1:59pm Monday 14th December 2009
By Catherine Pye
THE service medal of a teenage soldier killed in the First World War will be returned to his family after they were traced through an appeal in the Lancashire Telegraph.
Private Edward Houghton, of the East Lancashire Regiment, was 17 when he was killed by a shell in the trenches of France on August 19, 1918.
He was married, had worked at Carus Mill and lived in St Paul’s Avenue, Hoddlesden.
Tom Bowers, 64, from Sale, bought a £15 lot of paintings at an auction in Timperley, Greater Manchester, and found a plaque containing the service medal and information on Private Houghton in the same box.
On finding the plaque, Mr Bowers, who himself served 14 years in the army with the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment, set about trying to contact the family.
Margaret Walsh, the great-niece of Private Houghton, still lives in Hoddlesden and saw the appeal in the paper.
She said: “He was my mother’s uncle and she said that there used to be a photograph of him in the hall of their house in St Paul’s Avenue.
“She didn’t talk much about him, but she did say how she never forgot the telegram arriving to say he’d died.
“I don’t know much more about him, but it would be very nice to have the medals back with the family in Hoddlesden.”
Mr Bowers said he would be happy to give the medal back to Private Houghton’s family.
He said: “This is part of the village’s history and it would have been a great shame if this young man’s sacrifice was forgotten.”
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/trade_directory/