Private John Pritchard
16287 12th Cheshire Regiment
Died 20th October 1915
Born in Stockport, lived in Burnley
Buried in Corbie Communal Cemetery, France
Plot 1 Row B Grave 33

John was born in the parish of St Thomas' C of E Church, Stockport and his parents lived at 12 Harrison Street in the Higher Hillgate area of town. His fiancée, Matilda Kimber, lived nearby at 2 Bay Street.
John was working away when war was declared. He was living in Burnley and working in Nelson as a doubler at the town's Valley Cotton Mill. He returned to Stockport to enlist in one of the Cheshire Regiment's newly formed "Service Battalions", in September 1914.
John died from peritonitis whilst at a Casualty Clearing Station near to where the Battalion had been operating on the Somme. He must have been there for a little while as the rest of the Battalion had been transferred by train to Marseilles and, on 27 October, embarked for Greece.
The local newspaper, reporting his death, also noted that his eldest brother, William, had served with the 1st Battalion, Cheshire Regiment and had lost and arm during fighting on 5 March 1915. Another brother was serving with the East Lancashire Regiment.
Research by John Hartley for “Stockport 1914-18”.