Norman Priestley

Private 26349. 2nd Battalion. Grenadier Guards.

Born: 1894.

Son of Alice Ann and the late James

Brother of Evelyn, Florence, Zilpha and Arnold.

Address: 3 Share Hill, Golcar.

Employed by James Dyson & Son, Dyeworks. Hoyle Ing, Linthwaite.

Died 20th August 1918. Aged 24.

Buried at Bucquoy Road Cemetery, Ficheux, France. Plot 3. Row K. Grave 5.

The cemetery is 9km south of Arras on the D919 road to Ayette.

He was a popular member of Golcar Baptist Reading Room and Captain of their Boys Brigade.

Norman's mother received a telegram on the 8th April 1917 to say that he was dangerously ill with pneumonia in the London Casualty Clearing Hospital in France. Permission to visit could not be given.

In November 1916 the village of Ficheux was behind the German front line, but by April 1917 the German withdrawal had taken the line considerably east of the village and in April and May the V11 Corps Main Dressing Station was posted nearby for the Battle of Arras. It was followed by the 20th and 43rd Casualty Clearing Stations which remained at Boisleux-au-Mont until until March 1918, and continued to use the Bucquoy Road Cemetery begun by the field ambulances. From early April to early August 1918 the cemetery was not used, but in September and October the 23rd, 30th and 33rd Casualty Clearing Stations came to Boisleux-au-Mont and extended it. By the Armistice it contained 1,166 burials, but was greatly increased when graves were brought in form the surrounding battlefields and smaller cemeteries. It now contains 1,844 burials.