Eric Callender's Story.
Birkenhead News, Saturday October 2, 1915
Moreton Officer Killed
Lieut. Eric Barclay.
Residents in Moreton and district will be distressed to hear of the death of Lieut. Eric C Barclay, younger so of Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Barclay, The Homestead, Moreton, who has been killed in action in Flanders.
The young officer who was only 20 years of age, joined the army at the outbreak of war in company with his elder brother. A communication from the commanding officer states that Lieut. Barclay was shot through the head whilst serving with the machine gun section, to which he was for some time attached. Death, it is understood, was instantaneous.
Lieut. Barclay originally belonged to the 12th Cheshire’s but when war broke out, he volunteered for the front, and was allocated to the machine gun service, No. 3. Battery. There were only three vacancies for officers at the time of his appointment, and he was the one selected. He had been at the front since last spring.
Educated at Berkhamsted, deceased on talking up a business career was apprenticed to Messer’s. S. M. Bailey and Son, cotton brokers and merchants, Liverpool. He was well known in the business circles in which he moved and had every prospect of a successful career.
Mrs. Barclay has received the following letter from the front.
“Sympathy is a poor word to express the feelings of the men who had the honour to be led by your son. A man’s man, he was absolutely without fear, and surer proof than the way he met his end. We were covering the advance of our men, and it was when looking over the front-line parapet that an enemy sniper shot him through the head. I am pleased to say it was the enemy sniper’s last shot, for one of our men saw him perched in a tree and had the satisfaction of bringing him down. We buried him within forty yards of the enemy. Surely, if fate had to be unkind, no finer end could any true soldier wish for, he will ever remain to us in memory.
Yours Sincerely
Sergeant Mackey and section."