Soldiers remembered

Cptn A V Clegg

2 More Image(s) In Gallery

Five soldiers who lost their lives whilst fighting as part of the Gallipoli campaign were remembered on Friday (7 August), 100 years on.

Captain Alford Victor Clegg was born in Littleborough in the summer of 1885. At the time of the 1891 census, he was living at a house in Shore with his parents, brothers and sisters, a nurse and three servants.

He was commissioned in the Rochdale Territorial Battalion in 1909 and was promoted to captain three years later. At the coronation of King George V, he was selected to go to London to represent the Rochdale Territorial Battalion.

On Saturday 7 August 1915, 30-year-old Captain Alford Victor Clegg, 6th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers (acting as second in command of the Battalion) was killed in action during fighting in the Gallipoli Peninsula.

He was buried in grave number A73 at Lancashire Landing Cemetery, Turkey. His name is also on Shore Mills, St Barnabas, Holy Trinity Church, the Conservative Club war memorials and on the Littleborough cenotaph.

Sergeant Thomas Gibson was born in 1886 in Todmorden and in 1902, he moved to Littleborough. By 1911 he was living with his Littleborough born wife Ann, their young daughter and his mother-in-law at 2 Back William Street.

At the age of 28, Sergeant 8008 Thomas Gibson, “C” Company, 1st/6th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers (enlisted in Rochdale), was killed in action on 7 August 1915. He had been in the Rochdale territorials for almost 10 years and at the time of his death, left a widow and an eight-year-old child.

Born in 1879, Private William Jones was living in Scotland in 1881. By 1891, the family had moved to 256 Drake Street. By 1901, William was recorded as being married and living with his wife Sarah Ann and their children.

At the age of 37, Private 9538 William Jones, 1st/6th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers was killed in action on the Gallipoli Peninsula on 7 August 1915.

George Angus MacDonald was born in Middleton during the late autumn of 1892 and by 1901, he lived at 3 Fletcher Square, Littleborough with his parents, four bothers and three sisters. By 1911 the family lived at 4 Stubley Mill, Littleborough, where George was employed as a labourer in a Glue Works and was associated with Littleborough Parish Church.

On Saturday 7 August 1915, Private George Angus MacDonald 8559 “C” Company 1st/6th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers was posted as missing and in January 1916, the family requested information on his whereabouts.

Private Jack Anderton was born in Littleborough in 1895 and at the time of the 1901 census, he was living at 4 Smith Street, Littleborough, with his parents Harry and Ann and his brother and sister.

He attended Littleborough Central Board School and by 1911 Jack was a doffer in a cotton mill. His parents moved to 5 Smith Street off of Bare Hill Street and were officially informed by Saturday 6 January 1916 that their 19-year-old son, Private 11000 Jack Anderton, 8th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment), reported missing on Thursday 12 August 1915, was now presumed killed on that date. He enlisted in Huddersfield and at the time of his death lived in Rochdale.