Bombardier Howarth Blakey
L/396 77th Royal Field Artillery
Incorrectly reported as having Died of Wounds
1st September 1917
Lived at 18 Raglan Road
St Pauls FC Date Unknown

He was actually cremated at Burnley Crematorium on 12th March 1960 (and got married (in Burnley) in 1924)

He does appear in Soldiers Died in the Great War, but nowhere else - wonder if he ever knew?

(information courtesy of Dave O'Mara)

"Listed as having died in the War. He didn't, as he subsequently married (in 1924) another Lomax sister, Elsie, and died in 1960 at the age of 64. He was a lovely man, known to me as Uncle Howie. He was deaf as a result of his time in the War, largely because of his service in a RFA Howitzer battalion (interesting coincidental connection to his name!). I have a variety of photographs of him both during the war (including one on horseback) and afterwards, including his wedding."

"Wedding photograph of Howarth Blakey, who married Elsie Victoria Lomax (sister of Fred, Herbert and Horace) on 3 July 1924 at St. Stephen's Church, when he was 29 and she was 27. They lived until both their deaths (1960 and 1973 respectively) at 167 Branch Road, Burnley Wood. They had no children. When they married he was a carter, but later worked for the Borough Council as a gardener. Elsie was a cotton weaver. In the photo, to Howarth's right is his younger brother Richard (Dick) and Margaret Tomlinson. On the extreme right is Alice Lomax (nee Ratcliffe), mother of all the Lomaxes. The little girl (aged 2 at the time) is Elsie's niece, Fred's daughter and my mother, Doris. "
(Courtesy of Peter Reaney)