PRIVATE EDWARD MAXWELL DOCKRILL
THE LOYAL NORTH LANCASHIRE REGIMENT
29TH MAY 1916 AGE 48
BURIED: ETAPLES MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
Edward Dockrill's brother, Harold, chose his inscription. Although Edward was a married man and the father of three children it appears that he and his wife were estranged.
Dockrill volunteered on 3 September 1914. He was 44, a painter living with Harold and his wife. A few days earlier the embargo on news from the front had been lifted and the public learnt for the first time that the British army was in retreat having suffered huge casualties. As a result, the numbers of men volunteering to join the army went up hugely and the third of September 1914 saw 333,204 men enlist, the highest daily total of the whole war. The upper age limit for recruits at that time was 38. However, Edward Dockrill obviously felt that at 44 he was not too old to go. He must have feared that he would be considered too old though because he told the recruiting officer that he was 34.
Dockrill served with the 8th Battalion The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and went to France on 22 September 1915. He was wounded in action on 21 May 1916 when the regiment fought a desperate action at Broadmarsh Crater on Vimy Ridge. Dockrill died in a Casualty Clearing Station eight days later from 'gsw' wounds, which meant either gun shot or shrapnel wounds, that had penetrated his right lung and spine.