"For the Fallen"

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
They mingle not with laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon (1869-1943)

This page is dedicated to the men who fought and died in the Great War (1914-1918), especially one particular soldier, Sutcliffe Bairstow, who died on the 4th of June 1915 in Gallipoli, at the ripe old age of 19, and who's body was never found.

Sutcliffe was my great-uncle who had been killed many, many years before I was born. There aren't any people left now who personally knew Sutcliffe, and the living members of my large, extended family know very little about him, only that they had been told he was a 'nice, gentle, well-mannered' young man,(as so many of that day and age were), before he went off to the war he was never to return from.

There are no family photographs of Sutcliffe. He has no grave, or grave stone. He is just a name,amongst thousands of others, on the War Memorial in Oldham town centre and on the memorial at the War Cemetery in Helles in Turkey.

This section of my homepage is for him.

Updated Tuesday, 23rd April 2002

Since Friday of last week I have found quite a bit more information about Sutcliffe. Including a photograph and the announcement of his death in the Oldham Evening Chronicle and a small photograph which appeared in the paper at that time. The archives of the Oldham Evening Chronicle are held on microfilm at the Oldham Local Studies Centre, Union Street, Oldham. (Tele: 0161 911 4654)

Death Announcement in the Oldham Chronicle (where the above picture first appeared)
28th June 1915

Private (1662) Sutcliffe Bairstow, 4 Sarah Moor, off Henshaw Street, Oldham was killed on or about June 21st. He was only 19 years of age and had been in the Territorials for about two years. He had been a member of the Royton Brass Band since he was seven years of age and played at the Royton Cricket Club Sports on the Monday afternoon of the week in last August when the battalion was mobilised, and since he landed in Egypt he had played in the regimental band. In civilian life he was a big piecer at the Industry Mill, Royton. He was the only support of his mother.

How I came to dedicate this page to Sutcliffe is a story in itself. One week at the end of May 1999, I had been surfing on the internet looking for information and good pages about a musician I am interested in. For some reason, everywhere I went on the internet I ended up at pages about the First World War. No matter where I started from, or where I was hoping to get to, the First World War kept coming back. All week this happened to me. I mentioned this to a friend, and said how strange it seemed that this was happening. On the Friday night of this particular week, it had happened again, I ended up at a page that had a link to the War Graves Commission, which I followed. There's a search facility there, so you can see if there are any details about someone you know. I typed in the name of the only person I do know who had died in any war... Sutcliffe Bairstow. The date I found the information below was Friday the 4th of June 1999, (time 11:55 pm). As can be seen below, Sutcliffe died on Friday the 4th of June 1915. Strange? I think so.

Updated again on Tuesday, 5th November 2002

Since finding Sutcliffe's details I have become increasingly interested in researching my family history. This has led to me finding details of Cornelius Newrick, an elder brother of Sutcliffe's, who also died in the first war. Cornelius died aged 37 years old on the 22nd October 1915 in France.

This is what I have found:

inscription.jpg (29695 bytes)

In the perpetual care of
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

In Memory of
Driver CORNELIUS NEWRICK,

50898, 80th Field Coy., Royal Engineers
who died age 36
on Friday 22 October 1915.

Remembered with honour
CORBIE COMMUNAL CEMETERY

Cemetery:

HELLES MEMORIALTurkey
Grave or Reference Panel Number: Panel 158 to 170

Location:

The Helles Memorial stands on the tip of the Gallipoli Peninsula. It takes the form of an obelisk over 30 metres high that can be seen by ships passing through the Dardanelles.
Visiting Information: The Panel Numbers quoted at the end of each entry relate to the panels dedicated to the Regiment served with. In some instances where a casualty is recorded as attached to another Regiment, his name may alternatively appear within their Regimental Panels. Please refer to the on-site Memorial Register Introduction to determine the alternative panel numbers if you do not find the name within the quoted Panels.

Historical Information:

The eight month campaign in Gallipoli was fought by Commonwealth and French forces in an attempt to force Turkey out of the war, to relieve the deadlock of the Western Front in France and Belgium, and to open a supply route to Russia through the Dardanelles and the Black Sea. The Allies landed on the peninsula on 25-26 April 1915; the 29th Division at Cape Helles in the south and the Australian and New Zealand Corps north of Gaba Tepe on the west coast, an area soon known as Anzac. On 6 August, further landings were made at Suvla, just north of Anzac, and the climax of the campaign came in early August when simultaneous assaults were launched on all three fronts. However, the difficult terrain and stiff Turkish resistance soon led to the stalemate of trench warfare. From the end of August, no further serious action was fought and the lines remained unchanged. The peninsula was successfully evacuated in December and early January 1916. The Helles Memorial serves the dual function of Commonwealth battle memorial for the whole Gallipoli campaign and place of commemoration for many of those Commonwealth servicemen who died there and have no known grave. The United Kingdom and Indian forces named on the memorial died in operations throughout the peninsula, the Australians at Helles. There are also panels for those who died or were buried at sea in Gallipoli waters. The memorial bears more than 21,000 names. There are four other Memorials to the Missing at Gallipoli. The Lone Pine, Hill 60, and Chunuk Bair Memorials commemorate Australian and New Zealanders at Anzac. The Twelve Tree Copse Memorial commemorates the New Zealanders at Helles. Naval casualties of the United Kingdom lost or buried at sea are recorded on their respective Memorials at Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham, in the United Kingdom

Commemorative Information

Cemetery:

CORBIE COMMUNAL CEMETERY Somme, France

Grave or Reference Panel Number:

Plot I. Row B. Grave 38.

Location:

Corbie is a small town 15 kilometres east of Amiens. Go north from the town centre taking the D1 (Rue Gambetta) in the direction of Bray. You will arrive at a set of traffic lights with the hospital diagonally on your left. Continue, taking the second turning on your right onto the Rue des Longues Vignes (VC6). The cemetery lies about 800 metres on the left.

Historical Information:

Corbie was about 20 kilometres behind the front when Commonwealth forces took over the line from Berles-au-Bois southward to the Somme in July 1915. The town immediately became a medical centre, with Nos 5 and 21 Casualty Clearing Stations based at La Neuville (the suburb across the Ancre) until October 1916 and April 1917 respectively. In November 1916 the front moved east, but the German advance in the Spring of 1918 came within 10 kilometres of the town and brought with it field ambulances of the 47th Division and the 12th Australian Field Ambulance. The communal cemetery was used for burials until May 1916, when the plot set aside was filled and the extension opened. The majority of the graves in the extension are of officers and men who died of wounds in the 1916 Battle of the Somme. The remainder relate to the fighting of 1918. The communal cemetery contains 249 First World War burials, the extension 918. The extension was designed by Charles Holden.

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