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Gunner Ralph Hicks

15 September 1917

Ralph was born in 1875, in Little Bolton, Lancashire. Ralph was only eight or nine when his Father died, aged 34. He got a place at Chethams School for ‘ Poor Boys’ in Manchester

On leaving there,  in 1888, he joined the Post Office, first, as a telegram messenger boy and then, in 1893, he became a postman.

He married Martha in 1896 and they had five children, sadly one of his daughters predeceased Ralph. One of his children, Hilda, my Grandmother died in 2003, shortly after celebrating her 100th birthday.

He enlisted in the Postal Section in December 1915, just before his 40th birthday and joined the Royal Garrison Artillery –  20th Siege Battery as a Gunner, in July 1916 and was sent to the front in January 1917.

Ralph was killed in action on 15th September 1917, aged 41, during I believe, the Battle of Passchendaele and he is buried in Talana Farm Cemetery, Belgium.

His name is on the memorials at Chethams  School, the Post Office and St Lukes Church, Bolton

“We Will Remember Them”