'Like corn at harvest time'

David E Norris recalls a different, yet no less poignant, Remembrance Sunday service

- David E Norris

They know a thing or two about war in Accrington. Not so much that which emphasises gallantry and bravery, although they have shown plenty of that in the past. No, their fate reflected another side of war's reality, namely that which centres upon loss and grieving.

Remembrance Sunday in that particular town has a poignancy that simply doesn’t square with similarly named services elsewhere in the country. Accrington arguably gave more in the Great War of 1914-18 and it could also be said that the town also lost more than anyone else.

In September 1914, Lord Kitchener took up the idea of Sir Henry Rawlinson's mass conscription policy. It consisted of creating battalions of around 1,000 men “made up of friends, family and co-workers from the same surroundings who would fight shoulder to shoulder for the honour of their town.”

Accrington was the smallest one to raise a complete battalion of 1,100 men and it did it within the space of just 10 days. They were known as “the Accrington Pals”. Initial training was conducted at home and then the battalion moved to Caernarfon, then Birmingham and they ended up in Egypt defending the Suez Canal. In February 1916, they were deployed to France to prepare for the Somme offensive.