billy gamble

[mack]

billy gamble was 21yrs old when the war began,he worked as a maker up for sillitoe+seares of 52 princess st,manchester,on 5th september 1914 he enlisted in the 18th manchesters[C.coy] as pte 10489 william,henry gamble,during his early training he married his sweetheart miss mary,ann o,neill at st.stephens church salford on 29th march 1915 and they set up home at cottages crescent,coal wharf,salford.
his battalion landed in france on 8th november 1915 and in may 1916 they were in the front line trenches at maricourt,on 13th may the germans had penetrated a neighbouring battalions trench and began working along it towards billys battalion,after fierce fighting,the germans were repulsed with heavy casualties,but not before they snatched billy and carried him off,he was taken to wahn and allowed to write to his wife.

dear wife
i have been taken prisoner,i am being treated ok,dont be alarmed,ime in the best of health.
billy

he was later taken to giessen POW camp,he died at wiedenau,siegen near westphalia on 13-7-1918[cause unknown]
he was buried in wiedenau cemetery,after the war,his body was disinterred and reburied in cologne southern cemetery

son of catherine,sarah gamble,4 rostron st,salford
born 7-3-1893.
religion,CofE

hes not mentioned on any of the memorials that are on the forum

[shred]

Mack,

We shall of course give you a shout if we find Billy's name recorded on a memorial.

A picture of Giessen POW camp:


Image is from the worcestershireregiment.com site.

[Hawker Hurricane]

William Gamble is one of many men (and women) I have come across whilst building our database of the people remembered on the memorials. As I add research to them, I add other people as "memorial not known" where I find definite links with Salford. At present there are 434 such 'unremembered' individuals in the database. The total number of entries is currently 6862, but this includes some repeats of people who appear on multiple memorials.

There are many reasons why some may not appear, from family not giving permission for them to be added, to them being remembered somewhere outside of modern-day Salford, to the memorial they appeared on either no longer being in existence, or one we haven't accessed and transcribed yet.

At least we can try to ensure that as few as possible are forgotten. Whilst I know they are SDGW, CWGC, etc., that's only of use if you know exactly where to look / how to search. Hopefully, in time, if we get the database right, they should be easier to locate.