In Memory of

Private Alfred Hughes

11432
6th Battalion South Lancashire Regiment
Killed In Action 1st February 1917 Age 30

Alfred lived with his wife and four children at 58, Athol Street, Earlestown. Before the war, he had worked for sixteen years at the Sankey Sugar Works.

According to the obituary published in the Newton and Earlestown Guardian on February 23rd 1917, in his younger days he had been connected with the Volunteers and he joined the colours again soon after war was declared. He was sent with a draft to Egypt in May 1916.

Like Albert Taylor, Richard Harrison and Charles Zorn, Alfred’s name is on the Basra Memorial in Iraq which bears the name of more than forty thousand members of the Commonwealth forces who died in the operations in Mesopotamia from the autumn of 1914 to the end of August 1921 and whose graves are not known.

The handwritten Battalion War Diary records for 1st February 1917:
“EAST BANK of RIVER HAI Battalion advanced and captured enemy third line, practically without loss. In the evening Battalion was relieved by Manchester Regt. The Battalion marched back to 1st [Line? Lincs?] Transport lines.”

Whalley-Kelly in “Ich Dien” says:
“In the first week of February (the Battalion) moved across the Hai (i.e. from the east bank to the west bank) into the Dahra Bend for more serious work.”

John Lloyd, Albert Taylor and Richard Harrison were killed in the ensuing fighting.