1919 ABSENT VOTERS LIST - PRESTON
SWARBRICKS - FURTHER DETAILS:
SWARBRICK, Wilfrid 201969 Medal Index Card: Swarbrick Wilfred [sic], Loyal North Lancs. Regiment, Private, 201969 Date of discharge: 20th November 1918 Date of enlistment: 29th January 1916 Cause of discharge: A.OVI/18 2a W Victory medal British medal List H/1534/2 Silver War Badge 201969 Pte Swarbrick Wilfrid Loyal North Lancs Regiment Badge No. B43213 Enlisted 29.1.16 Discharged 20.11.18 Cause of discharge K. R. 392 xvi - Wounds Has served overseas Extract from The Southport Visitor 16th April 1918 Arrival of Wounded The Woodlands Private Wilfrid Swarbrick L N Lancs. Extract from the 1919 Absent Voters’ List for Preston: 99, Meadow Street No. 13619 – Swarbrick Wilfrid, 201969 Pte 2/4th Loyal North Lancs Wilfrid Swarbrick was born on 13th May 1894 in Preston the fifth of six children born to George Thomas Septimus and Teresa [Higginson] Swarbrick. From 1901 onwards the family lived at 99, Meadow Street, Preston. In 1911 he was an apprentice sign writer at a coach builder. The 2/4th Battalion in which Wilfrid served was originally formed in Preston in October 1914. Wilfrid enlisted in January 1916 and would have been with the Battalion when it transferred to Aldershot in July 1916. In October of that same year the Battalion moved to Blackdown. The Battalion went to France early in 1917, landing at Le Havre on 8th February 1917. Wilfrid served with the Battalion in France for just over a year before he was wounded badly enough to be repatriated, probably in late March - early April 1918 as he arrived back in the UK on 16th April 1918. The War Diary for the 2/4th Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment [WO 95/2978] shows that in early March 1918 the Battalion was based in the area of Point De Nieppe and undergoing training, interspersed with the occasional football match. From the middle of that month the Battalion was providing working parties in the area west of Lye, they were also coming under enemy shell fire. On the 19th they moved to Fleuitaine, still under enemy shell fire. They remained in the area for the rest of that month coming under sporadic shell and gas attack, but sustained only 3 casualties. At the beginning of April the Battalion were in billets at Le Herliere, moving to billets in Mondicourt on the 8th of that month. There were no casualties recorded for that month. Consequently, given that Wilfred Swarbrick arrived at Southport in the middle of April 1918, it would seem that he may well have been one of the three casualties recorded in March in the war diary, a victim of long range enemy shellfire. Wilfrid was presumably discharged after his period of convalescence in hospital at Southport. There seem to have been several convalescent hospitals in that area of which The Woodlands was one. Wilfred died in 1965 at Fulwood, Preston. |
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