PTE. 93348 DAVID WATERWORTH
1st September 1918
PTE. 93348 DAVID WATERWORTH of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers was killed in action on September 1st 1918 at the village of Sailly-Saillisel in France on the day it was captured by British troops.
David was the eldest son of Mr. & Mrs. R. Waterworth of 42 South Street, Accrington. He was aged nineteen. He enlisted in November 1917 and had been in France just three months. Before David enlisted he was employed at Nicoll’s Chemical Works, Baxenden. He was a regular attender at the Wesleyan Mission, Baxenden.
Sailly-Saillisel is a village between Bapaume and Peronne on the northern edge of the old 1916 battlefields of the Somme. David is buried in Sailly-Saillisel British War Cemetery which is just south of the village. It was made after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from the surrounding battlefields and other small cemeteries. Many were from the 1916 battles with some, David’s amongst them, from the 1918 advance to victory. He would have been buried temporarily by his comrades. There are 763 war graves.
On September 21st 1918 David’s parents placed a memorial notice in the Accrington Observer:- E’en as he trod, that day to God So walked he from his birth In simpleness and gentleness and honour and clean mirth.