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Atherton War Memorial - The Heaton brothers

The Atherton War Memorial was unveiled on a rainy Saturday afternoon in January 1922 by Mr. J. W. Roylance, a blinded ex-soldier who had served in the 5th Manchester Regiment. He may well have served with the Lee brothers. Joe, Thomas and Fred Lee are three of the 327 names engraved on the bronze plates along with those of two other local brothers, John and Charlie Heaton. Atherton was a small close knit community at the time so it was hardly surprising that Joe Lee’s best pal, Tom Hunt also knew the Heaton brothers. He wrote to John Heaton’s widow to tell her how her husband and brother-in-law died: ‘They both fell side by side within a minute of each other...Charlie died in a seating position looking at John who was lying on his back. They were laid to rest in the same grave.‘

Fortunately, Tom’s name does not appear on the memorial so we can assume that he survived and was probably one of the 300 ex-servicemen here on the day the memorial was unveiled. The procession started from Atherton Town Hall and proceeded along Church Street and Market Street where many of the shops closed, and blinds were drawn, along the route. After hymns and prayers, Councillor Kay was asked to say a few words. He thanked the generosity of the subscribers then said that he hoped the memorial would act as ‘a reminder to them all to devote their energies and resources to the prevention of war, for its terrible results had been forcibly brought home to them that afternoon.’ War memorials were erected to remember the dead but for some of the living, like Tom Hunt, they must have made it difficult to forget what they had lived through. We will now proceed to Parsonage Retail Park which is built on the site of the Parsonage Colliery.

Image of Atherton Cenotaph during Armistice Sunday.