King's Own Royal Regiment Museum

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Private James Edward Bleasdale

Private James Edward Bleasdale, number 241626, 1st/5th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment.

From donor “The photograph is of my father, James Edward Bleasdale, who was a Lance Corporal with the King’s Own, a Lewis Gunner. He survived the war but had at least three close calls. A shell landed in the same shell hole in no mans land they were firing from, but failed to explode. On another occasion a shell did explode, again, in the ‘same’ crater they were firing from but this time it did explode killing all the gun crew (5 men) he escaped with a piece of shrapnel in his right buttock! On the last ‘near miss’ he arrived back to the front line just back from leave in Blighty only to be told that the day before a shell had landed in the middle of his gun team and they had all been killed.”
James Edward Bleasdale lived at 13 Green Street, Lancaster, then 6 West Drive, Scale Hall, then 1 Peel Avenue. He died in around 1951 at Williamsons in an Industrial Accident.

Private James Edward Bleasdale, First World War.
Accession Number: KO1409/01

© Images are copyright, Trustees of the King's Own Royal Regiment Museum.
 You must seek permission prior to publication of any of our images.