Private 5454 Herbert Atherton
Regiment/Unit: Connaught Rangers - 5th Bn.
Theatre of War: Salonika
Theatre of War First Served: Balkans
Date Entered Therein: 13/09/15
Age at death: 32
Date of death: 7th of December 1915
Born: Billinge, Lancs
Resided: Billinge, Lancs
Burial / Memorial: Doiran Memorial -
Family details:
Sister Mrs Ellen Dixon is sole legatee.
Census details:
1891 - 8 years old schoolboy Herbert is living at 71 Carr Mill Road, Billinge, Nr St Helens with parents Thomas (42), Margaret (42) and five siblings: Thomas (18), Ellen (15), John (13), Willie (10), Selina (4). 1901 - 18 year old 'Coalminers Labourer' Herbert living at 73 Carr Mill Road, Billinge, Nr St Helens with his widowed mother Margaret (53) and three siblings John (23), William (20), Selina (14). 1911 - Sees 28 year old 'Coal Miner - Hewer' Herbert living at 73 Carr Mill Road, Billinge, Nr St Helens with his widowed mother Margaret (62) and brother John (32).
Notes:
[url=lmem.php?lmem=39]Remembered On The St. Aidan's C of E Church Memorial[/url]
[url=lmem.php?lmem=39]Remembered On The St. Aidan's C of E Church Memorial[/url]
Herbert Atherton. Private 5454 5th Battalion Connaught Rangers (formally 4th Battalion)
Herbert was born in Billinge on the 14th of February 1883 the fifth of six children of Thomas and Margaret Atherton (nee Rigby), and was baptised on the 16th of February 1883 at St. Mary's R.C. Church. The family lived at 12 Fair View and Herbert enlisted at Southport to join the Connaught Rangers.
The Connaught Rangers formed part of the British Salonika Force in Macedonia, where he was killed in action on Tuesday the 7th of December 1915. He was 32 years old.
His name is recorded on the Doiran Memorial near the Doiran Military Cemetery, North Greece close to the Yugoslav frontier, and on both St. Aidan's C.E. Church and St. Mary's R.C. Church Memorials, and on the St. Helens Cenotaph.
Sources:- St. Helens Local History Library, Soldiers killed in the Great War; The Commonwealth War Graves Commission; St. Mary's Church Registers; St. Aidan's Parish Magazine, May 1915.
[url=http://sthelens-connect.net/sitefiles/billinge-history.pdf]Information Courtesy of The Billinge History Society[/url]
[pic]imgs/WW1_memorials/5454HerbertAtherton.jpg[/pic][caption]The panel on the Doiran Memorial bearing the inscription for Private Herbert Atherton
(Photograph Courtesy of Barry Davis off GWF )[/caption]
