Private Richard Blackburn
43635 1st North Staffordshire Regiment
Formerly 37262 East Lancashire Regiment.
Died of Wounds 11th October 1918, aged 24
Lived at 20 Godiva Street
Commemorated on the Vis en Artois Memorial, France
St.Andrews Memorial, Burnley
Burnley Express 2/11/1918

Born & resided Burnley, enlisted Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire

REJECTED SEVEN TIMES (Burnley Express 02/11/18)

In the following letter Mrs Sutcliffe, of 20 Godiva Street, Burnley, has been informed of the death from wounds, on October 11th of her brother who lived with her - Private Richard Blackburn, 43635, of the North Staffordshire Regiment:-“Dear Mrs Sutcliffe-I have received your letter of the 19th, and I am very sorry to have to inform you that ‘Dick’ Blackburn was killed about ten days ago. He was badly wounded on the head, and died in the field ambulance. He was unconscious from the time he was hit, so he suffered no pain. We all feel Dick’s death very much, as he was such a bright, cheery lad.-Captain R. W. Sharp.”
The deceased, an orphan, was 24 years of age, and was a weaver at Sunderland’s Whitefield Mill, Nelson and Stuttards’ Byerden Mill. He was rejected no fewer than seven times, and went on munitions work, but again volunteered, and was accepted in January 1917, and went out after about ten weeks training in March 1917. He first joined the 8th East Lancashire Regiment, but was transferred to the South Lancashire Regiment last January. Private Blackburn had been brought up at the St Andrew’s Day and Sunday School, and was an assistant scoutmaster there.