'My grandad died in bloodbath'

BERNARD Lees (left) and Alan Johnson, of Failsworth, are grandsons of L Cpl Lester

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AN OLDHAM man has told the heartbreaking story of how his war hero grandad was shot dead by a sniper on the first day of the Battle of Somme.

At the age of 28, James Lester, of Salem, Lees, was ordered to deliver a message from one trench to another on July 1, the first day of the offensive.

His grandson Bernard Lees says ­- according to Mr Lester's comrades ­- one soldier had tried to deliver the message and was gunned down.

However, a sergeant was adamant that someone else delivered it.

Mr Lees said: "The officer needed a message to be taken to a different section and the sergeant must have come over and told my grandfather to take that message.

"It had been tried by at least one other soldier and he hadn't made it. My grandfather told the sergeant, you know and I know that it can't happen. I understand my grandfather told the sergeant that he wasn't refusing but it simply couldn't be done. He sent him anyway. He dropped his pack and climbed over."

Mr Lester, a cotton spinning piecer in a cotton mill, had signed up for service on December 18, 1914.

In the battle of Somme he served with the famous Oldham Pals Regiment, alongside the other men from his community.

Mr Lees says his grandmother ­- Mr Lester's wife, Hannah ­- only found out what had happened when other men from Lees returned home.

Mr Lees said: "We only have the stories of the other men to go from. They told my grandmother they watched him running for the other trench then suddenly his arms went up, then his legs went. A sniper shot him."

Mr Lester left behind three children; sons William and Fred and daughter Margaret ­- they lived together in their family home at 14 Egyptian Street, Salem, Lees.

He and Hannah had their two sons before they married, meaning they both took their mother's maiden name ­- they had hoped to change this when Mr Lester returned from service but that day never came.

Mr Lees added: "It's sad. He was 28 with a young family. For young men in Oldham there wasn't much of a future; you were in the mill or the pit. So joining the army must've been an adventure. A lot of them didn't know what they were walking into."