Private Edward Hopkins
20/178 20th Northumberland Fusiliers
Lived at 24 Lydia Street,
Killed in Action 1st July 1916
Buried in Ovillers Military Cemetery, France

His address at the time of his loss was 24 Lydia Street, Burnley as it was in 1901 and 1911, he was born in Skelmersdale nr Ormskirk in 1884, son of Dominic and Alice Hopkins. I think the family will have been Catholic as they do not appear in the Lancashire online Parish Registers. Edward had 3 sisters, the youngest, Ellen was born in Skelmersdale in 1895 and so the family must have moved to Burnley when Edward was about 9, he will have gone to school there.

His father worked for Todmorden Corporation (gas works) in 1911 and Edward was a brickmaker. His mother had been born in Todmorden and his father was from County Mayo. Edward had married before serving and had one child according to his pension record but I cannot identify his wife or child . He is buried in the Ovillers Military Cemetary.

I have looked at all the memorials available on the online site for Burnley but I can't see Edward.

I run Ormskirk Bygone Times and we have been remembering the local men lost, Edward, because he left Ormskirk as a young boy, is not recorded on any memorial in Ormskirk.

Is there any possibility that you could please check for a record of him on a memorial in the Burnley area at all?

(courtesy of Dot Hawkes)