Halton Memories: David Hopkins of Runcorn completes five year World War One research project

By Runcorn And Widnes Weekly News on Nov 5, 09 01:35 PM in 1900-1999

FIVE years of painstaking research has reconstructed the First World War exploits of two Halton soldiers, writes Mark Smith.

David Hopkins, a Citizens's Advice Bureau employee from Lockwood View, Preston Brook, spent much of his spare time trawling through documents to compile the stories of his great-grandfather and his wife's grandfather.

His task was made more difficult by the fact most First World War service records were lost in Second World War bombing raids on London.

David's great-grandfather - George Stevens - was a territorial from Widnes who fought with the Fifth South Lancashires.

A chemical worker from Wright Street who was known as 'Tom' to his friends, he had the legal right to refuse service in the war because he was 43 and had seven children. But he darkened his moustache to make himself look younger and signed up, serving on the Western Front.

David told the Weekly News: "I was in awe of him. He was one of 37 men captured by the Germans at Villers Guislain."

A Government report on Tom's time in captivity is printed in David's research, and reads: "We were marched until 7.30pm and placed in a cage, we had nothing to eat all day.

"During the march civilians tried to give us food and water but the sentries stopped them.

"I personally saw some of our men kicked while trying to accept the bread."

Tom survived the war and returned to his job at what later became ICI in Widnes. He died in 1954, receiving a spontaneous 'state funeral' from the people of West Bank.

The second story is about Patrick McCarthy - the grandfather of David's wife, Julie.
Patrick was a horse-driver from Victoria Street, Widnes, and served in the Salonika campaign in Macedonia and the Balkans - often termed 'the forgotten war' - with the Royal Garrison Artillery.

He contracted malaria and at one stage his family thought he was dead due to a service number mix-up. He came home in 1919 and died in 1952.

David added: "It disturbs me the way history is taught now, not enough people know what these men went through."

Two copies of David's work, Two Stories from the Great War, are available at Widnes library.

He can be contacted at hopkinsdavid@btinternet.com

The first picture shows the author, David Hopkins, and the second, George 'Tom' Stevens, seated, with two other captured soldiers in 1918 at a prisoner of war camp in Parchim, north of Berlin.