Norman Dransfield

Private 10682. 2nd Battalion. Duke of Wellington's West Riding regiment.

Son of Tom and Elizabeth, of 8 Quarry Rd. Crosland Hill.

Born: 1892.

Husband of Harriet nee Sykes.

Address: 54 Handel Street, Golcar.

Occupation: Spinner.

Enlisted: 20th August 1913.

Killed in action at Hill 60: 18th April 1915. Aged 23.

Commemorated on the Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. Panel 20

Norman was educated at Milnsbridge National School, along with his brother Ernest (also of the Duke of Wellington's) who died of wounds on 18th November 1917 aged 31.

On 18thApril, the 2nd Battalion lost 17 officers and 68 men killed, 334 wounded and 43 missing. Lieutenant C.W.G. Ince Adjutant, 2nd Btn Duke of Wellington's wrote "What our troops withstood can to some degree be realised if it be remembered that the space fought over on the four and a half days between April 17th and 21st was only 250 yards in length, and about 200 yards in depth. On that small area the enemy for hours on end hurled tons of metal and high explosive and at times the Hill top was wreathed in poisonous fumes. And yet our gallant infantry did not give way. They stood firm under a fire which swept away whole sections at a time, filled the trenches with dead bodies and so cumbered the approaches to the front line that reinforcements could not reach it without having to climb over the prostrate forms of their former comrades."

Norman's name appears on the Roll of Honour in St. John's Church Golcar, and with that of his brother in the Rising Sun Public House, Crosland Hill.