Secrets of WW1 revealed in town cemetery

Kyt · Nov 5, 2008

Secrets of World War One revealed in town cemetery - News - Macclesfield Express

AS THE 80th anniversary of the First World War approaches, residents can look to Macclesfield Cemetery to remember the town’s lost heroes.

The cemetery’s guide Fiona Ware has been researching the stories behind their war gravestones.

"It has been so moving finding out about these young soldiers lives – I have a daughter of 19 and it’s just so strange to think some of these ordinary boys who were younger than her. It really makes you think," she said.

Among those she researched is a headstone for Francis Walton, son of landlord of the Bull and Gate, on Chestergate, who was the first victim of the First World War to be buried in Macclesfield.

A talented writer, his letters home were printed in the Courier, under the pseudonym "Peeping Tom".

He died at Gallipoli as part of the Cheshire Regiment’s 7th Battalion, from a shrapnel shell.

Charles McKay – a leading boy chorister at Macclesfield Parish Church – survived a bullet and frostbite while in the Cheshire Regiment in India before the war.

But after war broke out, he was killed, aged 29, at Maissemy while taking a wagon of supplies up to the front line trenches.

Walton and many others, including Frank Edwards, who died aged 19 on Salisbury plain in a training accident, will be featured in a special guided walk at the Prestbury Road cemetery, on Remembrance Sunday.

"There are also soldiers from the Crimean War and the Second Boer War. One from the Crimean War was buried with a firing party, band and a bugler, but was poor so is in an unmarked pauper’s grave," Fiona added.

Fiona has spent countless hours researching the men behind the gravestones on the two-hour heritage trail.

"The public have been great at coming in so far, but it would be great if more residents could come forward with their memories."
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John · Nov 5, 2008

Is this the same cemetery ??

CWGC :: Cemetery Details

spidge · Nov 6, 2008

Is this an old story?

80th anniversary = 1928!

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Secrets of WW1 revealed in town cemetery

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