100 years ago this week two soldiers from Pendlebury were reprimanded for escaping the horrors of the First World War by assaulting police officers and hiding in a Salford coal shed.
Privates John William Tudor and John William Rowlands, who were serving with the 16th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers – also known as the Second Salford Pals Regiment – appeared before Eccles magistrates charged with being absent from their regiment, as the Eccles and Patricroft Journal of November 1915 explains.
The court heard that both Tudor and Rowlands – who appeared in in full uniform – had been missing for several days before they were discovered shivering in a small cabin near Clifton Hall Colliery.
Private Rowlands did not want to come quietly. Struggling with the two arresting officers, PC Pass and PC Parke, he kicked out and bit a chunk of flesh from Parke’s left thumb before dashing off into the dark and stormy night to make good his escape.
Following a trail of blood left by the escaping soldier, PC Charnley followed in search of the man, who was found with heavy cuts to his head and hands after falling into barbed wire.
Captured for a second time, the fleeing man his time came quietly. In court PC Pass said that Rowlands had obviously taken a drink and behaved like a “madman” when he tried to arrest him, thrashing about wildly in an effort to escape.
Rowlands took to the stand, with his face and hands covered in dried blood, and gave his side of the story.
He explained that his Battalion were due to leave for the Western Front but, as he had not been allowed leave, he decided to go and see his wife and children.
Rowlands understood that he was entitled to 48 hours leave before being sent abroad and that he would have been back at his barracks on the following Monday, however he explained that he got “mad drunk”.
Supt Keys from the Eccles police force handed the Bench a list of previous convictions committed by Rowlands and it would appear that there were quite a few charges on it.
Private Tudor was taken back to his barracks in Wiltshire under military escort and doubt bundled off to the front line in France before he could abscond again.
The Chairman of the Bench, after consulting with his colleagues, decided that it was a serious assault against a serving police officer by Rowlands and that he would be jailed for one month with hard labour added to the sentence.
I wonder if this prison sentence prolonged Rowland’s life, in a bizarre way.
It was well-known for soldiers to deliberately get into trouble with the authorities when they were due to be sent back to the Front so that they would get prison sentences.
The Second Salford Pals Division landed at Boulogne on 22 November 1915.
Their first serious taste of action was at Thiepval Ridge on The Somme on the 1 July 1916, the battle resulted in the Salford Pals being almost entirely wiped out.
Main image: Train tracks near Clifton Hall Colliery
