Lois Dean, a volunteer at Bolton Museum and Archive, has researched this story.

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‘Mons Star’ medal recipients from Bolton

Some twenty-seven WWI survivors gathered at Bolton Town Hall in March 1919 to receive their ‘Mons Star’ medal from the Mayor, Lord Leverhulme, in what he described as a ‘stirring ceremony’. Also present were relatives of six men who had subsequently been killed in battle or died of wounds.

The medal was awarded to those who served in France and Belgium between the declaration of war in August 1914 and the first Battle of Ypres in November 1914.

You may recognise a relative amongst the following names, whose addresses are all in Bolton, unless stated otherwise:

E Bayfield, 7 Horace Street; R Lever, 1 Tong Street, Deane; R Morrison, 10 Foundary Street; T W Matthews, 5 Hartley Street, Blackburn Road; A Lee, 123 Mason Street, Horwich; C Gavin, 4 Providence Street; W E Baxter, 48 Vernon Street, Farnworth; J Burton, 14 Alecia Street, Darcy Lever; J Reed, 33 Venture Street; R Cryer, 52 Back Foundary Street; D Coleman, 14 Delamere Street, Halliwell; F Richards, 28 Fenn Street, Horwich; W Clemmett, 5 Arden Street; S Murray, 58 Livingstone Street; J Chadbond, 11 Division Street, Great Lever; T W Matthews, 11 Hartley Street, Blackburn Road; H Sandiford, 28 Irving Street; A Wright, 25 Buxton Street; H Green, 28 St Helens Road; J Mullen, 8 Stuart Street; G Heyes, 25 Back Punch Street; C Webster, 14 Fox Street, Morris Fold; J Chadwick, 6 Back Newport Street; T Forster, 27 Victor Street; J Hunt, 482 Wigan Road; G Whalley, 45 Bashall Street; T Grundy, 19 Ryefield Street.

Those whose relatives received their medal:

J Bradley, 13 Haydock Street; W Lawton, 29 Parkfield Road, Great Lever; E Howley, 27 Faraday Street, Halliwell Road; C Davies, 11 Ardwick Street; H Melling, 28 Cotton Street, Halliwell, H McCarthy, 16 Claughton Street.