Tracing Your Roots To Gallipoli
Remembering some of the Bolton men who lost their lives in the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915
William Henry Lancaster
Bolton Journal and Guardian 17 September 1915 Boltonian with Australians Killed Mr, and Mrs. Lancaster, 4, Blackwood-St., Great Lever, have received intimation that their son Pte. W. H. Lancaster,was killed in the Dardanelles during the fighting from August 7th to 18th. Pte Lancaster was only 19 years of age. In Bolton he was employed at the mill of Messrs. Thomas Taylor Ltd., Saville-st. He went out to work on a farm in Australia in June last year, and enlisted in the Colonial infantry in February, being in the third battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade. He spent a short time in Egypt, and had been in the fighting for about four months. In his letters home he spoke very cheerily, and mentioned in one that he hoped to be in Bolton for his Christmas dinner. He also wrote: “Since I arrived I have met a good many Bolton lads, so I am not without some of my old pals.” 3rd Battalion Unit Diary - 7 August 1915 - Lone Pine We held our position against continuous bombing at which the enemy appear The day was spent in holding our front against bombs and consolidating the William was the son of George Lancaster b.1857, a hawker, and Charlotte Lancaster née Ainsworth b.1847. Charlotte been previously married to someone named Jones. William's father had moved to the USA as a weaver. He married Charlotte in Lowell, Massachusetts, where both their children were born, but the family had returned to England in December 1899. William appeared on the 1911 census living at 152 Blackhorse Street, Bolton with his parents and sister Alice b.1894. Alice was employed in a bleachworks and William was a cotton weaver. William's medical examination on enlistment recorded him as being 5' 3 7/8" tall, weighing 8 st 7 lbs with a dark complexion, brown eyes and dark hair.
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