Private Henry Pickles MM
G/35003 1st Royal Fusilers
Lived at 1 Briercliffe Road
London Gazette of 21 October 1918

The Burnley News of 17 August 1918 reported : -
MILITARY MEDALIST. DISTINCTION FOR BURNLEY LANE SOLDIER.

Private Henry Pickles, Royal Fusiliers, son of Mr. and Mrs. Pickles, 31, Briercliffe Road, Burnley, has been awarded the Military Medal for gallantry in the field on the night of June 15/16 last. The ribbon was pinned on his breast by the Corps General on Tuesday, July 30. The brave soldier has received letters of congratulation on the heroism which won him the coveted distinction, from Major-General A.C. Daly, commanding 24th Division and from Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston, K.C.B., D.S.O., M.P., commanding 8th Army Corps, British Armies in France.

Private Pickles, before enlisting, was a book-keeper at Alderman Emmott's Stanley Mill, Burnley Lane. He joined the Royal Fusiliers in the latter part of 1915, and after undergoing training at Oxford and Edinburgh he was drafted to France in early 1916. He fought in the Somme battles up to Beaumont Hamel in which engagement he was wounded. After about six months in hospital he returned to France in July, 1917, was in the British drive at Cambrai under General Bing, and was in the late retreat to the Marne. He has recently taken part in the new offensive, and the news that he has been awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry will afford much pleasure to his large circle of friends in the Burnley Lane district. Private Pickles is on the Roll of Honour at Angle Street Baptist Chapel. He has a brother serving in the King's Liverpool Regiment on the same front in France.

(Towneley Hall Collection -Reverse)