Private Alfred Thomas Foulkes
5577 2nd East Lancashire Regiment
Died of Wounds 17th March 1915, aged 20
Lived at 17 Stafford Street
Buried in Merville Communal Cemetery, France - II.G.8.
Burnley Express 31st March 1915

“WITHIN SOUND OF THE GUNS”
BURNLEY SOLDIERS RESTING PLACE

Still another Burnley youth has been added to the ranks of heroes who have given their lives for King and Country, news having been received from France to say that he died of wounds inm a clearing hospital following the Neuve Chapelle battle. The soldier is Private Alfred Foulkes, of the 3rd East Lancashire Regiment, whose address, prior to his being called upin August was 17, Stafford-street, Burnley.
Private Foulkes, who was a weaver at Messrs. Thornbers, Burnley Lane, served twelve months in the Burnley Territorials before joining the Special Reserve of the East Lancashires and was twenty years of age. He left England for France in September, about the 16th, was wounded on November 15th and returned to the firing line again in January, receiving injuries once more, from which he died.
The news was conveyed to his mother in the following letter, received from the hospital in which he died.
!7/3/1915
“I am grieved to have to tell you of the death of Private A. Foulkes of the 3rd East Lancashires. He
came into this hospital when unconscious, with several wounds, head, arm and wrist and remained so, mercifully until last night. We buried him today in the little cemetery in a place reserved for soldiers fallen in the war; a wooden cross with his name upon it marks the exact spot where he lies within sound of the guns”
As a young lad Private Foulkes attended Accrington-road Wesleyan School and later became associated with Holy Trinity Church, where he officiated as choir boy for 5 years, retiring when he reached leading tenor. He was a well-known local gymnast and was a member of Burnley Lads Club