1915 and was posted from the Cheshire Regiment depot in Chester to the 3rd Battalion on 21st June.
On 9th September he was posted to the 2nd Battalion, which was part of the British Expeditionary Force in France. Three weeks later the battalion was moved south from the Ypres area to take part in the Battle of Loos. On 3rd October Pte. Clarke was wounded in the chest. He was transferred to the No.1 Canadian General Hospital at Etaples, where he died on 16th October. In a letter to his mother, quoted in the Advertiser, a sister at the hospital wrote, 'He had a terrible chest wound and there was scarcely any hope of him getting better. We tried hard, for he was such a good patient. Everything possible was done for him. We had a special night nurse and the Chaplain came to see him every day.'
He had been in France for less than six weeks. He is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery.
Footnote: His sister Lucy married James Beckett in 1918. James is also commemorated on our War Memorial: he died in 1920, probably from the effects of war service.
