Henry Rawcliffe

Thornton Cleveleys War Memorial 1914-1918 | Index

Henry Rawcliffe was born in 1891 in Greenhalgh, Fylde. He was the fifth of twelve children of Henry Rawcliffe senior and his wife Jane Hudson who married at St Michael's Parish Church, Weeton on Christmas Day 1884. Henry senior was a farm labourer from Carleton; Jane was a domestic servant from Esprick.

Henry Rawcliffe's grave

After their marriage, Jane and Henry made their home in Greenhalgh where the first eight of their children were born: Mary Ellen (1885), Selina (1886), Thomas (1888), William (1889), Henry junior (1891), Joseph (1893), Fred (1894) and Edwin (1896). In the Census taken on 5 April 1891, the Rawcliffe family were recorded at Bradshaw Lane, Greenhalgh but the family moved to Marton in the late 1890s where their four youngest children were born: Amy (1899), Doris (1900), May (1903) and Frank (1906). With the exception of May, who died at the age of one, all of the children lived into adulthood. They lived firstly at 9 Bank Road and then by 1907 at 33 Hawes Side Lane.

In the 1911 Census, Henry Rawcliffe senior was recorded as a carter working for Blackpool Corporation. By then, only their three youngest children remained at home. Henry junior, aged 19, was working as a teamsman on Preese Hall Farm, Weeton. In the fourth quarter of 1914, he married Jane Elizabeth Taylor. Known as Jenny, she was the eldest sister of Samuel Taylor, another of the soldiers commemorated on Thornton Cleveleys War Memorial. Their first child, James Henry, was born the same quarter. A daughter named May was born on 9 May 1916.

Henry's war service record has not survived. All we know is that he joined The King's (Liverpool) Regiment and, whilst he was serving as a Lance Corporal, was recommended for a Military Medal which was gazetted on 23 February 1918. By that time he had been promoted to the rank of Corporal and he was subsequently promoted to the rank of Sergeant. Jenny and Henry had a second son born on 2 October 1919 and named after his father.

Henry died at home at 8 Pleasant Grove, Thornton on 7 January 1920 aged 28. His death certificate states that the cause of death was meningitis and that he had been working as a chemical labourer after his discharge from the army (although his name does not appear on the I.C.I. memorial). Sergeant Henry Rawcliffe M.M., 306540, 2nd/8th Battalion, The King's (Liverpool) Regiment was buried in Plot 7, Grave 144, at St. Paul's Church, Marton, Blackpool on 12 January 1920.

Jenny Rawcliffe remarried to John (Jack) Roskell in 1930 and had two sons, Kenneth and Roy. She died in 1979 aged 84.