Eccles Vets as National Guards WW1

[shred]

A group of National Reserves of the Manchester Regiment, who are doing guard duty on railways, etc..., in the South of England. The central figure is Sergt Major Low of Chadwick Rd, Eccles, who until called up for officer instruction in the Eccles Athletes Volunteer Training Corps and commandant of the Eccles District Boys' Life Brigade. Other men pictured are Pte W Shaw, Dalton St, Monton; Pte M Potts, St George's St. Eccles; Corp; Smith, Unicorn St, Peel Green; Pte Clunie, Catherine St, Winton and Sergeant Hines of Davyhulme.
The tall figure on the back row was killed whilst patrolling the railway. The men live in railway coaches on the line side in Sussex, and the canteen bears the sign "Tipperary Hotel". Their motto " Always Ready."

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[mack]

hiya gary.
i only know of three men who died at sussex from the manchester regt,all were in the 2/8th manchesters

727 joseph locklin,wormill st,ashton new rd
aged 60
run over by a train at three bridges,both his legs were amputated and he died on 18th feb 1915.

1146 herbert,james taylor,79 warwick st,hulme
aged 42
crushed by a train in the goods yard at balcombe,on 26-3-15

cpl 1124 thomas burke,26 worth st,rochdale rd
aged 45
knocked down by a train while patrolling the line near three bridges on 12-6-15

there have been several sightings over the years of two soldiers sheltering in the tunnel at three bridges,one was by a couple who took shelter in the old tunnel during a rain storm,they noticed two soldiers in WW1 uniforms stood further up the tunnel

mack

[Hawker Hurricane]

Someone posted about that on the RailUK forums. They have a thread called "Are our railways haunted?" for discussion of ghostly appearances and happenings relating to the railways. I'm sure the story on there said that two soldiers were sheltering from a rainstorm in a tunnel and were hit by a train they were not expecting to be on that side of the line, and both were killed. Normally trains run on the left, just as on our roads, but in this case the train was running on the right, and hence caught them unawares, and in the narrow tunnel there was nowhere to escape. I seem to recall that this story was being challenged as to its authenticity at the time, but I've not used that forum for a long while.

[mack]

these are three of the soldiers in the picture.

colour/sgt 1074 robert,wilson low,14 chadwick rd,eccles,age on enl 40
pte 1097 william shaw,17 dalton st,monton,age on enl 41
pte 1088 mark,harris potts,34 st georges st,eccles,age on enl 47
all enlisted at ardwick drill hall on 25th january 1915,they were all in the 4th supernumary coy,2/8th manchesters.

mack