ABBOTT Robert George
Died 9 Sept 1916 Age 18
Buried at Bernafay Wood British Cemetery Montauban France
Photograph of his grave

ABBOTT Robert George

Service record: Private 3427 King’s Own (Royal Lancashire Regiment) 1st/4th Battalion

Enlisted 10 May 1915. According to Army records he lived at 31 Grosvenor Place, Carnforth, however, the leaflet near the War Memorial in Carnforth states he lived at 11 Alexandra Road with his parents Thomas and Jennie and his sisters Florence, Edith, Mary, Jeanie, Doris and Amy.

ARMER Albert Henry (Harry)
Died 12 Aug 1915 Age 27
Buried at Ypres Reservoir Cemetery V. AA. 1

Photograph of him and his grave

ARMER Albert Henry (Harry)
Service Record
Lance Corporal 11850Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry 6th Battalion

Lived at 4 Russell Road, Carnforth with his parents Henry and Hannah and his brother William on 1911 Census.

ASTLEY Jack
Died 19 November 1944 Age 29
Buried Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia

Photograph of his grave

ASTLEY Jack
Service Record

Sergeant 1622045 Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 70 Squadron

He previously lived with his parents John and Sarah at 7 Highfield Terrace, Carnforth. He married Kathleen Leach and moved to 10 Ashton Grove, Rochdale. He was part of the Balkan Airforce, a branch of RAF Bomber command and was based in Italy. The branch was tasked with attacking German supply lines across the Balkans from 1943 to the end of the war, 70 squadron was based at Foggia, Italy and was equipped with Wellington Bombers.

ATKINSON William
Missing presumed died c.15 July 1916 Age 25
Remembered Thiepval Pier 13A France

ATKINSON William
Service Record

Private 33232 Manchester Regiment 22nd Battalion

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have the following information:
Son of Peter Edward and Margaret Atkinson, of West View Bungalow, Crag Bank, Carnforth, Lancs.

The 1911 Census has him living at 12 Edward St with his parents Peter and Margaret Atkinson and his brothers Harold, Edward and Herbert. Missing in action July 1916 presumed dead. By 1915 12 Edward St had Robert Edward Brockbank’s father living there

Commonwealth War Graves Commission age him at 26.

His brother Private H Atkinson is reported wounded by shrapnel in his right wrist and was being treated in a hospital in France, his other brothers had also signed up. Private H Atkinson served in the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. The wound is reported on 1 November 1917.

BAGGULEY Edward
Died 10 February 1946 Age 23
Buried Carnforth Cemetery

Photograph of his grave

BAGGULEY Edward
Service Record

Sapper 2155425 Royal Engineers 282 Field Company

He lived at 126 Hewthwaite Terrace with his parents William and Ethel. He died at home from influenza whilst on leave from his posting in Germany. He was the nephew of Robert Beck Bagguley who also is remembered on the Memorial in Carnforth.

BAGGULEY Robert Beck
Died 9 March 1943 Age 29
Remembered Runnymede Memorial Panel 118

BAGGULEY Robert Beck
Service Record

Squadron Leader 44775 Royal Air Force 139 Bomber Command Awarded Distinguished Flying Cross. He became a flight Sergeant on 23 October 1940

Lost without trace during a bombing raid on the Renault factory at Le Mans.

Son of Robert Nicholson and Mary Ellen Bagguley and husband of Brenda Bagguley nee Andrews of Herne Bay, Kent who he married in April 1938 in Daventry

1911 Census shows Robert and Mary living in North Road, Carnforth with their children Walter (11), Willie (9), Bessie (7), Mary (1).

The 1921 census shows they are living at King Street, Carnforth with Walter and his wife Georgina, William (Willie), Bessie, Mary, Robert (6) George (1) and their grandaughter Joan who had been born in Kidderminster, Worcestershire.

Robert Bagguley was educated at Carnforth C of E school and Lancaster Technical College, from where he joined the RAF aged 16. In 1938 he married Brenda Andrews in Daventry, Northamptonshire.

At the start of the war 139 Squadron had been equipped with Bristol Blenheims, which were lost when the French airfield where the Squadron was based was overrun by the advancing German Army in June 1940. Following re-equipment with Lockheed Hudsons, 139 Squadron was sent to Burma. In June 1942 the Squadron returned to Britain and was stationed at RAF Horsham St Faith (now Norwich airport). In September of the same year it was re-equipped with Mosquito fighter-bombers. Robert was now the pilot of Mosquito DZ469, and flew with navigator, Flight Lieutenant, Charles Kenneth Hayden.

One of 139 Squadrons most celebrated actions was the raid on the heavily defended molybdenum mine at Knaben in Norway in 1943. This involved a low-level flight along a fjord, using the Mosquitos speed and agility to evade the anti aircraft guns based around the site. This raid severely disrupted Germanys molybdenum supplies, thus hampering its production of hardened steel, which requires molybdenum.

According to the Squadron diary, at 17.10 on 9 March 1943, ten Mosquitos took off to raid the Renault factory at Le Mans. By 21.05 only nine had returned and DZ469 was listed as missing. According to Luftwaffe records, DZ469 had been shot down over the English Channel some 40km north of Bayeux by Leutnant Karl von Lieres und Wilkau of JG27, who himself was killed in action three months later.

The bodies of Bagguley and Hayden were never recovered. On the 27 March Robert Bagguley was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, for his actions during the Knaben raid.

BAINES John
Died 8 August 1918 Age 22
Buried Pernes British Cemetery
Photograph of his gravestone

Baines John
Service Record

Private 241416 King’s Own Royal Lancashire Regiment 1st/5th Battalion

Lived at 13 Grosvenor Place with his parents George and Mary and his brothers George and Edwin.

Balderson Samuel
Died 27 April 1917 Age 19
Buried at Duisans British cemetery Etrun, France

Photograph of Samuel Balderson

BALDERSON Samuel
Service Record

Private 242423 King’s Own Royal Lancashire Regiment 8th Battalion

Brother of Thomas Balderson

On the 1911 census Samuel lived at 35 Highfield Terrace with his parents Thomas and Sarah and his other brothers Robert and James and his sisters Mary, Edith and Elsie

BALDERSON Thomas
Died 27 September 1916 Age 27
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial Pier 5D

BALDERSON Thomas

Service Record

Corporal 1870 King’s Own Royal Lancashire Regiment 1st/5th Battalion

Brother of Samuel Balderson Private 242423

Lived at 35 Highfield Terrace with his parents Thomas and Sarah and his other brothers Robert and James and his sisters Mary, Edith and Elsie

The data is the editor’s interpretation of documents from:

BARTON Robert
Died 12 January 1916 Age
Buried Laventie Military Cemetery La Gorgue France
Photograph of Robert Barton

BARTON Robert
Service Record

2nd Lieutenant Royal Flying Corps 1st Squadron (before the RAF was formed)
Lived with his father Albert of Red Court. This site was subsequent rebuilt and is now occupied by Keerford View.

The obituary of Robert Barton as taken from the Lancaster Guardian reads:

“Barton Robert Lieutenant Royal Flying Corps killed in action 12 January 1916. Educated at Glenalmond School and in Germany. Employed as a metallurgist in Alabama, USA. Enlisted with the 7th Battalion King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment and attached to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). Shot down by Lieutenants Boelcke and Immelman piloting Fokker aircraft. Only son of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Barton of Red Court Carnforth”.

Barton was the victim of the Fokker Scourge. In August 1915, the Fokker Eindecker came into service with the German airforce. Fast maneuverable and armed with a belt fed machine gun that could fire straight forward without shooting the propeller off, the Eindecker was arguably the first true fighter plane. Outclassing anything being flown by the British or French, it briefly dominated the skies over the Western Front. Such was its superiority that at one point, the life expectancy of an allied fighter pilot was reduced to 17.5 hours flying time.

Whilst awaiting the development and delivery of new aircraft able to match the Eindecker, the RFC were forced to change its tactics and from January 1916 onwards and reconnaissonce mission would have to be accompanied by three escort planes.

On the morning of 12 January 1916, an RE7 reconnaissonce plane was on escort of Vickers FB 5s took off on a mission. At approximately 8.30 they encountered Boelcke and Immelman and according to German records Boelcke shot down the R.E.7 and Immelmam one of the Vickers. Robert Barton as a member of 1 Squadron was piloting the R.E.7.

There is a final coda to this story as the Lancaster Guardian of 8 July 1916 reports:

“A gold cigarette case which belonged to the late 2LT R. Barton R.F.C. of Carnforth in whose possession it was when he was unfortunately killed in an aerial combat and fell into the German lines, has been forwarded through the American Ambassador and the War Office to his father Mr. A.E. Barton of Red Court Carnforth. Chivalry in action”

More details can be found on the leaflet from the Carnforth Poppy Trail and the War Memorial in Carnforth.

The RAF museum notes that on 12 January after R. Barton was shot down that Max Immelman and Oswald Boelcke became the first two pilots to receive the highest German ward for bravery, the Pour le Merite. Immelmann was killed on 18 June 1916 after claiming 17 victims. Boelcke died in the October after colliding with another German aircraft.

BATTERSBY Richard Sydney

Died 29 June 1941 Age 21

Buried Carnforth Cemetery

Photograph of his grave

BATTERSBY Richard Sydney
Service Record

Private 7642755 Royal Army Ordance Corps

He lived at 4 Hope Terrace, Crag Bank (now renamed and numbered to 13 Crag Bank Road) with his parents Richard and Edith. According to his death certificate he died at Leicester General Hospital. The cause of death was given as rheumatic carditis.

BEATTIE Herbert
Died 25 September 1915 Age 31
Remembered Loos Memorial Panel 25 France

BEATTIE Herbert
Service Record

Private 10485 Royal Fusiliers 12th Battalion

Son of George Beattie. Lived at 22 Preston St, Carnforth with his wife Maria Coulton and three children John, William and not recorded. Maria subsequently remarried and became Maria Coulton Braithwaite

BECK Michael Ernest
Died 27 April 1915 Age 25
Buried Poperinghe Old Mill Cemetery Belgium

Photograph of Michael Ernest and his grave

BECK Michael Ernest
Service Record

Private 384 King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment 1st/5th Battalion

The 1911 census shows he lived at 23 Edward Street with his mother Mary and stepfather John

BECKETT James
Died 29 February 1916 Age 22
Remembered on Plymouth Naval Memorial

BECKETT James
Service Record

47 WTS Royal Navy Reserve wireless operator.

He was lost at sea and at the time was on HMS Alcantara which formerly a cruise ship which was in 1915 acquisitioned by the Admiralty and became an armed merchant cruiser.

On 29th February 1916 on route back to Liverpool to refuel with coal after being part of a blockade of German ports, a report of enemy ships near Shetlands made HMS Alcantara change course where they spotted a Norweigan flagged ship Rena. Initially assumed to be non-hostile, a party was sent to inspect the Rena at which point guns were uncovered on the Rena and HMS Alcantara was attacked. The boat was SMS Greif. or Grief (both spellings identified during research).

Due to damage to HMS Alcantara possibly from a submarine, the Captain Thomas Wardle at 11am ordered abandon ship. It sank with 69 crew on board. The two ships exchanged fire for only approx 15 minutes.
https://lostinwatersdeep.co.uk/hms-alcantara.html

More details can be found on the leaflet from the Carnforth Poppy Trail

The 1911 census shows he lived at 4 Midland Terrace with his parents John and Margaret and his brother Robert and sister Laura.

BEDFORD Thomas
Died 20 August 1914 Age 26
Buried Gosport (Ann’s Hill) Cemetery England

 

BEDFORD Thomas
Service Record

Private 8074 A Company 1st Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

Thomas Bedford was a reservist who was employed by the Post Office in Carnforth at the outbreak of World War 1. He unfortunately was killed as he was accident shot while cleaning a revolver.

An article in the Hampshire Telegraph of the 28 August 1914, under the title Evidence at the Inquest reported:
Mr Hugh Donnithorne, the deputy coroner for South Hampshire, on Friday, held an inquest at the Royal Navy Hospital, Haglar (where Thomas Bedford had died). Evidence was given that Thomas Bedford was servant to Lieut Suckling, he was found shot through the head outside the officer’s tent with the Lieut’s revolver in his hand. It was a pure accident as the deceased was in the act of cleaning the revolver, unaware that it was loaded. The bullet had entered above his eye and gone through the brain. It was recorded as an accident by the jury.

His funeral took place at Ann’s Hill cemetery. The coffin was covered with the Union Jack and there was a guard of honour as well as three volleys fired over the grave and a regimental bugler sounded the Last Post.

He was the son of James Bedford of “South View” Goring Road, Staines, Middlesex

On the 4 July 1914, in the Lancaster Evening News, there is a Police report that was heard at Lancastle Castle (the Court at the time), that a Thomas Bedford of Carnforth was caught riding a bicycle without a light in Silverdale Road, Warton, this is probably the same Thomas Bedford.

BENNETT Clarence Isaac
Died 24 February 1944 Age 25
Buried Beach Head War Cemetery Anzio, Italy

BENNETT Clarence Isaac
Service Record

Private 942801 of the Army Catering Corp (attached to the Royal Artillery. He lived at 10 The Drive (now demolished), Crag Bank with his parents Thomas and Isabella.

BENNETT Noel
Died 19 November 1915 Age 19
Buried X Farm Cemetery, France

BENNETT Noel
Service Record

Private 15220 Duke of Wellingon’s West Riding Regiment 10th Battalion. He was from Sedbergh where his father was the station master. Although there are also references that he had been promoted to Lance Corporal.

Son of Walter Everard and Mary Elizabeth Bennett of 54 Greenland Rd Bolton, Lancashire.

Noel is remembered at the Carnforth War Memorial as he was working as a Railway Clerk at Carnforth railway station, prior to the outbreak of war.

BROCKBANK Robert Edward
Died 12 October 1917 Age 33
Remembered at Tynecot Memorial Panel 18 Belgium

BROCKBANK Robert Edward
Service Record

Sergeant 8504 King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment 1st Battalion

Son or Robert Brockbank of 12 Edward St, Carnforth.

The 1911 census details are showing Robert living at 14 Lancaster Road, Carnforth with his stepmother Maria, step siblings Wilson and Winifred and his half-sister Doris.

BULLOUGH Fred William
Died 8 November 1917 Age 32
Buried Artillery Wood Cemetery Belgium

Photograph of his grave

BULLOUGH Fred William

Service Record

Second Lieutenant Royal Garrison Artillery 152nd Siege Battery

Son of Edward and Mercy Charlotte Bullough of Westhoughton, husband of Ada Walsh Bullough of Brookfield, Westhoughton, Bolton, Lancashire.

Formerly head teacher Carnforth as stated in the Farnworth Chronicle newspaper dated Nov 16th 1917

CAMBRAY Bert (Albert)
Died 21 October 1922 Age 42
Buried St Oswald’s Church, Warton, Lancashire

Photograph of his grave

CAMBRAY Bert
Service Record

Private 241913 King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment 2nd/5th Battalion

Lived at 22 New Street, Carnforth with his parents Thomas and Jane and his brother James and his sister Ethel.

He is not registered in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website as he died of his wounds in 1922, sometime after the war had ended. Commonwealth War Graves Commission stopped recording deaths in 1921.

He is buried alongside his father who died 2 April 1916, aged 65, his mother Charlotte Jane who died 7 March 1922 aged 68 and their children who died in infancy, Martha and Timothy and Emma Mercer who died 24 May 1898 age 36.

CAMPBELL John
Died 22 October 1918 Age 37
Buried St Souplet British Cemetery, France

CAMPBELL John
Service Record

Lance Corporal 41486 Leicestershire Regiment 1st Battalion

Lived at 5 King Street, Carnforth with his wife Isabella and daughter Janey

CAPSTICK Thomas Edward
Died 16 June 1917 Age 21
Remembered Arras Memorial, France Bay 2

CAPSTICK Thomas Edward
Service Record

Private 32662 King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment 8th Battalion

Lived at 119 Hall Street (now part of the A6) with his parents Robert and Margaret and his brothers Henry, Norman and Sidney.

CARPENTER Henry
Died 22 March 1941 Age 26
Buried Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt

CARPENTER Henry
Service Record

Private 3710669 Royal Army Ordance Corps.

He was born in Durham and on his death was living at 92 Aberdeen Road, Lancaster. The Lancaster Guardian of 4 April 1941 states ‘late of Carnforth’

CLARK David William
Died 24 March 1918 Age 21
Remembered Pozieres Memorial panel 90

CLARK David William
Service Record

Corporal 142348 Machine Gun Corp 9th Company

Lived at 18 Kellet Road with his parents John Robinson Clark and Ada Clark as of 1911 census. The newspaper announcing his death on 27 April 1918 shows his parents now live at Canal Cottages, Carnforth.

CLARKE James Morrison Forsyth
Died 7 August 1916 Age 21
Remembered Lone Pine Memorial, Turkey

CLARKE James Morrison Forsyth
Service Record

Private 1527 Australian Infantry 1st Australian Imperial Force 6th Battalion

The 1911 Census shows that he lived at 8 Midland Terrace with his parents Caleb and Jane and his siblings John and Annie.

However, he signed up on 15th December 1914 in Sale, State of Victoria, Australia.

He died during the Gallipoli Campaign in Turkey, one of the worst campaigns in WW1. Eye witness accounts of how bad it was can be heard on the Imperial War Muesum’s webpage.