Two large oil paintings of Officers who served in the Chorley Terriers (Territorial Force) and the Chorley Pals in the First World War are out on public display in the new Chorley Remembers Experience exhibition.
They were painted by Van Ralty of Liverpool and donated to the people of Chorley by a local schoolteacher, Miss Susannah Knight, at a ceremony in December 1920.
The larger group of five was taken from a newspaper photograph in 1914 and shows the original Officers of the Chorley Terriers – D Company, 1st / 4th Battalion (TF) of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. The Company were virtually wiped out at the Battle of Festubert in northern France on the 15th June 1915; none of the five Officers survived the War.
The other, smaller, painting is of the three original Officers of the Chorley Pals – Y Company, 11th (Service) Battalion of the East Lancashire Regiment. Interestingly, none of the three Officers actually went over the top leading the Pals at Serre at the start of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Captain Milton, the founder of the Chorley Pals, was transferred back to the UK in May 1916 and saw service in Ireland between 1917 and 1921.
Another interesting point of the Pals painting is the fact that Major Milton has a medal ribbon for a Military Cross; he was not awarded the medal and the original photograph (taken in 1914) shows his Territorial Service medal (probably from 1908 to 1913). The two other Officers - Lt. Gidlow-Jackson survived the War, whilst 2nd Lt. Rigby was killed on the Somme on the 7th July 1916 serving with the Machine Gun Corps.
