Private William Albert Jackson
18160 Royal Scots Fusiliers
Lived at 36 Smalley Street
Wounded in 1915
Mentioned in dispatches (London Gazette 31 December /1 January1916 page 39)
Burnley Express 30/6/1915

My grandfather William Albert Jackson, service serial number 18160, who enlisted in the Royal Scots Fusiliers on 30 November 1914.
He was wounded on 16 June 1915 which resulted in his arm being amputated and he was discharged on 19 July 1915.
I know that as well as his amputation Albert was also gassed (indeed he suffered from "bronchitis" for the rest of his life) and doubtless he was in hospital for some time.

The letter from Second Lieutenant Godfrey in France is in pencil on very flimsy paper, which looks as though it came from a cheap exercise book.

You can see Godfrey's name a few lines above my grandfather's in the Gazette, where he is described as "Temporary", presumably promoted in the field.
It may well be that he too was wounded in the same action. This might explain the "delay in writing" to my great grandmother, as would his continued fighting at the Front.
Whatever the reason I think it speaks volumes that he found the time and consideration to write amidst the chaos that there must have been around him.

Looking at the Gazette document again it may well be that several of Albert's platoon were killed or wounded in the same action.

His brother John Medforth Jackson was killed at the Somme and is included on your list of those who gave their lives in the Great War.
(Courtesy of Eric Jackson)