Wounded soldier survived mining disaster on return from frontline
This weekend marks 100-years since the end of the Great War. Those who returned would never forget the mud and mire of Flanders, the horrors of trench warfare, and youthful friends who lay in unknown graves. Here we look back at the exploits of a handful of brave souls from North Staffordshire...
Saturday November 10, 2018
Regiment. Mr Moss was one of the ‘lucky ones’ coming through the war without a scratch.
Being a miner, he was one of the first to be demobilised, and r eturned to his work at Leycett Colliery.
The war was nearly over when Daniel Heath, of High Street, Alsagers Bank, received the wound which gave him a permanent limp.
Having escaped the Minnie Pit disaster by being on night duty – the explosion claimed his brother – he was called to the Armed Forces and received his wound at the fifth Battle of Ypres.
A telegram received at Llandudno, where he was on holiday, called to the colours George Percival Riley, of High Street, Halmerend, then a member of the St John Ambulance Brigade.
He enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps, went to Gallipoli with the 13th Division, and was a stretcher bearer at the battle to relieve General Townsend’s Army.
Later he went to Malta and India, finally returning to England, where he received his discharge in October 1919.
A member of the St John Ambulance Brigade for more than half a century, Thomas Walker, like Mr Riley, was on holiday, this time in Blackpool, when war was d e cl a re d.
He tried to enlist and was turned down, but when the call came for volunteers from the Chesterton St John Ambulance Brigade, he was accepted, and along with others, went to open a new hospital.
He too was sent to Dardanelles with the RAMC, and went on to India, before returning to his job in the m i n e s.
A Military Medal was the reward received by Frederick Bailey , who, with 12 of his friends, joined the Forces when the war was only 20 days old.
After a term as a signals instructor, he was at the Battles of Arras and Ypres, and once, he went out alone under fire to receive and dispatch signals messages. In addition to the Military Medal he was three times commended.