We will remember them, December 1916 & January 1917

memorial

Each 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:

The Somme offensives ended in November 1916, and there were no further allied offensives on the western front until April 1917. Throughout the winter, however, trench warfare continued and two more Alderley Edge soldiers from very different backgrounds were killed in December and January.

Captain Arthur Edward Consterdine was the youngest son of the first Vicar of St Philip's, Revd J W Consterdine. After leaving Repton School he pursued a military career, serving in the Second Boer War in Lumsden's Horse, the name given to the Indian Mounted Infantry Corps. He then went to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, the centre of a gold rush. On the outbreak of war he returned to England and was commissioned in the Prince of Wales Own (West Yorkshire) Regiment in October 1914. In May 1915 he was sent to Gallipoli, attached to the 8th Battalion, Manchester Regiment. On his return from Gallipoli, he was promoted Captain and joined the 9th Battalion of the West Yorkshires on the Somme in November 1916. He was killed in action at Hamel on 26th December and is buried in Hamel Military Cemetery. His brother, Revd R H Consterdine, was Vicar of St John's, Lindow. He is commemorated on three war memorials: Alderley Edge, St John's Lindow and Repton School.

Corporal John Charles Cartwright was born in Staffordshire in 1896. His father was a coachman and the family had moved to Alderley Edge by 1906, for in March of that year John Charles was admitted to Alderley Edge School from the Wesleyan School in Sandbach. He left school on his fourteenth birthday in 1910. He began work as an undergardener and then became a porter at the railway station. He enlisted in January 1915, was posted to France on 3rd August 1916 and joined his unit in the field three weeks later. The report of his death in the local paper says he was killed instantly by shrapnel on 17th January 1917. He is buried at Hyde Park Corner Cemetery, Belgium.

Tags:
First World War
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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Mark Eden
Tuesday 20th December 2016 at 8:20 pm
When I read this I find it so sad that they died for the trivia and materialistic mantra that infects our modern society, especially around here. Bravest of the brave and without equal. We should never forget people like John. He died for a land long lost and disowned by our awful politicians.