BACK
LINKS
MEMORIALS
RESOURCES
POSTCARDS
OTHER WARS
HOME

Newton-le-Willows and

Earlestown War Memorial
The Great War Roll of Honour
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Click on photos to enlarge. (A poppy means no photo available at the moment.) For further information, follow the blue hyperlinks. Many lead to external links over which this site has no control.

In Memory of

Private Richard James McGrath

5381
2nd Bn., Lancashire Fusiliers
Killed in Action 12th October 1916 Age 35

Richard lived with his wife and their young family at 14, Sheffield Row, Vulcan Cottages, having worked at the Vulcan Foundry for six years before joining the army on August 6th 1914, two days after war broke out.

He was reported missing during the Battles of the Somme in October 1916, but he was not officially reported as killed until August 1917.

Surprisingly, for a soldier who was reported missing, the CWGC states that he is buried in Bancourt British Cemetery in Plot IV Row E Grave 11, Bancourt being a village about four kilometres east of Bapaume. The cemetery was started in September 1916, but most of the graves, including Richard’s, were concentrated there after the Armistice from the battlefields East and South of Bapaume and from certain British and German cemeteries. Over half of the nearly 2,500 First World War casualties commemorated at the site are unidentified.