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Lest We Forget
British Legion
The Royal British Legion

LITCHBOROUGH WAR MEMORIAL

World War 1 - Roll of Honour with detailed information
Compiled and copyright © Chris Coade 2016

The War Memorial is on the Village Green and is overlooked by the Parish Church of Saint Martin’s, Litchborough. The memorial was dedicated on 1st January 1920, and is a Cross of Weldon Stone on an octagonal-tiered base of Yorkshire Limestone. The names of 8 men from the village who were killed in the First World War are recorded - 3 of those men have 'No known grave'. A Church Service is held at the War Memorial at 11 a.m. on Remembrance Sunday in November, and the names of the 8 men of Litchborough are read out. In World War 2 there were 28 men and women from Litchborough who served in the Armed Forces - they all returned safely to the village.

Photographs Copyright © Chris Coade 2016

TO KEEP IN MIND
THOSE WHO FROM THIS PLACE
GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR
COUNTRY AND FOR THE RIGHT
IN THE GREAT WAR
1914 – 1919

ARNOLD

Ebenezer

Private 25122, 6th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Killed in action 17th February 1917. Aged 28. Born Litchborough, enlisted Moulton. He was the son of John Arnold (Cattle Drover) and Elizabeth Arnold, and he was born in Litchborough in 1889. He was a Gardener. Buried in Regina Trench Cemetery, Grandcourt, Somme, France. Plot VI. Row G. Grave 2.

ARNOLD

Richard Varney

[Listed as Richard Varner Arnold on SDGW] Private 28222, 7th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Died of wounds 10th June 1917. Aged 25. Born Litchborough, enlisted Northampton. He was the son of Alfred Arnold (Farm Labourer) and Eleanor Arnold, and born in Litchborough in 1891. He was a Farm Labourer. Buried in Brandhoek Military Cemetery, Ypres, Belgium. Plot I. Row K. Grave 26.

BILLINGHAM

William Walter

Private 13170, 6th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment. Killed in action 16th November 1915. Aged 23. He was the son of George Billingham (Farm Labourer) and Susan Billingham. He was born in Litchborough in 1893, and in 1901 his family lived at Wrighton’s farmhouse on the Towcester Road in Litchborough. He was a Horse Man on a farm. Buried in Point 110 Old Military Cemetery, Fricourt, Somme, France. Plot/Row/Section H. Grave 2.

DARKER

William

Private 13075, 2nd Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Killed in action 9th May 1915. Aged 31. Born Holloway, Middlesex, enlisted Northampton. He was born in London in 1884. By 1901 he had moved to Litchborough and was living with his widowed Grandmother Eliza Stanton, nee Thorneycroft (born Litchborough 1836). He was a Farm Labourer. No known grave. Commemorated on Ploegsteert Memorial, Ypres, Belgium. Panel 7.

HURLEY

Frank William

Private 58967, 1st Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Died 23rd October 1918. Aged 19. Born Litchborough, enlisted Northampton. He was the son of Thomas Hurley (Farmer) and Mary C. Hurley, and was born in Litchborough in 1899. His name is shown on his Parents’ gravestone in Litchborough churchyard. He was killed 19 days before the Armistice was signed on 11th November 1918. Buried in Mazinghien Communal Cemetery, Cambrai, France.

LESTER

Edward Gabriel

Lieutenant, 102nd Battalion, Canadian Infantry (Central Ontario Regiment). Died 25th June 1917. Aged 29. He was born in Ayr, Scotland 11th March 1887, and he was the son of the Rector of Litchborough Reverend John Moore Lester, and Grandson of General Frederick Lester, Bombay Artillery. Edward Gabriel Lester was educated at Rugby School and University College Oxford. At the outbreak of the War he was the Headmaster of the General Brock Elementary School in Vancouver, Canada and was married with a young daughter. His father died on Christmas Eve 1919 whilst visiting his parishioners in Litchborough and he is buried in Litchborough churchyard; the Rector’s 6 sons all enlisted in the Army in World War One. Edward Gabriel Lester’s widow died in 1920 in California, and their orphaned daughter Katherine (born 1911) was adopted by the Hollywood film director Cecil B DeMille and his wife. Katherine later became a Hollywood actress and married the actor Anthony Quinn with whom she had 5 children. He was Church of England. Served in the Oxford University O.T.C 1908-1909. Buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery, France. Plot VII. Row A. Grave 21. National Archives of Canada Accession Reference: RG 150, Accession 1992-93/166, Box 5598 - 3

NORRIS

Arthur Henry

Private 200605, 7th Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment. Died 31st July 1917. Aged 27. Enlisted Northampton. He was the son of Stephen Norris (Farm Labourer) and Fanny Norris (widowed by 1901). He was born in Litchborough in 1890, and he was the Great-Uncle of Rodney Hutchings (born Litchborough 1939) of Tystie Cottage, Litchborough. He was a Farm Waggoner. In 1916 he married Eliza Jane Alice Lantsbery at the Princess Street Baptist Chapel in Northampton. Eliza Jane Alice later remarried (George Wilkinson) and they had a child. No known grave. Commemorated on Ypres (Menin Gate), memorial, Ypres, Belgium. Panels 43 and 45

WESTON

George James

Rifleman R/8301, 18th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Killed in action 21 May 1917. Aged 17. Born Litchborough, enlisted Northampton, resident Salford, Manchester. He was the son of George Weston (Tunnel Labourer, born Fosters Booth) and Sarah Weston (born Litchborough). In 1911 he and his sister Phyllis Annie (born 1906) were living in Litchborough with their grandparents James and Ann Rickards. No known grave. Commemorated on Ypres (Menin Gate), memorial, Ypres, Belgium. Panels 51 and 53.

Last updated 30 January, 2016

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