200431 PTE. W. BRIERLEY. L.N.LAN.R.

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I am grateful to Janet Davis for supplying the photograph and newspaper article.

William Brierley was born in 1888 in Preston.  His father was Thomas Brierley (b. 1865 in Cockermouth), a spinner by trade.  His mother was Agnes Blackburn (b. 1867 in Preston).  Thomas’ family had settled in Preston by 1871, and Thomas and Agnes were married in 1885. They had 10 children, 9 of whom survived: William was the oldest, then Jane (b. 1889), Margaret (b. 1891), Robert (b. 1892), Alfred (b. 1898), Daniel (b. 1901), Mary (b. 1903), Alice (b. 1906) and John (b. 1909).  In 1911, the whole family were living at 42 Crook Street, Preston.  All the workers were mill workers, and Thomas, William and Robert were all spinners, although from the newspaper article it appears when he enlisted he was a sawyer with Messrs. Irvin and Sellers.

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William’s attestation papers have survived, from which we learn that he actually enlisted with the Loyals at Preston in June 1914, before the outbreak of war and was given the service number 1946.   He was called up on 8 August 1914.  When the new-style service numbers were issued, he was renumbered 200431 (CWGC incorrectly gives this as 300431, all the other records have 2).  He was posted to 1/4Bn and landed in France on 8 August 1915 and joined his battalion in the field a couple of weeks later.  The newspaper article is confusing with the mention of Festubert since this action occurred before William arrived with the Battalion.  1/4Bn had suffered terrible losses at Festubert on 15-16 June 1915, but by August (when William joined) they had been moved to Bécourt on the River Ancre.  The Bn was not engaged in any major action for the rest of the year.  In early 1916, the Battalion became part of the 55th (West Lancashire) Division and they moved to the sector of the front south of Arras between Wailly and Brétencourt.

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