Joseph Henry Heginbotham

Thornton Cleveleys War Memorial 1914-1918 | Index

Joseph Heginbotham was born in Thornton in 1893, the eldest of three sons of William Heginbotham and his wife Mary Alice Porter who married at Christ Church, Thornton on 23 December 1891.

Joseph Heginbotham's grave

William was born in Woodley near Stockport on 31 May 1871, the son of a thread twister. He is recorded as a general labourer in the 1891 Census when he was lodging at 18 West Street, Thornton. Mary Alice was born in Thornton in 1872, the daughter of Henry Porter, a farm labourer. In the 1891 Census the Porter family were living in Fleetwood Road, Thornton.

All three of William and Mary Alice's sons were baptised at Christ Church, Thornton: Joseph Henry on 28 May 1893, William Lawrence on 25 November 1894 and Stafford on 29 August 1897.

In the Census taken on 31 March 1901, the Heginbotham family were recorded at New Street, Trunnah. William was a chemical labourer at the United Alkali Works. In the next Census on 2 April 1911 the family were at 1 Hargreaves Street, Thornton. Stafford was still at school but the two older boys were working at United Alkali: Joseph as a chemical labourer and William Lawrence as an apprentice cooper.

Joseph enlisted in the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment on 7 September 1914 and was sent to France with the British Expeditionary Force on 4 September 1915. He was promoted to Lance Corporal and thence to Sergeant. He survived the war and was discharged from the Army on 27 August 1919 under King's Regulations paragraph 392 xvi: "no longer physically fit for war service."

Joseph had married Annie Hunter in 1918. Annie was born on 25 June 1893 in Comberbach, Cheshire, the fourth of seven children of Thomas Hunter and his first wife Margaret Price who had married at St. Mary and All Saints, Great Budworth, Cheshire on 24 November 1884. Thomas was a rock salt miner and around 1894 he moved to Preesall to take up a post as underground foreman at United Alkali's salt mine which supplied the Burn Naze chemical works.

Joseph and Annie made their home at 3 Hope Terrace, Thornton. They had no children when, sadly, Joseph died on 27 November 1920 from chronic nephritis, a kidney condition which was likely to have been caused or aggravated by his wartime service. He was aged 27.

Sergeant Joseph Henry Heginbotham, 13438, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment is buried in Grave 514 in the new part of the churchyard at Christ Church, Thornton.