your thoughts on day of reflection
MANY M.E.N. readers have been in touch to share how they chose to commemorate 100 years since the signing of the treaty which ended the battle on the Western Front of the First World War.
As the Derby match between United and City got under way yesterday afternoon, it was fitting that we heard from a relative of Patrick ‘Paddy’ Maguire, a player who had appeared for both clubs before he died as a soldier aged 26 during the Battle of the Somme.
His descendant wrote: “Maguire is our great-grandad, big thanks to the M.E.N. for this article, my mother who is nearly 80 loved it. Thanks again.”
Also among moving tributes was one from John Harrison - in memory of his Uncle John Middleton from Chadderton.
John, who signed up in 1916 and became a runner carrying vital messages between the trenches, was one of the many soldiers who survived the war but sustained injuries that would take their toll later in life.
In John’s case, shrapnel became lodged in his skull after penetrating his metal helmet. His nephew said: “For many years it remained, covered by a silver plate, until, with some sort of cruel inevitability it migrated, the resultant pressure robbing him of his sight, a final act of cruelty, that finished his career in retail.”
He added: “Despite his wound, he attained the rank of store manager at the Co-op on Long Lane, a short distance from his family home.”
John Harrison, now in his seventies, believes he is the last person to remember his uncle, adding: “He was an unsung hero, the like of which we may never see again.
“His generation faced the overwhelming adversity of the Great War with patience and a stoic resolution that was peculiar to those who grew up during the dawn of the 20th century. I am writing this so as create a permanent record of my uncle. Even though I never met him personally, his sisters, my mother and my aunts, frequently spoke of John with a fondness that was deeply touching.”
John hopes anyone else who recalls John will get in touch with him at js. harrison@outlook.com
Schools across the region have ensured the next generation learn of the sacrifices of their forebears.
Among them was St Thomas of Canterbury in Salford, which held a wholeschool memorial.
Silhouettes of fallen soldiers, made by students, were the backdrop for the ceremony, which was led by headteacher David Deane OBE.
At The Kingsway School in Stockport, pupils formed an incredible human poppy to mark the day and show their appreciation for the “sacrifice of others”.
And then there were the events large and small held across the boroughs of Greater Manchester and beyond.
Communities remembered the 23,792 brave soldiers from Greater Manchester who died in the First World War - and all those who have made sacrifices before and since.
At St Peter’s Square, tributes were led by service and ex-service organisations and faith leaders. But across the region, many more services took place.
On Chapel Street in Salford, Vespa and moped riders laid a wreath in their own ceremony.
In Middleton, HMS Middleton took part in their own commemoration.
In Rochdale, a parade and service at The Esplanade war memorial was mirrored across the area in Heywood, Littleborough, Middleton, Milnrow, Norden and Wardle.