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Welcome to the '8th East Lancs' website.
The 8th (Service) Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment was, in some ways, an unremarkable unit of the British Expeditionary Force.
Soldiers from the regiment came from all over Lancashire - sizeable contingents enlisting in Blackburn, Burnley, Preston, Bolton, Nelson, Accrington, Bacup and Rawtenstall. Large contingents came from Liverpool and Manchester, while significant numbers of men came from other northern counties.
Lieutenant Moses Forman was killed on 10th April 1917 in the attack on Monchy-le-Preux. Here he is photographed at Foncquevillers early in 1916. Image courtesy of the IWM London.
This site serves to explain about the 8th East Lancs and act as a contact point with those who would like to know more about the unit, be they relatives of soldiers, those interested in Lancashire history or in the Great War in general.
News
Miriam Forman, married to one of Moses Forman's relatives e-mailed the site recently. I'm grateful to Miriam for sending an obituary which included some new information. This is the biggest size I can make this - but you should just about be able to make out what's written:
 
Miriam sent me the following also:
Dear Stephen,
Thanks much for the better copies of the pictures than we could have made. Yes. we did see him in the 1916 Officers' photo. How short he is!! But he looks quite tough in the fur coat. Thank goodness for Lt. Yuille, who didn't ask permission. Moses was also wounded in the arm at Contalmaisson; he recuperated in hospital in London and then longer in Glasgow with the family who virtually adopted him there, returning to the front later in 1916.
I use my husband Arthur Forman's surname. We have been married nearly 50 years, and have visited SA many times, so I think of his family as mine. My late father-in-law Frank Forman was Moses' next brother.
Lt. Forman really loved Scotland and the Scots, although he'd been there less than a year before going to camp with the 8th Lancs.
At that time, English-speaking South Africans generally went to the UK for education. Moses wanted to do a Ph.D. in philosophy. You may find that the route of many of the officers from SA.
I have to repeat , what a wonderful book it is, and thank you for the research you've done, the many good decisions you must have made in making the book, and the bibliography which can give one a start to find things in the Archives.
Thanks,
Miriam Forman
Again a big thank you to Miriam.
For more information I can be contacted at:
dstephenbarker@hotmail.com
If you can't hear music as you're looking at this page, your speakers aren't on!
There's music on one other page too!
© Stephen Barker & Christopher Boardman 2009.
Forgotten Places.
Tilloy-les-Mofflaines Militarty Cemetery close to Arras. Lieutenant Moses Forman is interred here. Image courtesy of the Commonwealth Wargraves Commission.
Image Courtesy of Anne and Ian Fraser.
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