Joe Kershaw was born in Oldham on 1 March 1898, the only son of John Robert Kershaw and his first wife Alice Ogden who married at St. Peter's, Oldham on 25 March 1896. Joe had an older sister who was born on 4 November 1896 and named Fanny Dickinson after her maternal grandmother.
Joe's father had worked in the cotton trade as a young man but when the Census was taken on 31 March 1901, he had become the publican at the the Spring Gardens Hotel, Compstall Road, Marple Bridge. However, the family moved back to Oldham and were living at 20 Park Road in January 1902 when Joe and Fanny were admitted to Wellington Street Council School. It was Joe's first school. He stayed until 28 July 1905 when the family moved to our area.
Sadly, Joe's mother died later that year, aged about 44. John Kershaw remarried the following year to Margaret Harrop who, like himself, had been born in Royton on the northern fringe of Oldham. There were no children from the marriage.
The Census taken on 2 April 1911 recorded the Kershaw family at Ivy Bank, Beach Road, Cleveleys. John gave his occupation as a company house keeper. However, the Census enumerator described the property as a "boarding house". Fanny was an apprentice dressmaker and Joe, aged 13, a scholar at Baines Grammar School, Poulton-le-Fylde.
After Joe left school he became an apprentice jeweller to the firm of Hirst Brothers & Co. Ltd. of 8 Curzon Street, Oldham. It was a busy time for the company which in 1912 had introduced a new range of watches sold under the trademark name Limit. They carried a Swiss movement from the Waldenburg factory which were shipped to the Oldham headquarters for assembly into British made Dennison cases. However, with the outbreak of the war in 1914, Hirst Brothers switched their production to the manufacture of optical instruments.
In November 1914, Joe enlisted in the Manchester Regiment at Oldham and was sent to France on 9 November 1915 (when still only 17). His service record has not survived but the Blackpool Gazette and Herald reported on 6 October 1916 that he had been wounded and transferred to a hospital in Liverpool.
The Fleetwood Chronicle of 22 November 1918 said that he was wounded twice more before he was killed in action on 20 October 1918. Joe was aged 20 and unmarried. Pte. Joseph Kershaw, 14411, 1st/5th Battalion, Manchester Regiment is commemorated on Panel 9 of the Vis-en-Artois Memorial, Pas de Calais, France. He is also remembered on the memorial at St. Andrew's Church, Cleveleys and in the Book of Remembrance at Baines Grammar School, Poulton-le-Fylde.
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