Gatley military historian John Hartley’s book about the 17th Manchesters batallion and the men who served in it during the Great War is now for sale on Amazon – you can see and buy it here.

John’s grandfather served with the battalion – the second of the Manchester Pals units. It was formed at the beginning of September 1914, initially from the clerks and warehousemen of the city’s major employers. After training at Heaton Park and Salisbury Plain, it went on active service in November 1915.

The men saw action at the Somme in 1916, Arras and Ypres in 1917 and it was all but destroyed in the German offensive in the spring of 1918.

John has undertaken extensive research into the original Pals who went overseas in 1915 and the book contains mini-biographies on just under 1000 of them. One of these men was Allan Bell who later came to live at Beech Avenue, Gatley – after the war he wrote about his recruitment and training and, also, his experiences on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

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