|
CHEADLE & GATLEY WAR MEMORIALS Welcome to John
Hartley’s website which commemorates the men of Cheadle & Gatley who fell
in both World Wars. The area is part of the Borough of Stockport. Prior to 1974, the local authority was the Cheadle & Gatley Urban District Council. Within the original local council boundaries, there are war memorials in Cheadle, Cheadle Hulme, Gatley and Heald Green.
Many of us have war memorials near where we live and we probably pass them many times without a thought, except, perhaps, round Armistice Day on 11 November. Over the last couple of years, I have researched the army unit that my grandfather served with during the First World War. He survived, but I realised how little is known about the men who fought and died.
More recently, I learnt of a great uncle who was killed in 1916. He has no marked grave, was not commemorated on any war memorial and there were no newspaper reports of his death. Through my research, Stockport Council has recently added his name to the town memorial and the local newspaper reported it. Perhaps more than anything, this knowledge gave me the enthusiasm to try to find out about those who lived near where I do. By making them less anonymous, I hope we can remember them better.
The website was launched in January 2003. Two of the local village networks – www.cheadlehulme.net and www.cheadle-cheshire.net - quickly linked to the site. A local secondary school has also expressed an interest in using the site as a project resource in the teaching of World War 1 history. I can offer talks, for local schools and community groups, on the history of these men. Please contact me via the link below. In early March 2003, the Stockport Express published a two page article about the research, under the headline of “Bringing to life the stories of those who died for us a century ago”. The article has already put me in touch with descendents of 6 of the men commemorated and, in each case, I have learned more about them. If you have any information about the people commemorated on our war memorials or would like to comment on the website, please get in touch with me via the link below. Throughout 2003, I added information as I discovered it, but the exercise is now complete. Unless new information comes to light, I do not anticipate any further major updates to the site. Information continue to be received from family members or other sources and this is added from time to time. This site is operated on my free AOL web space which doesn’t have a lot of room for pictures. Therefore I have been unable to show photos of the men commemorated but, in many cases, these are held by Stockport’s Central Local Heritage Library which has an excellent archive of newspaper obituaries from WW1 and WW2. My thanks go to staff of the Library, the staff from regimental museums across the country and the many “pals” I have made, who have helped me compile the information.
John Hartley
January 2005
Click below
to view a memorial
Long Lane War Memorial (Heald Green)
The idea for this website was inspired
by Private Thomas Brough, 17th Battalion, Manchester Regiment, who
fought and survived and Staff Sergeant Benjamin Hartley, Royal Army Ordnance
Corps, who fought and didn’t.
|
