Corporal Sam Pickersgill, the son of William and Mary Ann Pickersgill nee Thompson, was born in Seacroft Leeds on 4th April 1869. The family moved to Castleford West Yorkshire where Sam grew up. Like his brothers, he became a coal miner at one the local pits. In 1910 aged 41 he joined the army and served in the artillery. Throughout the Great War, because of his age, he served behind the lines. After the war was over he was among the men who remained in France to exhume the fallen from the temporary cemeteries that were placed all over the Western Front and take them to their final resting place in one of the new Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries. He continued with this work for more than a year in charge of a platoon of men until his death on 21st March 1920, aged 50. He died of heart failure in the village of Bucquoy near Arras. His commanding officer wrote to his widowed mother 'I feel very distressed over his death, as he was really one of the very best workers of the Company and everyone liked him.' Sam was buried at the British Cemetery at Duisan near Etrun - one of the last to be buried there. My great uncle Sam never came hope to Yorkshire or saw his family again. I am privileged to write this short account and will remember him.

Sandra Pendlington