Lawrence Lorenzo FORREST

325909, Private. b. 1898, Bradford d. Tue. 9th April 1918 (aged 19).

Another of the young casualties to die from Clayton, Lawrence had grown up at 21 Aberdeen Terrace, Clayton. Lawrence is shown on 1911 census, aged 12, working as a Bobbin Carrier.

His parents, Alfred and Sarah Ann became owners of the Bull’s Head Inn in Thornton and Lawrence moved with them to Thornton after leaving school and got a job working at Holden’s Ltd. of Ingleby Road and after a while he could afford to move out of his parent’s pub into accommodation on Hollingwood Lane. However, when he turned 17 in late 1915 he enlisted into the (Prince of Wales Own) West Yorkshire Regiment even though he was two years under age. The national enlistment age at the declaration of war was 19.

As has already been shown, it was not all uncommon to find children of as young as 15 joining up, although they would claim to be over conscription age when the recruiting Sergeant asked them during attestation. Some of the time this worked, as in Lawrence’s case, but sometimes children were either told to leave the army and come back when they were old enough or if they were only a few months too young they were placed in a holding camp. These were training camps where soldiers were prepared for life at the front and provided a convenient ‘stop gap’ for soldiers to wait before they were sent to the front line.

Lawrence was another Clayton man who fought on the 1st July 1916, the first day of the Somme campaign. He was wounded and was brought back to Britain recovering in hospital in Stockport for several weeks before being taken back to France to join the 15th Battalion of the Royal Scots Regiment. He served with this group of men for over eighteen months until he was pronounced missing in action in on 9th April 1918, during the German Spring Offensive of that year.

It is sad to note that his parents made several requests in the local press to soldiers returning from France asking as to the whereabouts of their son. Their last plea was on the 20th December 1918, when they were still unaware of their son’s fate some nine months after his death.

Lawrence Forrest body was buried in Steenwerk German Cemetery along with a paper in a bottle showing his name as Pvt. F Larrest. His body was recovered in 1919 and reinterred at LE GRAND BEAUMART BRITISH CEMETERY, STEENWERCK.