Private 58577, 13th Battalion, The King's (Liverpool Regiment). Killed in action 3 May 1917. Born and resident Shevington, enlisted Wigan (spelt Sherrington on SDGW). No known grave. Commemorated on ARRAS MEMORIAL, Pas de Calais, France. Bay 3.

Private 11410, 6th Battalion, Border Regiment. Killed in action 26 November 1916. Born asnd enlisted Wigan. Brother of Mrs. Sarah J. Pemberton, of 70, Crooke, Wigan, Lancs. No known grave. Commemorated on THIEPVAL MEMORIAL, Somme, France. Pier and Face 6 A and 7 C. See also Shevington St Anne's Pit Memorial

Private 28327, 4th Battalion, Grenadier Guards. Died of wounds 15 December 1917. Born Crooke (SDGW states Bootle), Lancashire, enlisted Seaforth. In the 1911 census he was aged 12, born Bootle, at school, son of James and Lurah Grundy, resident 17 Woodcock Row, Crooke, Shevington, Lancashire. Buried in LE CATEAU MILITARY CEMETERY, Nord, France. Plot V. Row D. Grave 4. See also Shevington St Anne's Pit Memorial

Information supplied by Bernadette Green:
John Grundy, Private, 28327, 4th battalion, Grenadier Guards, was born in Crooke in 1898 to James and Sarah Grundy who were boat people and lived in Woodcock Row for a number of years. John was unmarried and joined the Grenadier Guards. He lost his life on 15th December 1917 at the battle of Cambrai - he was 19 years old. He was the great uncle of Bernadette Green who supplied this information. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission does not know his age. John is buried at the Le Cateau Military cemetery, approximately 27 kilometres east-south-east of Cambrai.

[Listed as HODGE on war memorial] Private 37530, 1st Battalion, The King's (Liverpool Regiment). Killed in action 3 May 1917. Aged 26. Born Parbold, enlisted and resident Wigan. Son of John Atherton and Mary Hodges, of Shevington, Wigan; husband of Catherine Hodges. of Hunter's Hill, Wrightington, Wigan. The 1911 census gives his occupation as labourer at the North West Lancs Floorcloth Company Ltd. No known grave. Commemorated on ARRAS MEMORIAL, Pas de Calais, France. Bay 3.

Private 9728, 2nd Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. Killed in action 13 September 1914. Aged 27. Born and enlisted Wigan. Son of George and Esther Holland, of The Prince Albert Inn, Goose Green, Wigan; husband of Mary Holland, of 33, Bathurst Lane, Shevington, Wigan. No known grave. Commemorated on LA FERTE-SOUS-JOUARRE MEMORIAL, Seine-et-Marne, France.

Private 109279, 4th Battalion, The King's (Liverpool Regiment). Died of wounds 29 November 1918, received 5th November 1918. Aged 20. Son of Christopher and Teresa Wilson, of Brook Side, Shevington Moor, Wigan. Buried in ST. SEVER CEMETERY EXTENSION, ROUEN, Seine-Maritime, France. Section S. Plot IV. Row E. Grave 13. See also Shevington St Anne's Pit Memorial

Note: There was an interesting article in The Reporter of 29 November 2007. Oswald Wilson’s wooden battlefield cross was found in a shop in Todmorden, Lancashire, as a result of a house clearance. This grave marker would have been on Oswald’s grave before it was replaced a few years later with the normal headstone.

Marine PLY/X 100461, H.M.S. Neptune, Royal Marines. Died 129 December 1941. Aged 31. Son of Jack Fazackerley Coppock and Mary Ellen Coppock; husband of Edna Coppock, of Shevington, Lancashire. No known grave. Commemorated on PLYMOUTH NAVAL MEMORIAL, Devon. Panel 59, Column 2.

Colin Fazackerley Coppock lived at 137 Shevington Lane, and was married to Edna. They were both musical, and Edna played the organ and trained the choir at Almond Brook Methodist Church, which is now a private house. They had one son, Alan.

Colin volunteered for the marines when war broke out, and was trained, like so many before and since, in Plymouth. In 1941 he was on board HMS Neptune which, as part of Force K, was sent to attack German and Italian convoys supplying German troops in North Africa.

On December 20th, 1941, twenty miles off the African coast, at one o’clock in the morning, HMS Neptune hit a mine which damaged her bow. She backed into another mine which blew off the propeller. At 4.00am, the ship hit a third mine and sank within five minutes. Since a storm was blowing, there was no possibility of rescue from the other ships, and there was only one survivor. Colin and 763 others were listed as MPK (missing presumed killed). He is remembered on our war memorial and at Plymouth. Some years later, Mrs Coppock remarried.

Alan was five when his father died, and he has memories of Colin coming home on leave and giving him chocolate bars. Alan, like both his parents, is an organist and for some years he has been the organist at a church in the Lake District. Now he lives in Southport, and this makes it possible for him to come to the Remembrance Day service in Shevington each year and leave a beautiful wreath.

Alan also joined the navy, and once, when his ship was in the Mediterranean, they passed over the spot where the Neptune went down. It was, as you can imagine, a poignant moment.

His devotion to Wigan seems to have begun early. He recalls that, when he was born in Barnet in North London where the family was living at the time, his parents bundled him into a car and drove through the night to bring him to Wigan to be registered!

Serjeant T/121069, Royal Army Service Corps. Died as a Prisoner of War of the Japanese 31 December 1943. Aged 25. Born 29 September 1918. Son of Robert Henry and Elizabeth Holcroft, of Appley Bridge, Lancashire. In the 1939 Register he was a Motor Transport Worker, unmarried, living with his widowed mother at 37 Miles Lane, Shevington Moor, Wigan R.D., Lancashire. Buried in KANCHANABURI WAR CEMETERY, Thailand. Plot 2. Row D. Grave 49.

Flying Officer (Pilot) 127881, 51 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Died when when the Handley Page Halifax II, serial number HR386, took off from Snaith on night mission to Dortmund and was shot down by a night-fighter and crashed near Oegstgeest, Holland, 24 May 1943. Aged 21. Son of William Albert and Ethel Rigby, of Appley Bridge, Lancashire. Buried in OEGSTGEEST PROTESTANT CHURCHYARD, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. Collective grave 11-12.

Extract from England & Wales Government Probate Death Index 1945:

RIGBY John Edward of Crawford 48 Broad Riding-road Appley Bridge Shevington Lancashire died 24 May 1943 on war service Administration Liverpool 12 July to Ethel Rigby (wife of William Albert Rigby). Effects £145 5s. 3d.