217804 Pte. Alfred Longshaw British Army 18th Btn. Manchester Regiment (d.1st Dec 1916) Pte. Alfred Longshaw served with the Manchester Regiment 18th Battalion. He was executed for desertion on 1st December 1916 and is buried in the Bailleulmont Communual cemetery in Pas-de-Calais, France.
Before the war Private Longshaw and his pal Private Ingham had worked together for the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railways. The pair were clerks in Salford Goods Yard. Enlistment found the pals still together but serving as privates in No.11 platoon, ‘C’ Company 18th.
As part of 90th Brigade the 30th Division landed at Boulogne on 6th November 1915 and by 12th November 1915 the Division was concentrated to the north of the Somme at Ailly le Haut Clocher NNW of Amiens.
The two men had served together through the Somme campaign when the 30th Division had attacked at Montauban on 1st July 1916 the Division suffering over 3000 casualties. On 7th July they attacked at Trones Wood and the Battalion was involved in the fighting around Mansell Copse and the attack on Guillemont on 30th July 1916 and then on relief to Citadel Camp.
The two men were then transferred to the Brigade machine-gun company together. and left the area of the Somme until returning to the Somme area on 4th October 1916. The two men disappeared from their unit at Buire-sur-l’Ancre (NNE of Corbie in the 1916 Rear Area) on the night of 5th-6th October 1916 when they were under orders to go to the front line at short notice. On 1st November 1916 at 930 am both men were found on a Swedish vessel at Dieppe by Sergeant Emment and both told him that they were American citizens but by the afternoon Pte. Longshaw admitted his true name and that he had deserted from the machine-gun company and Private Ingham then admitted he belonged to the Manchester Pals.
They were tried on 20th November 1916 and found guilty and sentenced to death. It is reported that just before they were shot at Bailleulval (a village about a mile E of Bailleulmont) Longshaw turned to Ingham and said “Well, good-bye Albert.†During the War it was reported that the men had died of wounds.
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