Samuel's Story.
In the early summer of 1883, George Warhurst married Elizabeth Ann Sunnter at Christ Church, Heaton Norris. By 1901, they were living at 8 Stanbridge Terrace, Stockport and had three children - Florrie (9), Samuel (6) and George (4). There would later be two daughters - Florrie and Jessie. Samuel enlisted in October 1914, originally joining the Cheshire Regiment (service number 17408). However, he was transferred to the South Lancashire’s before he went overseas in September 1915. In the summer of 1916, Samuel was wounded at the Battle of the Somme. The Stockport Advertiser, in its edition of 4 August 1916, reported that he was recovering in hospital at Brighton. Recovery was slow and Samuel did not return to his unit until 10 June 1917.A month later, the Battalion was in reserve positions at Poperinghe (to the west of Ypres). The men were providing working parties for the Royal Engineers' 177th Tunnelling Company. The Battalion's War Diary records that on the 15th, 6 men were wounded and there was another man injured on the 16th. Samuel was one of these men. He was evacuated from where they were working and taken to a field hospital nearby at Lijssenthoek. The hospital chaplain later wrote that Samuel had been badly wounded and only lived for a few hours.