Stanley Holgate
Stanley Holgate was wounded twice at Serre – the first when a shell landed in the trenches on the 19th June 1916, whilst his right arm was badly injured on the morning of the 1st July 1916. He received treatment for the latter at Southsea Hospital, resulting in him being discharged from the Army on the 5th March 1917.
Born in Bolton in 1898, the 1901 Census had him living with his parents at 160 Church Street in Blackpool – his father, Charles, being a Leather Merchant. Before enlisting in the Pals in 1914, Stanley worked as a Trainee Butcher at Miller’s in Chorley, living at 56 Preston Road and attended St. Peter’s Church. After the war he married Grace Ainscough at Trinity Methodist Church in Chorley in 1920; she had previously been engaged to Carswell Entwisle, a Chorley Pal killed on the 1st July 1916.
The family album records them taking holidays in the U.K. and abroad, mainly by Jackson’s Coaches from Chorley, visiting places as far apart as Llandudno and Lucerne (Switzerland). During the Second World War Stanley worked at the R.O.F in Euxton in the shell filling section, retiring around 1963; he was known to his workmates as “Flipper feet” (due to having large feet).
He died in Chorley in 1974.
As for the rest of the Holgate family, Stanley’s father, Charles, was instrumental in re-forming Chorley Football Club after the First World War, overseeing the opening of Victory Park and serving as Secretary and on the Committee for some 25 years. After which he turned his attention to Chorley Cricket Club, serving as Secretary and Scorer; he died in 1952. Stanley’s elder brother, Harry Holgate, served as Lance Corporal 200288 in the 1st / 4th (T.F.) Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment (known as the Chorley Terriers); he was taken prisoner by the Germans, being held at Sonnerlager in February 1918.
