St Mary's Parish War Dead

SOLDIERS OF THE PARISH OF ST. MARY OF THE ASSUMPTION

WHO DIED IN WORLD WAR 1

In this section:

Introduction (below)

remembrance day menin 200 St Mary's Parish War Dead - sunset 815270 200

List of Individuals & their records

List of War Dead Cemeteries & Final Resting Places

Table of Parish War Dead

Press Cuttings

This List of War Dead below is courtesy of Barbara McNamara who took on the considerable challenge of compiling it from scratch over several years.

Many thanks also to George Coppock for compiling the Soldiers' individual War Records, and for all the time he spent researching, making use of Barbara's list, as well as the considerable time & effort he put into uploading them to this website.

We have done our best to try to ensure the information contained herein is as accurate as we can make it but if you spot any errors please do email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and we will do our utmost to correct them.

OR, if you have any additional information or photographs we can use to further enhance this section of the site please, please do contact us either on the same email address above or contact Barbara McNamara directly.

Finally, enjoy your visit to this part of our parish website!

INTRODUCTION

by Barbara McNamara:

Nearly 300 soldiers connected with our parish died in World War 1. However, there had never been a fully comprehensive list, nor had there been a War Memorial in our church. In 2014 it was decided to begin a programme of research to try to address this. The research took four years from 2014 to 2018 to provide the current list. It is still ongoing and if further information becomes available it will be included. Some of our soldiers have been commemorated on St. John’s memorial in the church and on St. Peters church memorial. A few can also be found on their workplace memorials or Burnley Lad’s Club memorial and Burnley war memorial at the cemetery.

At the time of World War 1 St. Mary’s parish also included the area which later became Christ the King parish.

As we began this project Fr. Peter Hopkinson commissioned a Memorial Cross to be place outside in the church grounds, on the north side of the church. This memorial commemorates those who died in World War 1, World War 2 and other conflicts.

During the four years, records and photos of most of the soldiers have been displayed in the memorial corner. Parishioners of St. Mary’s and the other parishes have made a wonderful contribution. We still have many descendants and relatives of these soldiers here in our parish and other parishes in the area and a wonderful two- way programme of discovery took place. Some people saw photos of their soldier relatives for the first time. It is hoped that we will commemorate the soldier’s names and some detail in a permanent memorial book in our church.

We would like to thank and acknowledge the following people and the sources which were used during the research.

♦ Firstly, our thanks go to Fr. Peter Hopkinson our recent parish priest and to Fr. David Featherstone our current parish priest appointed in July 2018 for their help and encouragement.

♦ The parishioners of St. Mary’s and surrounding parishes for their contributions of information.

♦ Salford Diocesan Archivist Lawrence Gregory

♦ Andrew Gill, Alan Mackay and the late Denis Otter of Burnley in the Great War website for their kind permission to access and use information:

www.burnleyinthegreatwar.info/

♦ Commonwealth War Graves Commission

♦ The Royal British Legion

♦ Mr Clifford Scott

♦ Burnley Library

♦ Burnley Express

♦ Lancashire Parish Clerk website www.lan-opc.org.uk

Records for St. Mary’s Burnley:

Baptisms 1820-1910
Marriages 1825-1917
Deaths 1856-1869 1939-1950