Dick Armitage

108126, Gunner. b 1888, Clayton. d. Fri 26th October 1917, aged 29.

A local lad from the village, Dick had grown up in Clayton and by the age of thirteen was working as a worsted spinner in one of Clayton’s many mills. He attended local schools and church before leaving for the neighbouring community of Great Horton where he married his wife Ethel. The couple setled at 14, Cragg Lane where they lived happily until January 1916.

At this point the government of the time realised that the losses on the battlefields of France were totally unsustainable for a volunteer army, and found the supply of volunteers had all but dried up. With the was looking like it might last for several more years, they decided thast their only option was to introsduce conscription so that every able bodied man between the ages of 19 and 36 who wasn’t engaged on essential war work was required bylaw to join the armed services.

Dick was ‘called up’ into Royal Field Artillery and was drafted as a reinforcement into 22nd Battery, 106th Brigade, where he was part of a team of Gunners under the command of a Bombardier (similar ranks to a Private and a Corporal in the regular infantry regiments) operating one of the heacy guns that symbolised much of the scenery of the Western Front. Although still behindthe British lines this job was just as dangerous as trench life because firstly, the enemy guns would target the Allied guns and vice versa an d secondly because of the manyfaulty shells and problematic ammunition that could cause instantaneous death to anyone nearby should they go off accidentally.

Although he was in France for the most part of a year, Dick’s luck eventually ran out, and he was killed inthe Hoge Crater region around Ypres in October 1917. His parents, Briggs and Amelia Armitage (who still lived in Clayton) were informed as well as his wife, and he was laid to rest in the Hooge Crater cemetry, Belgium.

Dick is buried at HOOGE CRATER CEMETERY II. I. 13/14. France.