‘Clitheroe Advertiser’ (3 August 1917)
(Kindly supplied by Shirley Penman of Clitheroe and Dorothy Falshaw of Gisburn)
HIT BY SHELL FRAGMENT
PIONEER BEN RUSHTON DIES OF WOUNDS
The many friends of Mr. Rd. Rushton, J.P., of Accrington, and Stone Lee, Grindleton, heard with great regret, on Tuesday, of the death in action of his eldest son, Pioneer Ben Rushton, of the Chemical Corps, Royal Engineers. The sorrowful news was received on Monday, in letters from his section officer, sergeant, and one of his chums. It appears that he was hit by a bursting shell on Sunday, the 22nd July, when close to his billet. A piece of shell perforated his left lung, and he died in hospital, a few miles behind the lines, at 9 a.m. the following day. He was buried in the cemetery near the hospital with military honours by a few of his comrades who could be spared, the service being conducted by the chaplain.
Pioneer Rushton joined the Army in February of last year, choosing as his regiment the corps for men who are skilled in the chemical trade. He was at Chatham for a very short time, going out to France fourteen days after enlistment. He had not been home since. All the letters received from his comrades testify to the fact that Pioneer Rushton had made himself much loved among the entire section by his unfailing good humour and cheerfulness even under the most trying circumstances.
Mr. Rushton’s youngest son, Captain F.V. Rushton, of the 5th East Lancashire Regiment T.F., is serving in France. He has been out since the commencement of the war, being invalided from Gallipoli, owing to dysentery, and is now attached to the 11th East Lancashire Regiment.
Pioneer Rushton was formerly in the service of Mr. Ashworth, chemical manufacturer, Bury. He was 39 and unmarried.
‘Accrington Observer and Times’ (4 August 1917)
(Kindly supplied by Shirley Penman of Clitheroe)
PIONEER BEN RUSHTON KILLED
A WELL-KNOWN LOCAL FIGURE
To a host of friends not only in Accrington and district but much further afield, it comes as a shock to hear of the death of Pioneer Ben Rushton, elder son of Mr. Richard Rushton, J.P., of Accrington and Grindleton, who died on July 23rd, from injuries received through being hit by a shell on the previous day.
Pioneer Ben Rushton, who was 39 years of age, was attached to a chemical corps of the Royal Engineers. As an expert chemist, he volunteered in the early days of the war for work in that branch of service, and in March, 1915, he became a member of a Pioneers’ section of the Royal Engineers. In less than three weeks after joining he was out in France, where he had since remained on skilled service. On Monday his father and mother received the sad news from the army authorities that he had died as the result of severe shrapnel wounds.
Mr. Ben Rushton was a great favourite with very many people locally, to whom his bright and sunny disposition, and his readiness to help any good cause, always appealed strongly. From his early boyhood’s days “Ben” was trained for the chemical industry. He laid the foundations of his technical knowledge at the Co-operative Society’s classes in Accrington, and at the age of 16 went to the print works at Barrow, near Whalley, where he remained for five years. Leaving there, he proceeded to Owen’s College, Manchester, where he remained three years as a student of chemistry and afterwards became associated with his father in his business as a dry-salter. For some five years before joining the army he had been one of the representatives of Mr. Arthur Ashworth, chemical manufacturer, of Bury, and as a traveller was well known over a considerable area.
Locally he had done much good and useful work in the cause of charity. He was closely connected with the New Jerusalem Church, in Abbey-street, for many years was secretary of the church committee, and took a keen interest in the welfare of the New Church Guild. Possessed of considerable ability as an amateur actor, he had several times appeared with the New Year’s Day Amateurs during the years that talented body of Thespians were annually staging a play on the first day of the year at the Grand Theatre, Accrington. He was keenly interested, too, in the success of the Amateur Operatic Society, and was one of those helped to promote the Kentucky Minstrels. In private life he was the happy possessor of a large circle of friends, to whom his cheery disposition greatly endeared him. Fond of the country, he was almost as well known in the Ribble Valley and Yorkshire dales as he was in Accrington. Like his father, who is a past Grand master of the Order, Mr. Rushton was a member of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows and was also a member of the Commercial Travellers’ Association.
Several sympathetic letters have reaches Mr. and Mrs. Rushton. His commanding officer writes:–
As the officer commanding your late son’s section, permit me to offer a few words of sympathy and condolence. Your son was hit by a piece of bursting shell in the neighbourhood of the billet about 4 p.m. on the 22nd inst., and seriously wounded, the left lung being perforated. He was at once removed to a dressing room, where I myself saw him about 7 p.m. He was then unconscious, and died without gaining consciousness at 9-10 the next morning at a field ambulance a few miles back. I was present at the funeral yesterday, which was conducted with military honours, the service being read by the military chaplain. The whole of the section misses him, and we all feel that we have lost a good friend. The N.C.O.’s and the men, too, realise that we have lost a reliable and conscientious worker. Again permit me to offer my sincere sympathy, yet all the same time please accept my congratulations on account of the noble sacrifice your son has made in laying down his life on behalf of civilization.
From a comrade and close friend of deceased, Lance Corporal Frank Atton, Mr. Rushton has received the following:–
It is a very mournful duty I have to perform in writing to inform you of the death of your son, Pioneer B. Rushton. On Sunday last our billeting area was somewhat heavily shelled, and during a few minutes comparative calm, when it was safe to venture into the open, a stray shell burst quite close, with the result that our poor friend Ben was hit. We did what we could for him until he was removed to the hospital. Despite the care and attention he received there he died on Monday at 9 a.m. A few of us who could be spared buried him yesterday in a neat little British military cemetery, the position of which should be officially explained to you later.
I became acquainted with Ben in our early days at Chatham, and over this side we have become close friends, so I feel his death very keenly. He is universally missed and mourned over by us all. Always cheery and full of humour under the most trying circumstances, he is a man to whom many of us looked as a pattern.. I feel what little comfort any words of mine can give you in your great trouble, and I am voicing the sentiments of all who knew poor Ben in sending you our deepest sympathy.
Still another letter received by Mr. Rushworth is from Sergeant F. Ashworth, who after recounting the circumstances under which Pioneer Rushton was wounded, goes on:–
I wish to send you the sympathy of the section in your sad bereavement. I know we shall miss him very much, as he had such a store of dry humour and he was altogether what we call a good fellow and a good chum. I personally miss him very much, as he was not only the oldest Pioneer in the section, but one of its most capable and willing workers. He was the only Lancashire man besides myself in the section. The funeral took place to-day in the cemetery close to the hospital, and it may be some consolation to know he lies amongst comrades who, like him, have laid down their lives at the call of duty.
MR. RUSHTON’S LAST LETTER
In his last letter to his father, dated July 17th, Pioneer Rushton wrote:–
We’ve done another move, not a very long way from where we were before, but quite a different kind of place. It’s the remnant of a large suburban village that has been shelled through and through in the course of changing hands. There isn’t a whole building in the place; and of course, no civilians at all. The one sign of civilization is a Y.M.C.A. canteen tucked away in the cellar of a ruined house. We are billeted in a rabbit warren of a cellar amongst the ruins of a small works. These same cellars have at one time been occupied by Fritz, who managed to make himself fairly comfortable under the circumstances. While he was in he strengthened the place and fitted bunks up for sleeping accommodation, the benefit of which we are reaping. There is a gun pit built of reinforced concrete, which we have converted into a dining and sitting room, furnished with tables and chairs, which we have “scrounged” (i.e. collected) from the ruins of the village. You’d be surprised to see how comfortable–comparatively speaking–we have made things; but as we have to lie “prone” as much as possible during the hours of daylight, it pays to take a little trouble.
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