Pioneer William Ackerley aged 48

William Ackerley was born in Wrenbury in Cheshire around 1872 to William and Betsey. His father was a Cow Keeper. The family, 3 boys and one girl moved to Kirby, Liverpool in the 1880’s where they had a cattle farm. He married Ellen Dugdale in 1895 and the couple, still living in Liverpool, had by 1911 five daughters and three sons. William is working as a carter of mineral water, which I think my generation would describe as a pop man. His parents and siblings all stayed in Liverpool, but for some reason William’s branch of the family made the move to Luddenden sometime between 1911 and 1914. Here they lived at 8 Providence Place. Very little information survives from his time in the Army. We know that he joined up in 1915 as his medal index shows that he received the 1915 Star. He would have been 42 or 43 years old when he joined up, so like many of the young men who volunteered, he would have lied about his age. In 1915 the maximum recruit age was 38 increasing to 41 by the Military Service Act of 1916. He joined the Royal Engineers and was posted to the Western Front on 24 September 1915. He was transferred to the Labour Corps which was established in 1917 to help maintain trenches, roads and railway lines and also to help move supplies from the docks to the front line. The men in this corps often had trades like carpenters and bricklayers but also had people used to using pick axes and shovels. The foot soldiers in the corps were known as Pioneers, so Private William Ackerley became Pioneer William Ackerley. In total he spent nearly 4 years in France, being demobbed on 2 June 1919. He returned to Luddenden to work as a boiler stoker at Bracken and Sons Paper Mill. But he had already been diagnosed as having Liver Cancer and his health deteriorated over the next few months.

He died at home 13 months after he was demobbed, at the family home 8 Providence Place with his wife Ellen by his side. He is buried in the graveyard behind St Mary’s Church.