Edwin Walmsley
Edwin Walmsley was born in Whittle-le-Woods on the 7th September 1893, the youngest of five children born to Elizabeth and Robert Walmsley. Edwin was living with his parents at Mount Pleasant in the village in 1901 and Ribblesdale Terrace in 1911. He attended Whittle St. John’s Church and worked at Cunliffe Print works at Kem Mill in Whittle-le-Woods upon enlisting in the Pals at Chorley on the 22nd September 1914.
He was wounded at Serre on the 1st July 1916 when a German bullet pierced his chest close to his heart, entering by the third rib on the left side and exited by the tenth rib. Edwin told his grand-daughter that it took him two days to crawl back to the British lines. His medical records show that when he was eventually admitted to hospital he “spat blood for the first two days” and had “pain on deep breathing”. He spent from the 12th July to the 4th August in the Military Hospital in York. After he recovered, Edwin was transferred to the 8th Battalion of the Dorset Regiment as Private 2512 and then to ‘B’ Company of the 15th Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment as Private 64582 (the latter were formed on the 1st January 1917 for “Home Service only”). He was eventually posted as Private 432291 in the 646th Agricultural Company of the Labour Corps, being discharged from the Army on the 9th April 1919 and was awarded a 20% pension in January 1920.
Whilst in the Army he married Sarah (Jane) Entwistle at St. George’s Church in Chorley during 1917. After the war they lived at 58 Parker Street in Chorley and had four children – Richard, John, Edward and Elsie. His son, John, won a Military Medal serving with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment at Anzio in 1943. Edwin worked at John Heald’s Foundry in Chorley up to 1958 and then at Leyland Motors in Chorley. Around 1960 Edwin and his wife moved to 3 Farrington Street in the town. In 1963 (now aged 70) he was employed as a “Watchman” on the building site of the ‘new’ Police Headquarters in Chorley.
Edwin died on the 6th August 1971 at Chorley Hospital of Influenzal Pneumonia; he is buried at St. John’s Church in Whittle-le-Woods.
