24th October 1914

[Mark Hone]

The first Bury Grammar School old boy to die on the Western Front was 34 year-old Lt. Douglas Wardleworth of the Royal Army Medical Corps. He is buried at St Marie Cemetery, Le Havre. Div. 14 D.1. For a long time I assumed that he had been wounded in action and died in hospital at Le Havre. In fact I discovered that he was a keen swimmer who drowned in a freak accident while bathing off Le Havre.