Private George Thomas Swales
W/R 24374 (formerly 279962) Royal Engineers
Lived in Fall River, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Living at 44 Holbeck St in 1917

My great-grandfather, George Thomas Swales, was born in Clitheroe in 1872 and his wife Rosanna Cuppello was born in Manchester in the same year. Both families ended up in Burnley at some point in the late 1880’s. George and Rosanna left Burnley for the US in 1907. All of George’s siblings and their families ended up in the United States as well, all residing in the Fall River, Massachusetts area. Rosanna was the only member of her family to leave England and left behind her mother, 2 brothers and 3 sisters as well as their families.

At the age of 44, George Thomas Swales, after living in Fall River, MA for 10 years, somehow ended up serving in the British Army for over 2 years during World War I. The story passed on to my Dad from his grandmother, Rosanna, was that George and his friends went off on a ‘toot’ and ended up in Canada. George, who was still a British citizen, was detained by the Canadians at the border. We are unsure of the events after that, but we do know that George ended up back in Burnley in the spring of 1917 and lived with Rosanna’s sister, Mary (Polly) Bradshaw and her family at 44 Holbeck St. He presented himself for a ‘voluntary’ medical examination before the Burnley Medical Board on May 21, 1917 and left for France on June 12, 1917 with the rank of Pioneer in the Royal Engineers as part of Road Construction Company 332. Fortunately, George survived the brutal conditions of the French battlefield and returned to his wife and son in Fall River in May of 1919.

Additionally, Rosanna had 6 nephews, 4 from Burnley, who served in the Great War.

(courtesy of Cheryl Woulfe)