Fearful of being forgotten, they wrote to the Northwich Guardian asking the town to remember those serving outside the Cheshires.

This excerpt is from a letter from recruits printed on July 16, 1914:

'We have just been reading some of your letters from recruits in last week's issues but we have not seen any from the Northwich chaps who joined the East Lancashire Regiment. There are 142 of us here and all in the same company...to enable us to get a share of the praise that has so far gone to the Cheshires, the Pals and the Yeomanry.'

The same men wrote a thank you letter the following month, for not being overlooked in the column.

John Barker, who lived on Church Road in Barnton, was one of the many who went to join up in 1915. He went with his best friend, Fred Norrey, who lived just 10 doors away.

They vowed to always stay together but, sadly, they were put into different battalions - the eighth and seventh - and never saw each other again.

John and Fred were both killed in 1917 at the age of 23.

John died at Loos in France - a letter from his company officer read in the Guardian:

'I took a party with your son to erect wire entanglements. We had just reached the place where we were to do the work when a machine gun opened fire - a bullet struck your son just below the heart.'

Only months later Fred as killed - probably in the Battle of Passchendaele.

THERE are few local records of Northwich men who served in the East Lancs but this isn't stopping Stephen Barker, 33, who is desperate to find out more about John - his great uncle.

"It was unusual for so many Cheshire soldiers to be with East Lancs," said Stephen, who now lives in Buckingham but still has family in Northwich.

"I'm interested in military history and really want to find out more about John, and the lads in the East Lancs in general. My grandfather used to talk about them a bit, but he didn't say much.

"It's all passing into history now - all the soldiers would be more than 100 years old, but many of their descendants are alive and still living locally."

If you have any information or pictures that may help Stephen please ring him on 01280 824877.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.