Private Phillip Henry Airey
42698 198th Coy Machine Gun Corps
Killed in Action 20th September 1917, aged 20
Lived at 28 Belverdere Road
Commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium
Commemorared on the St Peters Memorial, Burnley
Burnley Express 13th October 1917

Phillip Henry Airey was born the son of Richard K. and Ellen Airey of 52 Belvedere Road. . He enlisted at Nelson as Private 27098 in the Liverpool Regiment later transferring as Private 42698 in the198th Coy., Machine Gun Corps (Infantry).

Burnley Express 13/10/1917

Pte. Philip Henry (Harry) Airey 42698 Machine Gun Corps, son of Mr and Mrs Airey, 28, Belvedere Road, Burnley has been killed in action. He was 20 years of age , and was a cheerful fearless young soldier. How he died is told in the following letter to Mrs Airey from Capt. R.S. Mayne:- “I am most awfully sorry to have to tell you that your son, Pte. P.H. Airey, was killed in action on September 20th . He was hit in the head by a German machine gun bullet, by the same burst which wounded his officer. I saw him that morning, and he must have died instantaneously and could have suffered no pain at all. He was one of my very best men, and will be missed by the whole company. His officer (Lieut. Pucker) asked me to write to you, as he himself is hit in the arm and cannot write.
Pte. Airey enlisted in March 1915. He went on active service last December (1916). In July of this year he was slightly wounded in the head, and his officer and sergeant were hit at the same time. In civil life he was a book-keeper at Browning’s Spring Garden Mills. He attended St Peter’s Church. As a soldier he was promising, and had passed his examination as a range finder.
Two uncles of Pte. Airey are in France, three brother-in-laws are serving, one brother is an Eastern theatre of war, another is in training, while several cousins also are soldiers. One cousin was wounded at the Dardenelles. As an evidence of the sterling loyalty of the family, it may be mentioned that one uncle, Thomas Airey, is now fighting at the age of 50. Another, aged 48, Sergt. Edwin Airey, of the Howitzers, went through the Boer War. Thos. Eastwood, a brother in law, is an R.A.M.C. Quartermaster-Sergeant”