Baxenden Lads: Anderson W

PTE. 31297 WILLIAM ANDERSON
17th October 1918

PTE. 31297 WILLIAM ANDERSON of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment was killed in action on October 17th 1918 during the capture of Busigny in northern France in the closing stages of the war. (N.B. Pte. Skellern of the same regiment died just eleven days later)

William was a married man and lived at 500 Manchester Road, Baxenden. He was aged thirty one. Before he enlisted he was a member of the St. John Ambulance Brigade in Accrington, and his name is on their Roll of Honour in their Drill Hall in Eagle Street.

Busigny is a small village six miles from Le Cateau, and after its capture three Casualty Clearing Stations (mobile hospitals) operated in the area. They opened an extension of the village communal cemetery, and this extension was enlarged after the Armistice with bodies brought from the nearby battlefields. Many had been buried temporarily by their comrades. William’s was one of these. There are 675 graves in this small village communal cemetery extension.