George Harrison
Killed in Action 8th May 1915
George's Story
George was born in Holmes Chapel in 1891, the son of Albert and Margaret Harrison, and was living in the same house ten years later.
By 1911 he had moved to 16 Park Road, Wilmslow, where he was a boarder aged 20 and working as a plate layer for the London and NW Railway.
Before the outbreak of war he had joined the forces and was serving in India. He appears to have returned home to join the war effort.
In October 1914 he enlisted at Wakefield into the Kings Own Royal Light Infantry, 1st Battalion, Number 10524.
In August 1915 he was serving abroad and reported wounded but then reported missing. In May 1916 he was reported to have been killed in action and the date of death was later confirmed as 8 May 1915.
No known grave exists but he is commemorated on Panel 47, Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres.
Home of the Harrison Family
Leonard Hathway
Killed in Action 23th October 1918
Leonard's Story
Leonard Hathway was born in August 1897 in Leicester. The family seemed to move quite a bit because in 1901 he was living at Bruton Lane, Dursley, Gloucestershire aged 3.
By 1911 aged 13 he was at Dane Terrace, Cranage Road, Holmes Chapel. He was the son of Alice and George Henry Hathway, a postman.
He was one of 9 children at the time who had been born in places as far apart as Cork and Aldershot and it appeared only the last two aged 1 and 3 were born in the vicinity of Holmes Chapel.
Joined the 7th Cheshire Regiment in December 1914. He was later transferred to the Royal Field Artillery, Nr. 831298 where he was a shoeing smith. In July 1916 the Parish Magazine reported that he was in hospital abroad suffering from sickness.
In November 1916 he was in hospital again as a result of a wound and in January 1917 he was still in hospital in England but was discharged back to his unit in April that year. In June 1918 he was reported missing and he was still missing in September. There was no further news.
He was with the Royal Field Artillery, 9th Divisional Ammunition Col QN Railhead when he died on 23rd October 1918 in Italy. He received the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.
He was buried in Plot 1, Row H, grave 11 at Dueville Communal Cemetery Extension in Italy. Commonwealth forces were at the Italian front between November 1917 and November 1918, and rest camps and medical units were established at various locations in northern Italy behind the front, some of them remaining until 1919. From April 1918 to the early months of 1919, the 9th, 24th and 39th Casualty Clearing Stations occupied the village school at Dueville and used the extension to the communal cemetery for the burial of those who died of wounds or disease.
'They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.'
Extract from 'For the Fallen' by Laurence Binyon
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