Brave Brothers from Birch By Harold Cunliffe Mr Furber also has the card which accompanied a POW food parcel which was financed by Mr Peto. Listed are, cigarettes or tobacco, cakes, milk and cleaning items. The message reads; “Hope you are well. You must be glad the winter is now nearly over and the warm weather coming.” W. Peto. Making a search of the local newspaper we find that Tom sent a picture postcard to the Middleton Guardian. The editor commented, “The postcard shows a couple of Tommies asleep in bed, with wistful smiles on their faces. Over the bed is the motto “God bless our camp” whilst underneath the picture are the words, “Hush! Don’t make a noise, we’re dreaming about the (prisoner) exchange.” Thomas Furber in the POW camp
The village of Birch is located between Heywood and Middleton, which consists mainly of a single highway which passes through the village.
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any years ago I met one of its residents, Mr Furber while I was wandering around the cemetery carrying out research. Douglas Furber’s family have lived in the village for many years and ‘Dougie’ as he is affectionately known is a mine of information
Born in the village of Birch in 1888, John William Furber, of the 17th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers was killed in action, 28 Sept 1918. During the Great War John married Emily Collinge or Collins. 29650, W.H.Furber of the Lancashire Fusiliers was wounded in both legs while in service on the Somme, he was also gassed at Ypres and was in the battle of Passchendaele in 1917. “Don’t Forget to Write” I suppose one of the last comments a serviceman would hear from family members is a reminder about keeping in touch, letter writing. One of our images show a selection
Recently a friend of the family, Mike Stringer, who also knows Mr Furber paid me a visit with a collection of interesting items which he loaned from our Birch resident. The material relates to the family members, the former brave sons of Dougie during the Great War. One cabinet photograph shows the picture of the first prisoner of war who lived in the town of Middleton, near Manchester another shows a work party setting off from their camp. 9749, Thomas Furber was with the Manchester Regiment and was taken prisoner at the Mons retreat at the battle of Le Cateau, this information is taken from the photograph. Tom is seen in the work party, named on his white shirt. 152
LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
of writing implements which were given away by the Co-operative Society. These consist of tiny space saving pencils which have a brass threaded section on the bottom to enable them to be extended, this was confirmed by “Yourtrust,” Rochdale. Other implements are a type of dip pen which had its own case. These amazing items, survivors of the Great War were donated by Mrs Loretta Broxton. Lieutenant C. Knight-Coutts, of the 27th Battery R.F.A., wrote to his family from a location “Somewhere in France” during September of 1914 which was passed to the local newspaper for publication, what follows is what he related in his correspondence; “We have a section (two guns) in action about three miles away from the main battery, where the remaining four guns are. I was on duty there yesterday, and this morning I was on my way from there to the front line trenches for my twenty four hours spell as forward observing officer, and to save time I was going across country, and part of the way along a disused railway. At the side of it in a small square portion of a field fenced in by barbed wire I saw a little graveyard of some eight or ten graves. In the centre was a cross about ten feet high, made from tree trunks, and at the based is carved, “Tell England, you who pass by this monument, that we died serving her, rest here content.” The graves were carefully tended,
Tom (named) in the work party
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