Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerk Project


	Atherton Cenotaph. Photo by Peter Wood, May 2005

The Cenotaph

Atherton Cenotaph is in the angle where Hamilton Street meets Leigh Road [SD668027], opposite Atherton Cemetery. On it are the names of 327 Atherton men who were causalities of the 1st World War (1914-19), and 108 men and 1 woman who died during the 2nd World War (1939-45). On the cenotaph, abbreviations are used, but I have added the full service or regiment name in the list here.


	The CWGC headstone of Annie Baugh, the only Atherton service woman interred in Atherton Cemetery. Photo by Peter Wood, July 2005

The Cemetery

According to Commonwealth War Graves Commission records, 57 casualties of WWI (32) and WWII (25) were buried in Atherton Cemetery. In visits in 2005 & 2007, I found 43 CWGC headstones (20 from WWI and 23 from WWII) plus three family headstones. I did not find memorials for the following 11 casualties buried at Atherton.

Pte. A.E. Atkinson, Welsh Regiment, 7 Feb 1919, grave CE 1562.
Sapper Harry L. Brown (26), Royal Engineers, 26 Jan 1919, grave CE 20.
Pte. Lester S. Crippen (26), R. Welch Fus., 26 Jul 1921, grave CE 6.
Aircraftman Fred Fairbrother (23), RAF, 19 Jun 1918, grave CE 28.
Cpl. James Hamer (24), Seaforth Highlanders, 1 Feb 1917, grave CE 5.
Pioneer Charles Harrison (36), Royal Engineers, 16 Jul 1919, grave NC 2075.
Pilot Officer Jack E. Harrison (31), RCAF, 25 Nov 1943, grave 18.
Driver Harold Heaton (21), RFA, 22 Apr 1919, grave CE 458.
Gunner Arthur L. Monk (29), Royal Artillery, 5 Jun 1942, grave Ground 3/214.
Pte. Robert Price (26), Irish Guards, 8 Sep 1918, grave CE 1542.
Pte. Joseph Woods (22), LNLR, 31 Dec 1920, grave NC 31.

The cemetery also contains family headstones that commemorate relatives who died in the wars. I found memorial inscriptions for 70 men on 65 gravestones, as are given here.


	The Baptist Cenotaph at the corner of Tyldesley Road and Lee Street. The grass patch is where the old Baptist Chapel used to be; there is a modern chapel close by. Photo by Peter Wood, May 2005

Church Rolls

Listed here are the names on Rolls of Honour inside Atherton Independent Methodist Church, Chowbent Unitarian Chapel, St Michael and All Angels Howe Bridge, and St Richard RC. Also recorded are names on the massive sandstone monument at the junction of Lee Street and Tyldesley Road [SD677030], which used to mark the NW corner of the now-demolished Baptist Chapel. I did not find a Roll of Honour inside St John parish church.

In October 1919, Fletcher Burrows & Co. Ltd. published the 1st issue of Carbon, the ‘in house’ magazine of their Atherton Collieries. It recorded that 918 men had joined the Army or Navy, of whom 114 had died (2 names were added later). 28 men were awarded medals (3 of whom were killed in action) including Military Crosses to Major Basil L. Fletcher and Captain M. Kenneth Burrows. On 26 May 1923 at Atherton Church House, Moses Berry the President of the Atherton branch of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners’ Federation, unveiled a memorial tablet to the 116 Atherton Collieries men who lost their lives in the Great War (Carbon, October 1923). Their names, as given in Carbon, are listed here.

At the time of WWI, Atherton Collieries was the largest single employer in the town, and 24% of the men on Atherton Cenotaph worked for them. However, not all Atherton Collieries employees came from Atherton and only 67% of those who died are also on the cenotaph.

I can supply jpg images of those headstones with an IMG_ reference number. Please quote that reference with your request.


	Chowbent Chapel Rolls of Honour. Photo by Peter Wood, July 2005


	Atherton Independent Methodist Roll of Honour. Photo by Peter Wood, Sep. 2007


	St Michael & All Angels, Howe Bridge, WW1 Roll of Honour. Photo by Peter Wood, July 2007


	St Richard RC Roll of Honour. Photo by Peter Wood, Sep. 2007