Private Samuel Atkinson
4670 1st East Lancashire Regiment
Died of Shell Shock 16th May 1916 at Perth Hospital, aged 37
Lived at 4 White Bull Street
Buried in Burnley Cemetery, UK
Burnley Express 20th May 1916 - 24th May1916 - 27th May1916

BURNLEY CORPORAL’S DEATH

MEMBER OF A SOLDIERING FAMILY

The death took place in the Perth Military Hospital on Tuesday of Corporal Atkinson of the East Lancashire Regiment, of 18 Woodbine-road Burnley. He had been in hospital for some time suffering from shock caused by shell explosion, but for the previous fortnight his relatives had been hoping he could have sufficiently recovered to have come home. The body was removed from the hospital on Wednesday and brought by train to Burnley, full military honours being accorded in the Scottish city. The funeral will take place this (Saturday) afternoon at the Burnley Cemetery, leaving the house at two o’clock, and this will be of a military character.
Corporal Atkinson, who was 37 years of age, had done 22 years and five months service in the Army, and for Eleven years he was the big drummer in the 1st East Lancs. His full term in the Army – 21 years – should have expired in the January immediately following the outbreak of war. He was connected with St. John’s Church, Gannow, where he was formerly a choir boy. He came of an old soldier’s family, being a son of the late Mr. James Ormerod Atkinson of the 7th Dragoon Guards. The father served 21 years in the Army and on his death three years ago he also had a military funeral. Another son George William Atkinson, who was in the ….., went through the Afghan War and a third James Ormerod Atkinson went through the South African War with the 3rd Warwick’s and Loyal North Lancashire’s. Two other brothers are now on active service- Edwin Aubrey Atkinson, who was one of the earliest members of the Burnley Artillery being with the R.F.A. in France, as is Sergt. Joseph Atkinson who was a sergeant in the Old Burnley Volunteers. George Wm. Atkinson, the son of the one who went through the Afghan War, is now with the R.A.M.C. at Salonica; and another nephew is Sergt. Edgar Salmon of the 2/5th East Lancs. Corporal Atkinson leaves a widow and two children.

(Burnley Express and Advertiser 20th May 1916)