War Supplement 2

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Evening Post Special Supplement, Saturday, November 8, 2008

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ORE than 90 years ago, a five-year-old girl consoled her sobbing mother after a poignant message revealed what they both feared. It had been days since Violet Crozier had heard anything from her husband who was fighting as a gunner for the Royal Garrison Artillery in northern France. But soon after a fateful telegram finally arrived courtesy of a postman and caring neighbour informing the family that her 37-year-old husband George Stafford Crozier had been killed in action. Nine decades on, 96-year-old Eileen Unsworth, of Unsworth Court, Leyland, still remembers that day vividly and how it devastated her family. Stafford, who owned a watchmaking and jewellery business, was the third brother out of five in the family killed in the conflict – others had been her uncles Richard Leonard Crozier and Sgt Henry Cyril Crozier. Mrs Unsworth says: “My mother was shattered by it – it was a dreadful shock. I can remember her sat on the chair with me and my nine-year-old sister Muriel on each side. She would never speak about it afterwards. “All of the deaths were terribly hard on the family and were never something that would ever come up in conversation later on. We were devastated. “My father loved us a lot – I remember how he used to throw me up in the air and catch me and you always looked forward to him coming home.” And the death came only days after her father went back to war on March 13 after 13 days of leave. He was killed on Friday March 29 – Good Friday – and is buried in the Mezieres Communal Cemetery with a grave number also featuring 13-D13. Mrs Unsworth adds: “I can only remember my father coming home on his last leave when I was five. I can remember him taking Muriel and myself to a toy shop to buy something we wanted. I got a little purse which I still have today.” Little is known of how he was killed but the date and location of Stafford’s death means it is likely he could have died as a result of the German capture of Mezieres which the allies later retook in August 1918. Her uncle Richard Leonard Crozier, the oldest of the brothers, had died aged 40 just three months before on December 11. The gunner was supporting the Italian war effort with the Royal Field Artillery and is buried at the Giavera British Cemetery in Italy. Her other uncle Sgt Henry Cyril Crozier, of the York and Lancaster Regiment, died on July 1, 1916. Again, few details are known of his death although the date marks the start of the Battle of

SHOCK: Eileen Unsworth. Below, Eileen, right, with her sister, mother and father George Stafford Crozier. Her uncle Richard also died in the war, and his name is on Preston’s memorial, above

My father...

the hero

the Somme which led to 60,000 British casualties – the bloodiest day in British military history. His name features on the Thiepval Memorial as he was missing in action. His body was never found though he was later awarded a military medal for bravery.

After the First World War Mrs Unsworth trained as a teacher and went to work in infants schools in Liverpool, Longridge and Euxton. She married William, who also served in the Army as a driver in the Middle East during the Second World War. The widow has since outlived her hus-

band and immediate family and now spends her spare time driving to see her two children, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren in her Nissan Micra car. She says: “The more I think about the First World War, I think what a waste of life it was.”

Brothers in arms on the Roll of Honour THE following brothers also feature on the Harris Museum Roll of Honour: ● WILLIAM and George Brindle of Heysham Street, Preston: George was killed in a raid on June 28, 1916, after being sent to the front in March 1915 with the 1st/4th battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. The father of a six-year-old son, he was wounded in May 1915 but returned to frontline duties in February 1916. He was then wounded in another raid and shot in the head while on a stretcher. His brother William served in the 8th battalion of the Border Regiment and went missing in action on October 21, 1916. He features on the Thiepval Memorial. ● FRANCIS, James Joseph and Maurice Patrick McGann, of Lowndes Street, Preston: The eldest, Francis, a cotton weaver, died at Passchendaele aged 33 while serving with the 3rd battalion of the Grenadier Guards. James Joseph, a gas meter inspector, left behind a widow after dying of pneumonia aged 38 on July 8, 1918. He served on the frontline with the 3rd battalion of the Machine Gun Corps. Finally, third brother and cotton weaver Maurice met his fate at the Somme on April 2, 1918, after serving with the 2nd battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment. ● FREDERICK and William Pitcher, of Henderson Street, Preston: Unusually, the pair appear to have served with the same battalion – the 1st Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. Frederick died after being at the front for 16 gruelling months in France, on September 22, 1917 aged 21. William was 23 when he went missing on August 13, 1916 and was later presumed dead. That did not stop an article appearing in the Lancashire Daily Post in December from family members appealing for any information about their missing son.