Tragic cost of the Great War

It came in almost silently from the North East, in the shape of a gigantic airship. German Naval Zeppelin L21 was nearly 600 feet long and 60 feet in diameter.

Commanded by Oberleutnant Kurt Frankenburg and with a crew of 17, the "zepp" carried a formidable load of high explosive and incendiary bombs.

The "zepp" was also completely lost. Frankenburg thought he was over Derby. He had already bombed Holcombe, Rossendale and Ramsbottom that night. At around 12.45am he dropped two incendiaries in Greenmount. He then floated over Astley Bridge and on to Sharples, dropping a bomb that narrowly missed the Eden Orphanage. Next came Halliwell where windows were broken by high explosive in Darley Street.

The next bomb destroyed a terraced house in Lodge Vale. The three women who lived there escaped with shock and minor injuries. Incendiaries fell on Waldeck Street and Chorley Old Road. From there the airship passed over Queen's Park, the Croal and the railway lines. Yet another incendiary fell on Wellington Street, setting a house ablaze and trapping a woman and two children in an upstairs bedroom. Fortunately the fire brigade arrived in time to save them.

So far no one had been badly hurt. But as the Zepp flew over Deane Road, Bolton's luck ran out.

Frankenburg, aiming possibly at the Eagle Mill, dropped a salvo of five bombs into Kirk and John streets. These rows of terraced houses connected Deane Road and Derby Street, at the point where the Bolton Institute and College Way now stand. Six houses were destroyed, killing 13 people.

The Evening News of later that day reported the event. The bombs had "wrenched doors clean off their hinges and hurled them into rooms beyond. All windows were shattered and even the frames splintered". Shrapnel gouged into the brick fronts of the houses. One resident was thrown clean across the room and knocked out. Others were less fortunate.

The dead were Mrs Joseph Irwin and her two and half year old daughter Margaret Elly Irwin of 58 Kirk Street; Mr Michael and Mrs Martha O'Hara of 60 Kirk Street; Mr William and Mrs Annie McDermott and their five year old daughter, Mary Ellen of 62 Kirk Street; Mr and Mrs James Allison and their two lodgers Frederick Guildford and David Davis of 64 Kirk Street; and Mrs Robert Gregory and her 17 year old daughter of 66 Kirk Street. Robert Gregory and his five-year-old son escaped from number 66. Joseph Irwin and his four other children were rescued from number 58.

Five other people were seriously injured and a horse was killed in Back John Street. Relays of firemen and volunteers rescuers worked through the night and the survivors were transported to Flash Street Special School.

Frankenburg and his men hadn't finished with the town yet. The giant airship swung in a tight turn, passing over Great Moor Street, the junction of Deansgate, Spa Road, Moor Lane and Marsden Road, passed near the Royal Infirmary, and dropped a bomb on a flower bed in Queen's Park. Then turning south it passed over the Gilnow Mill, re-crossed the railway lines and dropped bombs on a Rope Walk in Washington Street and the Co-op Laundry on Back Deane Road, near the site of the Initial Swim School. Damage was done but no one was hurt.

The Zepp crossed Deane Road and flew over Quebec Street and Cannon Street before arriving at the Ormerod and Hardcastle Mill on Daubhill. Here an incendiary bomb started a fire, which was put out by the mill's sprinkler system. Another bomb broke windows and smashed the back privvies in Parrot and Apple streets.

Frankenburg turned north and dropped a bomb that hit Trinity Church but failed to explode. The last three bombs of the raid were scattered round the Town Hall, hitting Mawdsley Street, Ashburner Street and Mealhouse Lane. Then the Zeppelin left Bolton on its way home to its base in Nordholz. Two months later it was shot down off the Yorkshire coast with the loss of all its crew.

People came from miles around to inspect the havoc wrought by Zeppelin L21. By this time the war had been going on for two years and people were resigned to bad news arriving from the front.

In August 1914, when war was expected but had not yet been declared, anxious crowds formed outside the old Bolton Evening News building on Mealhouse Lane to read the latest telegrams. The mood was grave but composed. When the fateful announcement at last came, the churches were filled and special prayers said. Recruiting started and went on at a brisk rate. Bolton's own Territorials were called up.

The Bolton Troop of the Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry assembled at their drill hall in The Haulgh. The Artillery met at their barracks in Silverwell Street. And the fifth battalion of the Loyal North Lanes, after assembling at Fletcher Street, was temporarily housed in Derby Street, Clarendon Street and Flash Street Schools. All in all about 2,600 men reported to the colours in that first week of war. They weren't all British -- French, German and Austrian technicians working for such companies as Dobson and Barlow were released to go back to their homelands.

For a while, in those early days, Bolton seemed like a garrison town, the streets full of men in khaki. Great temporary camps were formed, at Turton, Edgworth, Doffcocker and Heaton, where thousands of soldiers lived under canvas. And it was from these camps that the first casualties of the war came -- two young men, Gunner Wood of Derby Street and Driver Power, aged 19, of Nuttall Street were drowned in an accident at Wayoh Reservoir.

At first news of the actual fighting was scarce. Then the casualty figures started appearing in the local papers: on September 5, there were 5,127 British dead, wounded or missing. By September 11 this had jumped to 15,230.

And the bad news started to filter back. Private T F Grundy of the Lancashire Fusiliers, a reservist and in civilian life a tackier at the Milton Mills, Mule Street, had been missing since August 26. On the same day Quarter Master Sergeant Sinker of the King's Own, who lived in Halliwell Road, was wounded and missing. So was Gunner Albert Boardman of HMS Aboukir. His parents lived at 24 Liverpool Street.

The first positive death to be reported was that of Private Henry Harrison, of B Company, 1st Battalion of the Black Watch. Harrison was 32 years old, a "quiet, steady, industrious young fellow" who had fought in the Boer War and who was then a reservist, working at the Horwich Loco Works. He had lived, with his wife and two-year-old child at Bellis Court, Lee Lane.

He was to be the first of many -- 3,510 Boltonians died in the Great War. They served in all the regiments of the British Army, in the Navy, the Marines and the Royal Flying Corps. They served and died in the Lancashire Fusiliers and the Loyal North Lanes, the Household Brigade, the Guards, the Royal Engineers, the Tank Corps, the Army Cyclist Corps and the Royal Army Medical Corps. They fought and died in France, Flanders, Gallipoli, Palestine, Syria, Turkey and Salonika.

Expatriate Boltonians fought in ANZAC, and for the South African and Canadian armies. Second Lieutenant William Hope Davison was in the Sikh Pioneers when he died. Jean Lapontre was a private in the French Army. Herbert Eckersley, Robert Rothwell, Reginald Taylor and Albert Wood had emigrated to the USA. They came to Europe with the American Expeditionary Force and died for the Old World.

It came to an end on November 11, 1918. An immense crowd formed on Victoria Square beneath blue skies and went quietly berserk, buying fireworks and flags, dancing and processing and singing till all hours. The tram and bus drivers joined in so the revellers all had to walk home, but no one minded much. The war to end wars was over.

And on the same page as the report of the above events, the roll of honour continued: Ernest Haslam, 33, RSM with the Loyal North Lanes of 258 Halliwell Road, an overlooker at Eagley Mill; Harold Kettle, 22, of 3 Tipping Place; Ernest Parkman of the Grenadier Guards and 2 Belvoir Street; Private Bush of the Australian Imperial Force who had once worked in the signal shop at Horwich Loco Works; Fitter John Lever of Knowsley Road; Private Harold Scholes of Bradshaw Brow; Driver Edmund Lee of Keswick Street; Private David Knott who had once worked at Hulton Colliery; Private Douglas Parlby of Vernon Street; Private Harry Hankinson of School Hill; Private Jack Fletcher of Croston Street; Private William Hunt of Worcester Street; Private George Turner of South Street; Private Harry Calderley of Settle Street. . . and so the list goes on.