Private Robert Clough Houghton
240486 1/5th East Lancashire Regiment
Killed in Action 6th November 1918
Lived at 9 Lee Street
Buried in Hautmont Communal Cemetery, France
St.Andrews Memorial, Burnley

BURNLEY WEAVER KILLED Shell Splinter Through Window. (Burnley Express 7/12/18)

Second Lieutenant W. Etchells, “D” Company of 1/5th Battalion East Lancashire Regiment, conveyed in a letter the sad news of the death in action of Private Robert Clough Houghton, 240486, whose wife resides at 9 Lee Street, Burnley. The Officer wrote:- “It is with regret that I write to tell you of your husband’s death. He was killed in action on November 8th by a shell, another comrade meeting his end at the same time. He met his death under rather singular circumstances. We had advanced and taken up a position on the outskirts of a town, and your husband was at the time sitting round a stove in the house along with his comrades, when a shell burst outside and several pieces of shrapnel came through the window. As his Platoon Officer I can say that I always found him most willing and cheerful even under the most trying circumstances. His remains have been buried in the civilian cemetery at Hautmont, and the number of the grave as is 551. Comrades tender their deepest sympathy with you in your sad bereavement; we all keenly feel his loss.”
Private Houghton enlisted in August 1914 and was sent out on Foreign Service in November the same year. He had served in Egypt, where he suffered from enteric fever. Before joining the colours he worked at Messrs Thistlethwaite’s Mill, and he attended St Andrew’s Church. He has two brothers and two cousins in the army, one cousin-Private Robert Kenworth having won the ‘Croix De Guerre’.