Private Wilfred Towse
485 Royal Army Medical Corps (2/2nd E.L.F.A.)
Died of illness 22nd September 1915, aged 20
Lived at 132 Briercliffe Road
Commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Gallipoli
Burnley Express 6th October 1915
Commemorated on Elim Primitive Methodists Memorial

ROYAL EDWARD SURVIVOR.
Private Towse Dies of Dysentery.
(Burnley Express 06/10/15)
On Monday morning Mr & Mrs C Towse, of 132 Briercliffe Road, Burnley, received the tragic news that Private Wilfred Towse, of the 2/2nd East Lancashire Field Ambulance, died from dysentery on a hospital ship in the Mediterranean. The news was conveyed in the following letter from the Rev. T. Rees, formerly of Mirfield, Yorkshire, and the chaplain on the hospital ship:-
“Dear Mrs Towse- Before this letter reaches you; you will have heard the sad news of your son’s death. He passed away on board this ship on the voyage between the Dardanelles and Malta. He was brought on board suffering from dysentery a week ago. He received all the attention that doctors and nurses could give him, but in spite of all he passed away two days after he came on board. I am the chaplain (Church of England) on board this ship, and is my privilege to minister to him during his last hours on this earth. I frequently prayed with him, and he welcomed any help I could give him in this way. Moreover, he prayed himself, and learned to lean on the only support that will hold us up in our deepest needs. It is a great blow to you, his mother, and I am writing to express my sympathy with you. Your grief is tempered, however, by the thought that he died nobly in a noble cause, and that his last hours were brightened by the consolation of our holy religion.”
A youngest son, Private Towse celebrated his nineteenth birthday on April 28th last. Before joining the Royal Army Medical Corps, he worked as a weaver at Messrs Halstead’s, Queensgate Mill. He was connected with the Elim Primitive Methodist Church.