Memorial to only Bolton woman to die serving in First World War

The application, which has been submitted by the Friends of Moses Gate, will pay tribute to cotton mill worker Alice Thomasson, who joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in late 1917.

Alice was one of 57,000 women who served between January 1917 and November 1918.

In May 1918 she sailed to France where she was posted to a camp, hospital and army supply depot at Abbeville. But tragedy struck just three days later when the Germans launched a bombing raid.

A bomb landed on the trench where Alice, aged 21, and her colleagues were sheltering, killing her and seven other women.

The women were all buried with full military honours at Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension.

Following Alice’s death, her widowed father couldn’t look after her younger brothers and sisters because Alice, who was the main breadwinner, had been killed, so he sent them to live with an aunt in Farnworth.

The memorial, which is planned for land at Moses Gate, Farnworth, close to where Alice was born and lived, is set to be constructed of stone with a 1.2m high metal statue of a soldier above a 2m high structure.

It is proposed that the monument, which would be situated at the junction of Bolton Road and Egerton Street opposite Moses Gate Railway Station, become the host location for future Remembrance services in November and other nationally recognised days of commemoration.

Three sides of the monument will display commemorative plaques previously located in All Saints Church, Devon Street, Moses Gate, until the Church was closed in 2000.

Prior to its closure, All Saints Church had been the location that the people of Moses Gate would use to commemorate Remembrance Sunday. The fourth side of the monument will house a plaque that is being commissioned to commemorate Alice.