Wilbraham L Blears

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Wilbraham Lomax Blears died at home in 1918 and was buried buried in Swinton Unitarian Chapelyard.

Name: BLEARS
Initials: W L
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Private
Regiment/Service: The King's (Liverpool Regiment)
Unit Text: 13th Bn.
Date of Death: 14/05/1918
Service No: 94397
Additional information: Alternative Commemoration - buried in Swinton Unitarian Chapelyard.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Screen Wall.
Cemetery: MANCHESTER SOUTHERN CEMETERY

He had served with the Manchester Regiment (301901) and the King's Liverpool Regiment (94397). His medal card shows that he was entitled to the British and Victory medals, thus proving that he served abroad.

The site of the burial is on land where a proposed new Asda Superstore is to be built, there is a worry that the burials will be exhumed and relocated!

We are trying to build a case to help dissuade that this planning permission should be granted or to persuade Asda to choose an alternative piece of land.

Can anyone provide any further information on Wilbraham?

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A death certificate has been ordered using some of Swarm's funds.

[Deleted]

Hi Gary, 1911 has him with his family at 12 Chorley Road Swinton

Edward Blears 52
Elizabeth Blears 52
James E Blears 31
Wilbraham H* Blears 16 Occupation: Grocer


Note* Transcribed as H but when you look on the original census it is L

The family were at that address 1901

Edward Blears married Elizabeth Lomax March 1/4 1880 Look like either registry office or R.C marriage B-on-Irwell

Wilbraham Lomax Blears's grandfather has a probate record:
Wilbraham Blears
Probate Date: 10 Jul 1889
Death Date: 28 Mar 1889

Also Wilbraham's father :
Edward Blears
Probate Date: 13 May 1936
Death Date: 18 Apr 1936

Also his brother:
James Edward Blears
Probate Date: 22 Apr 1937
Death Date: 24 Nov 1936

What sort of information are you after regarding this man?

[Deleted]

His brother service records are on line.
James Edward Blears
Pte 17630 3rd Salford Battalion.
Address: 12 Chorley Road, Swinton.

James E Blears
Lancashire Fusiliers 17630
Royal Defence Corp 74696

Awarded the British/Victory & 15 star

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Ben,

Thanks for your research. Any information is welcomed, the more we can add the better.

I think the main source of useful information will come from the Eccles Journal, unfortunately the SLHL is closed at the moment.

[Deleted]

Gary do you not have some sort of a petition running, to try and stop asda?
I for one would be willing to sign one.
Tesco did the same to Wesleyan cemetery Cheetham Hill a few years back. The graves were transported to Bury. Lucky many of the graves were transcribed, but still they should not be building over cemeteries.
ST. James in Gorton removed a good part of the burials they we relocated to Gorton municipal cemetery to make way for a car park.

[shred]

Ben,

Thanks for the suggestion. This was brought to our attention by another group with whom we have a mutual interest, it would be up to that group if they wished to start a petition.

[Deleted]

Well either way i think both groups will have a battle on your hands. Big money involved between Asda- the council and the church i suspect?
As we all know money seems to talk these days, regardless what is right or wrong.

[ned]

Yes Ben, you are right money does talk, and in this case it is terribly wrong.

[shred]

We have now received Wilbraham's death certificate. As this was paid for by members donations we feel that it should be shown on the forum.

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The following was sent to us by Sue, this has also been sent to Salforonline. Well done Sue.

Threatened exhumation of WWI Soldier buried with full military honours at Swinton Unitarian Church.

Wilbraham Lomax Blears succumbed to the effects of Gas Shell poisoning and Broncho Pneumonia passing away on Monday 13 th May 1918 at Royd Hall Military Hospital, Lindley, a suburb of Huddersfield in Yorkshire. The funeral with full military honours took place a few days later, his body interred in Swinton Unitarian Church Chapel Yard, Swinton Hall Road, Swinton. A Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone commemorated Wilbraham’s grave. The church was demolished in 1985 his name was subsequently added on a memorial screen wall dedicated to military casualties of WWI in Southern Cemetery, Manchester.

The second son of Edward Blears and Elizabeth Lomax Wilbraham was born in 1895 at the family home on Chorley Road opposite the old Swinton market place. Employed by the Eccles Co-Operative Society he worked in the grocery section of the Swinton branch located on Worsley Road.

94397 Pte. Blears enlisted in the Manchester Regiment February 1916. Once basic training was completed he left for Egypt in the November of that year. After a comparatively short time he was dispatched to France and transferred to The King’s Liverpool Regiment. Early 1917 he was struck down by the debilitating disease Trench Fever and spent a period of rehabilitation in hospital firstly in Dundee and later Blackpool. Blears’ elder brother James Edward of the 19 th Lancashire Fusiliers too endured a bout of the disease; he survived the war and returned home to Swinton.

Trench Fever was first reported in the trenches of the Western Front in December 1914. Upwards of a third of all British troops reporting bad health had developed the disease. Transmitted by body lice symptoms consisted of sudden high fever, severe headache, inflamed eyes and persistent pain in the legs, symptoms similar to those of Typhoid and Influenza. The modern day equivalent of the condition is Lymes disease.

Once recuperated Wilbraham rejoined his battalion fighting on the front line in France for a further six months before being invalided back home towards the end of 1917 suffering from gas poisoning. His death came as a great shock to his parents who were led to believe his condition had been improving.

Pte. Blears’ body along with six members of his immediate family and 306 other internments of Swinton people in the Unitarian Chapel Yard are under threat of removal, the bodies to be relocated elsewhere. The grounds of the church and attached burial site lie on land currently being pursued by ASDA as part of their proposal to build a superstore in Swinton.

Acknowledgement and thanks to Salford War Memorials Project for providing the death certificate information, Salford Local History library for access to the burial records of Swinton Unitarian Church and copies of the Eccles Journal.

Attachments:

[Hawker Hurricane]

Just looking around to try and find the site of this old church, and based on what I could find, could someone confirm this is the site in question??

Attachments:

[dizzielizzie]

Swinton Unitarian Church did have a war memorial, nearly seventy members of the church served in WW1 several did not return. One more name was added to the War Memorial in the church after the 2nd world war and each year on Remembrance Sunday, a former member of the forces placed a wreath beneath it.

I was wondering where this war memorial ended up?
Information from a little book writtern by Rev. Peter B. Godfrey, B.A. former minister of Swinton Unitarian Church. :poppy:

[Spitfire]

Hi Lizzie, we do not know what happened to the memorial when the church was demolished but we will try and find some answers . We have access to the list of names on the memorial and will begin research in due course.

[Deleted]

Records of Swinton Unitarian Free Church at the national archives

R5 1863-1962
"Register of Graves" containing
Written copy of memorial in the Church to the
dead of the f i r s t World War dedicated in I92O

Also listed are two small pamphlets by Peter B. Godfre

Click here to read the full list of records held at the N.A. for this church

Ben