Information on WW1 Soldier

I am searching for information about James Lionel Ross mentioned on the Alderley Edge War Memorial 1914-18. I live in Rothley, Leics. and we also have a James Ross on our War Memorial and listed as being in the Rifle Brigade. The link to your James Ross, husband of Frances Ross of 19 Chorley Hill Lane, Alderley Edge, is that he enlisted in Mountsorrel which is the next village to Rothley and where all local enlistments took place. Why was he in Rothley and what is the link or, is it the same James Ross? He is listed as Pte. 821 Rifle Brigade, Pte. 2785 Leics. Regt., Pte. 204081 Rifle Brigade and finally 566972 Royal Engineers 359th Water Boring Company. He is buried in the Cairo War Memorial Cemetery.
I am researching all the Rothley War Memorials as part of the Leics. CC War Memorials Project so perhaps someone in Alderley Edge is doing the same ready for 2014?
Marion Vincent

0116 2375156

Possibly your man was a railway worker, some of the cottages on Chorley Hall Lane were built by the railway company, and tenanted by their workers.

Thank you, Stephen, for your response. (Just back from holiday, hence the delay).
James Lionel Ross is listed in 1911 as a plumber at a paper mill and still living in Alderley Edge. However, he may have moved to my area to seek employment and your suggestion is a good one.

Marion if you would like to see the cottage, which is part of the terrace built by the railway google earth shows it . I think these propertys were offered offered to the tennants in the 1950’s.

Hello, Stephen
Thank you again for your interest in this topic. Quite an amazing site this Google Earth. I am still searching for his connection to Rothley and I won’t give up as we owe them all so much.

Marion,
according to a 1931 directory of Alderley, the Ross family were no longer resident in the village.
By then the house was occupied by Joe Taggart, the professional at Wilmslow Golf Club. Unfortunately an elderley relative of mine who was born in 1921 at number 13 and lived there his entire life, passed away four years ago. Good luck with your investigations
Jerry

Hello, Jerry
Many thanks for this and helping to keep my search active. I wonder what happned to them. The search continues.
Sincerely
Marion

There was a miss Ross who lived in Alderley in Chorley Hall Lane i believe she was born in Alderley Edge,Any connection?

Hello, Graham
Just back from holiday, hence the delay in responding.
I will follow this up. Very many thanks for telling me this.
Marion

Thanks to everyone who responded to my original request for information about James Lionel Ross who is on the Alderley Edge War Memorial at St. Philip’s Church and also in my village of Rothley,Leicestershire. I am pleased to report that I have now proved a link to Rothley by sending for his Informal Will where he leaves the whole of his property and effects to his wife, Mrs Frances Ross, Woodgate, Rothley, Nr. Leicester.
It looks as though Frances moved back to Cheshire with their son, Lionel, most likely after the death of her husband in 1918.
If anyone is researching the names on your War Memorial then this information will help. After three years of research I can now say that James Lionel Ross belongs a little to Rothley.

Hi Marion the Lionel Ross who you are speaking of was my dads (Alfred Almond) cousin .Lionel went to Canada to live,his mum was my great auntie Francis she had a shop in the village.When we (family) were young children Uncle Lionel would visit us with ‘treats’ from Canada
from
Margaret Almond (now Siddons)

Hello, Margaret
Thank you so much for this. That explains why I found Lionel Ross on the Canadian liner passenger lists. I don’t expect that any photo exists of James Lionel Ross? I would love to include it on the Rothley village website. I will also add the information about your family links.
I am just so pleased to have completed my work on identifying all the men on our War Memorial and James Lionel Ross will have a Remembrance Cross this year.
Many thanks indeed. Marion

A tangential thought…in Marion’s original piece above,there was a suggestion that someone in A/E might research the names on our war memorial…there are many projects in hand to commemorate the start of the 1st World War…is anyone interested in ‘looking’ at our listed war dead? There are 96 names on the panels at the war memorial…I don’t even know if (as I suspect) they are all WW1 people…I can’t do it as I’m an IT dinosaur and I suspect, from some of the entries above, that an awful lot of IT research would be needed…also is this the sort of thing that a Parish Council could help with?
Duncan Herald

Hi my grandad (Harold Smith) is the president of the Alderley Edge History Group and asked me a while ago to have a small look into the names of the ww1 soldiers on the war memorial. I have done this and ammased quite alot of information on most of the soldiers including service records and census information. Im happy to share any of this with anyone as I think it’s very important for people to know about the men.
From Olivia

Wow! well done to those concerned…respect…what should we do with this info.?
Can you tell us how many of the 96 names are A/E folk? or is it all 96?
I do not in any way mean any disrespect for any names that are not of A/E, only that it may be easier to deal with a smaller number.
How might we move this forward re. the 100 year anniversary next year?

At the time when I started the research I had just finished university and was craving research as for some bizarre reason I was missing my dissertation. The majority of the names are all men from alderley edge. Some like married into the village and others married out of it if that makes sense.

I’m currently in the process of writing a small article for this website and then im just seeing where it goes. It would certainly be a very good thing to somehow take this all forward for the centenary.

Hi Olivia…there is a low level of interest around on this…something stirring?...why don’t you volunteer to be the point of focus on this?...someone to pull together anyone interested…shouldn’t take up more than most of your social life!

Hello Olivia - the only info that I have on the WW1 memorial names is that of Milland Schill who was an officer in the Lancashire Fusileers.  Milland lived at Croston Towers (Tempest Road) and features in the book ‘Manchester Made Them’ by Katharine Chorley.  I have tried many times to find out what happened to the Schill family after WW1 because the great house was demolished immediately after WW2 due, I understand, to the damage to the property caused by billeted soldiers.  I would be very interested if you could find out more.  Kind regards Graham Dilliway

Hello to everyone who responded.
I started my research project in 2009 but first of all I researched all the different memorials in Rothley from Rolls of Honour to Altar Rails. Then I started researching the men named on the main War Memorial. Research can be found at:
http://www.leicestershirevillages.com/rothley/18117.html
Or just put Rothley War Memorial in a search engine.
This is a very worthwhile project as we owe these men and women so much.
I see that there are complaints about the state of your War Memorial for Remembrance Day. I have looked after the gardens around our memorial for many years and I give special attention to cleaning the area early on the morning of the service. It is the least I can do as a thank you for my freedom.
Marion Vincent, Rothley

I have just read with interest all the comments on this Forum.
I am researching the names on the Nether Alderley War memorial together with any details about the hospital which was set up during WW1 at Alderley Park.
Anyone with information that could help me I would love to hear from!

2015 is the year to celebrate (is that the correct word?)...if all you interested and capable people get together, something very worth while may be created…go for it!

With regards to WW!  the old house which became the nuns house at Mount Carmel School was during 1915=19 a hospital for returning local men from the battlefields.There must be records somewhere , my grandmother Margaret Randles was a nurse there during that time and infact her husband James my grandfather was a patient there.

Hi Olivia, I am doing a school project about a local soldier from WW1, I was wondering if you could give me some assistance as I cannot find this information about any of my own family. My email address is

Thank you.

^