Skip to main content

Macclesfield Cemetery and Crematorium: Military Burials

This week, I continue the series of posts on Macclesfield Cemetery by honouring two local military heroes 
George Eardley VC


George Harold Eardley VC MM (6 May 1912 - 11 September 1991) was an Acting Sergeant of the 4th battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry, and recipient of the Military Medal, when he risked his life in the face of the enemy in October 1944. At the time, Eardley was just 32 years old and serving east of Overloon in the Netherlands. 

His platoon was ordered to clear enemy opposition from orchards, thus clearing the way for the Allied tanks to advance. However, 80 yards from their objective, automatic machine gun fire swiftly halted their advance. Eardley dodged heavy fire to get close enough to one machine gun post to kill the enemy officer with a grenade, and then went on to destroy two more posts single-handed. His actions enabled his platoon to complete their objective and ensured the success of their whole attack. As a result, Acting Sergeant Eardley was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry in the face of the enemy.

He was buried in Macclesfield Cemetery in September 1991. His Victoria Cross is on display at the Imperial War Museum, London. In 2004, a statue was erected in his honour in his home town of Congleton.
Macclesfield Cemetery
Also buried in the cemetery is First World War hero, Private Harold Whalley (1895-1918) of 21st Manchester Regiment. He had enlisted in the Cheshire Regiment. This son of Harry and Eleanor Whalley, of 10, Eastgate, Macclesfield, Private Whalley was awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous bravery, carrying messages under heavy shell fire. 

 Tragically, Private Whalley died in hospital in Camberwell, London, as a result of injuries received in France. His date of death was 9 October 1918 - just a month before the Armistice. He was 23 years old. His body was transported to Macclesfield, where he was buried on 15 October. He shares his grave with his father, shoemaker Harry Whalley, who had died in the local workhouse in 1911, aged just 39. 
Macclesfield Cemetery register entry for Harold Whalley MM
We're really pleased that so many of you have found ancestors in our Macclesfield Cemetery records (as part of the Cheshire East Collection). Do let us know via our Twitter or Facebook pages if you have visited the cemetery or have anything you would like to share about family members who are buried there.  

Sources
This is photograph B 13371 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22976217
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

London's Spa Fields

Deceased Online has just uploaded around 114,000 burial records from Spa Fields in the modern London borough of Islington Spa Fields today, with the Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer in the background Spa Fields Burial Ground became notorious in the 19th century for its overcrowded and insanitary conditions. Located in the parish of St James, Clerkenwell, the grave yard was not far from the ever-increasing City of London. Spa Fields was known also as Clerkenwell Fields and Ducking-pond Fields in the late 18th century, hinting at a dark side to what was then a summer evening resort for north Londoners. What would become a cemetery was a ducking pond in the rural grounds of a Spa Fields public house. It was here in 1683 that six children were drowned while playing on the ice. In his History of Clerkenwell (1865) William J. Pinks wrote that visitors, "came hither to witness the rude sports that were in vogue a century ago, such as duck-hunting, prize-fighting, bull-baiting...
34 comments
Read more

New Maps Online for St Peter's Cemetery and Churchyard

New data for Scotland will be appearing on Deceased Online over the next couple of weeks. Here we give you an insight into our holdings on the cemeteries of Aberdeen. The ‘Granite City’, as Scotland's third largest city is known, features strongly in the Deceased Online database . You can search around 248,000 records from nine cemeteries and burial grounds, including St Nicholas Churchyard, Trinity Churchyard, Nigg Cemetery, John Knox Churchyard, St Peter's Cemetery - linked with Spital Churchyard, St Clement's Churchyard, Old Machar Churchyard, Grove Cemetery and Nellfield Cemetery. We have just added detailed grave location maps of Spitak (aka St Peter’s) Churchyard and St Peter’s Cemetery. Located in the north of the city, these two cemeteries form one vast graveyard. The Deceased Online database contains registers, which date from 1767, for over 160,000 burials. Besides the registers are the Dues Books. For the earliest dates these cover the date of burial...
4 comments
Read more

Wakefield Collection: Cremation Records now available on Deceased Online

Records for both crematoria in Wakefield, Yorkshire have been added to the Deceased Online database Above: Pontefract Crematorium The two sets of crematoria records have been added to Deceased Online 's Wakefield Collection .  Wakefield district contains nineteen cemeteries and two crematoria. Many of the records go back to the mid and late 19th century when the cemeteries opened, and range across a wide geographical area. The full list of  Wakefield  cemeteries live on Deceased Online,  with opening dates in brackets,   is as follows: 1.  Altofts Cemetery  – Church Road, Altofts, Normanton  (1878)   2.  Alverthorpe Cemetery  – St Paul’s Drive, Alverthorpe, Wakefield  (registers from 1955) 3. Castleford Cemetery  – Headfield Road, Castleford  (1857) 4.  Crigglestone Cemetery  – Standbridge Lane, Crigglestone, Wakefield  (1882) 5. Featherstone Cemetery  – Cutsyke Road, Nort...
11 comments
Read more