IT'S surprising what you find when you start looking through old suitcases in the attic. Over the years many things have been stored and hidden away, and suddenly they are back to life again.

Geoff and Sheila Seed, of West Bank Road, Lostock, had such an experience recently, when they found lots of historic material about Sheila's family.

Among them was a life story, written in long-hand in an ordinary writing pad, called "Down Memory Lane" by H. Foreman, of Kenilworth Square, Bolton. Mr Foreman, who has been dead for many years, was Sheila Seed's grandmother's brother.

I cannot give the whole of the story here - it would fill a couple of pages at least - but I will print some extracts.

Mr Foreman was born in 1895, and went to Chalfont Street School. "When I was seven the scholars marched round the yard each carrying a small Union Jack to commemorate the Crowning of King Edward VII, and we were each given a Coronation Medal." He later went to St. Paul's at Astley Bridge, stayed there until he was 13 when he started as an errand boy at George Graveson & Sons to become an apprentice ironmonger. "When I was 16 I had an appointment with Dr O'Neil at three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. He sat me on a chair, took out my tonsils, put them in a paper bag, and sent me home. The following Wednesday I was back at work."

Mr Foreman also tells of a cycling trip when he was 16 with his friend Frank Benson. "First we went to Blackpool and spent some time on the Pleasure Beach. On to Garstang for the night, and the following day went through the trough of Bowland to Lancaster and on to the Clitheroe area, and on to a farm at Sawley where we stayed for tea with friends, and then returned home via Blackburn and Darwen."

In 1914 Mr Foreman enlisted as a Territorial in the 2nd Fifth Loyal North Lancs Regt No 3388. He was billetted at Blackpool, and in 1915 he and some friends began a recruiting march to Bolton. "The first night we slept in a Co-op warehouse at Leyland. The following day we marched past the saluting base at Bolton Town Hall and the Square was crowded. From there I went to Fletcher Street Barracks to be dismissed, and then I walked home as the tram cars were all full.

"Sunday morning we had a church parade at St. George's, and on Monday started the return journey on foot via the same route."

Mr Foreman gives many details of the training and experiences he had, particularly in the south of England when he was transferred there - one family with whom he stayed at that time kept in contact for the next 60 years! - and then it was off to France to fight in the first world war.

It must have been a dreadful time in the trenches and going "over the top". Many of his friends were killed, as were two of his brothers. When he heard of the death of one of his brothers in 1918, at Meteran, "we were already in the outpost line and it was a big shock, but only minutes later we were over the top when the barrage opened up and self preservation came into it.

"On our part of the line we had a rough house, and the Black Watch had thirteen officers killed or wounded. However, I came through alright and sometime later my officer told me I had been awarded the MM." He seems very modest about it, as indeed so many soldiers who have been in battle are about their decorations.

Eventually the war was over, and Mr Foreman came back to Bolton - "I had to get a fresh rig-out of clothes for after almost five years nothing would fit."

So it was back to civil street, and back to work for Mr Graveson. "One year at the Bolton Chamber of Trade shopping festival we entered the window Dressing Competition, and my window was awarded First Prize Certificate. I would like to have been given that certificate, but the boss put it in the safe and showed it to me two years' later (nothing like a little encouragement.)

The firm expanded, Mr Foreman took over a new shop in Farnworth. Then Mr Graveson died, and the firm was sold to Fisher Raworth & Co. A Mr R. McWilliams was manager, and the Graveson firm changed its name to R. McWilliams. Mr Foreman became a director, and retired at the age of 65.

"After a long active life it is jolly hard work hanging round doing very little," he comments as he ends his story, but thanks his close family for looking after him after his wife Nellie died in 1966.

"Also, I must remember, we five brothers all had medals for active service in France, Belgium, Egypt and Germany in World War I," he writes. Not bad for one family.

In that particular terrible war such awards may not necessarily have been exceptional, because whole families went to fight. But Mr Foreman's story will hopefully help us remember with thanks all that they did for our freedom, and give us an insight into life in those far off days.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.