Local Life - Wigan - November 2018

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suffered heavy losses – 800 men from the 127th
Brigade, 42nd Division died across a 2-day march.
The Division moved to France in 1917, participating
in the Third Battle of Ypres and the Battle of the
Somme along with the 55th West Lancashire
Division. Then just a Private, Leigh-born Alfred
Robert Wilkinson served with the 5th Manchesters,
volunteering for a message delivery which had seen
four men before him killed in Marou and braving
machine-gun fire for 600 yards. The incident left
him to be immediately recommended for a
Victoria Cross, which he was
awarded
in 1919 along with a promotion to Lance Corporal.
Wilkinson returned home from war and married,
signing up for a commission at the outbreak of
WW2 – in 1940 he received notification that he
had been awarded the commission in the Pioneer
Corps, and went to work as usual at the Bickershaw
Colliery. On the very same day, Wilkinson died of
carbon monoxide poisoning from two Bunsen
burners and a firebrick oven which had been left to
burn in the vicinity. He is buried at Leigh Cemetery,
and a memorial plaque to his memory has been
placed at Wigan Town Hall.
Ancestor Account
The 1/5 Battalion was commanded by Corporal
Sir Henry Clayton Darlington,