Remembrance

Typical of those from Hawkshaw who joined up was William Murfitt, known to his family and friends as Willie.

The crinkled photo of Mary Ann Murfitt

He worked at the local bleach works, attended the local Anglican church and played in the village football team. He served with the Lancashire Fusiliers and was killed on the Somme in 1916.

Poignantly, his mother Mary Ann Murfitt had asked in her last letter to Willie to see if he could arrange lodgings in France for her to come and visit. Her son never read the plea: he was killed before the letter arrived.

William's love for his family is shown through this photograph of his mother found in his pocket - and crinkled at the edge by the explosion that killed him.

Private Murfitt has no known grave and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial to the missing of the Somme.

Brothers

Joseph Howarth also died on the Somme. He'd risen from being an overlooker in a weaving mill to being a pre-war policeman in Lytham. When war was declared Joseph joined the Grenadier Guards.

James Howarth of the Royal Fusiliers

He trained for nine months to be a soldier: it took just ten minutes for him to be mortally wounded in the trenches. He held onto life long enough to be taken to a hospital near Boulogne where he succumbed to his injuries.

His mother made a pilgrimage after the War to visit the grave of her eldest son. She also lost her son James who was killed in 1918. He was only 19 and never imagined when war broke out four years before that he would have to go to the front.

These three men represent a microcosm of the nation's sacrifice. Even though they died 90 years ago their stories should be told and we should remember their sacrifice.

Based on the book 'Our Boys: The Great War in a Lancashire Village' by Jonathan Ali (Landy Publishing)