If you have an interest in the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment during WW1, would like help researching your own ancestors, or have any other comments about the website please get in touch.

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Preston Market Place, August 12, 1914

The photo above is the farewell concert performed by the band of the 4th Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment at Preston Market Place on 12th August 1914. The 1st Battalion were leaving for Le Havre (France), they landed the next day.

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Transcribing the 10 Bn War Diary

In this section you will find my daily transcriptions the War Diary of the 10th (Service) Battalion. I started this on 30th July 2012, exactly 97 years after the lead elements of the Battalion boarded the train for France on 30th July 1915. Where possible I add a new post each day, keeping in-line with the daily diary entries.

THIS SECTION CURRENTLY ON HOLD

War Illustrated Free Download

If you are interested in the Great War, here is a free copy of the the 400 page ‘War Illustrated: Volume 1′ published in 1915. You can read it online, or download to your ebook reader (although it is over 53MB in size). This was digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007, with funding from Microsoft.

Victoria Cross Recipients

Three soldiers of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment were awarded VC’s for acts of gallantry during WW1. The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour “in the face of the enemy”. All three soldiers were from different Battalions, click the image of the medal to the left to read their citations.

Recommended for researchers

Diary of a 2nd Lieutenant

Read the remarkable story of a Second Lieutenant from the 1st Battalion, who was involved in the fighting during the Retreat from Mons. A real insight into what was actually happening on the ground, for anyone with an interest in the early months of the Great War this account covers the battles between 5th August – 15th November 1914.

Newspaper Articles

Each time I come across an interesting newspaper article about the Loyal North Lancs, I research all of the soldiers that are mentioned and link the event to their biographies. Often no individuals are mentioned, but if it is especially interesting, or gives good insight I will still transcribe it and place it in this section here.

Photos

This section comprises of a number of photographs, most of which have not yet been attributed to any specific individuals. If you have any photos or postcards of soldiers of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, I would like to hear from you and feature them on the website.

The photograph to the left is a typical portrait of a young Loyal North Lancashire Regiment soldier. The date of the photo is unknown.

Source: The British Library 

Period documents

This section contains copies of actual documents that have been found in the Regimental war diaries; or in soldiers service papers. These can include orders that were sent by the H.Q to a Battalion; or generic orders that were given to everyone in the trenches.

Casualties

Over 7000 men of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment were killed during the first world war. This section attempts to name them in memory of the ultimate sacrifice they made.

This section is a work in progress and is regularly updated.

Many of the names contained in this section were found using the excellent Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.

WW1 Video Archive

A selection of quality WW1 videos that can be watched on our website. These videos may or may not feature the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, but will aid your understanding of the conflict in general. Just added (March 2013), the complete series of WW1 in Colour – 300 minutes of WW1 footage narrated by Kenneth Branagh.

Dates of Entry

In this section you will find a list of the dates that each battalion first entered the War. The dates are shown on medal index cards up to 1916.

War Poetry

A number of soldiers of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment have been found to have been writing poetry whilst serving overseas.

This section contains poems written by members of the Regiment. These works are especially moving; remember the conditions that the poems were written under, with bombs falling, machine gun fire, friends being killed, and the soldier living in constant fear that he may be next.

Acheived Great Things

In this section you will find the stories of the men who did great things outside of the military pre/post WW1. This could be sporting achievements or otherwise.

The first entry is Reginald F Squibb, enlisted in the ranks and commissioned into the 10th Bn in 1916. He went on to become the Senior Military Knight of Windsor.

Shot at Dawn

There were over 300 British soldiers shot by their fellow countrymen during WW1. Whether unable to cope, driven insane or simply ran away, punishment often came by way of a firing squad.

This section contains the stories of the five Loyal North Lancashire men who could stand the fighting no longer.