L/Cpl Albert Chorley, service no. 6743 - Lancashire Fusiliers

[whitenoise]

Greetings!

This weekend in my in-laws basement, we found discovered medal and I'm attempting to trace back, possibly even return to a family member / relative - I realise this is a long-shot, may not even be possible, but I'm going to try anyway.

Background;

As of this moment, we have no idea how the medal came to be in the basement of this house located in Urmston, Manchester. The house has been lived in by my in-laws for 46 years. There are no apparent links to either of them and the medal (at the moment at least, its possible it's linked to one of them and they forgot or don't know yet - to be confirmed)

Details;

The medal is an Allied Victory Medal (1914-1918) with the inscription '6743 PTE A CHORLEY , LAN, FUS' around the edge of it.

I have linked this to Albert Chorley, who died on 9th July 1916 in the Somme, and is buried in Pozieres British Cemetery, Ovillers-La Boisselle, France.

At this point I must thank Geoff Pycroft of the Lancashire Fusiliers message board for the information he gave about Albert, so far.

Other information;

- Alberts record on CWGC
- Alberts mention on Every One Remembered
- Alberts mention on Somme-Roll-of-Honour

More stuff;

- Served in 11th Battalion LF
- He was possibly a native of Barnsley Yorkshire? 
- His wife at the time he was KIA is recorded as being Elizabeth Chorley who subsequently remarried and became Elizabeth Travis.
- Address when married to Albert is recorded as 97 Armitage Street, Ardwick, Manchester.
- She remarried on 27.6 1917.
- They had two children, Albert Thomas born 19.8.10. and Doris born 12.6.14

At this stage I'm just looking for any additional information about the Battalion, or Albert or his life.

Many thanks!

 

[RussT]

15 minutes ago, whitenoise said:

- He was possibly a native of Barnsley Yorkshire? 

Welcome to the Forum

His SDGW entry does confirm he was born in Barnsley - although he enlisted in Manchester so was likely living there at the time.

You have his family details correct as they match those on his Pension Index Cards, from where the information probably originates.

His 1914/1915 Star medal was earned serving with the 11th Battalion, which was the only Battalion he served with overseas. He first entered France on 25/09/1915, which is the date the 11/Bn deployed to France as part of 25th Division.

You can download the War Diary of the 11/Bn LF for free from TNA.

Regards

Russ

[AndrewSid]

He was initially reported as missing following presumably the fighting on the 9th of July. This was reported in the Times on August 19th 1916. Iimages courtesy of the Times Digital archive. 

 

 

 

It was not until the next year he was confirmed dead.  Given he has a grave and the details from the CWGC it’s perhaps likely to assume his body was found at some point and was identifiable.   He was reported in the Times on 19 Sept 1917. Noting his death was likely confirmed a few week before appearing.

 

Edited 14 April by AndrewSid

[AndrewSid]

Do you have access to the 1921 Census.  From what I can tell the son stayed with the Chorley grandparents at 20 Armitage street, Manchester.  He was still at No 20 at the time of the 1939 Register. He now lived there alone and was single, aged 29.  He was a power station pump attendant.

I think the daughter moved away to Birkenhead and took the Travis name, but this may require further work.  Elizabeth’s age doesn’t tally but Doris’s does.  Their address was 30 Rowland Street Birkenhead.

The 1911 census has Albert living in Ardwick but he was born in Stairfoot, Yorkshire. He was a railway porter.

I reckon with an Ancestry account, use of probate registers etc you could progress towards a NoK. 

He is also listed here by his former employers:

https://lnwrs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/PUBS0001-ROLL-OF-HONOUR-Copy.pdf

Andy

Edited 15 April by AndrewSid

[whitenoise]

Both @AndrewSid and @RussT - wow, I did not expect this much more information, absolutely fantastic, thank you. I'm building up a sort of 'fact sheet' on Albert at the moment, with information I'm confident on, and once I've collated all that together I will probably hit Ancestry as suggested, but I have to say thank you again for the time you spent here.

 

[AndrewSid]

Well,

I have looked a little deeper into Albert Thomas.  He died on 26 October 1953 but was married at the time.  See below:

There seems to be a somewhat deeper sad tale for the Albert whose medal you found. His father was Thomas and his mother, Fanny.  They had five children, three boys and two girls.  Albert was the second oldest child.  The oldest child was  James William.  He volunteered for the Army in Preston in August 1914 but was discharged a month later as not suitable for military service.  A not uncommon fate.    He volunteered again in September 1915 and was accepted.  He  died of pneumonia  in Basra, Iraq on the 25th August 1916  whilst serving with the 6th Battalion  the South Lancashire Regiment under number 26251.  A double blow to the family living at 20 Armitage Street with news of the brothers fates arriving almost at the same time. 

Andy

Edited 15 April by AndrewSid

[whitenoise]

@AndrewSid thank you so much for this additional information - absolutely fascinating, and incredibly sad, but there is a lot here to unpack and potentially follow as well -  I appreciate your time looking at Alberts family.