Robert Hargreaves

Age 39        Married with 1 Child

Private 45944
34^th Field Amb, Royal Army Medical Corps

Killed in action on
Saturday 7^th August 1915

Robert who was the fourth son of Mr & Mrs William Hargreaves of Sabden attended  both Sabden County School and St Nicholas Church and was a regular member of the Church Lads’ Brigade.  Upon leaving school he enlisted into the army and served as an ambulance man during the Boar War in South Africa.  When he left the army, Robert married and moved to Earby, where he lived until the outbreak of the war.  Shortly before he re-enlisted into the Royal Army Medical Corps, his wife gave birth to their only child. 

On the 29^th August 1915, Mrs Hargreaves received official notice that her husband had been killed on Saturday August 7^th in Gallipoli.  An eye witness account of Robert's death was received by his widow from a comrade of Robert, an extract of which read..... 

“During a battle on the 8^th August Robert was ‘out’ with other ambulance men acting as stretcher bearers bringing in the wounded, when a shell fell amongst them killing Pte Hargreaves and severely wounding several others.”

Robert's remains were never recovered and he is remembered on the Helles Memorial, Turkey. 

In Sabden he has been remembered on both the School and Church Plaques.