Jack's Story.
EARLY LIFE
Jack Broadhurst was born in Macclesfield on 5 September and baptised at St Michael's Church on 5 December 1897, the son of Anna (or Hannah) and John Preston Broadhurst, a shirt cutter of 11 Shaw St, Macclesfield.
By 1911, Jack's father was the manager of a shirt factory and the family had moved to 1 Hampshire St, Higher Broughton, Salford. Jack was working as a pawn broker's assistant and living with his parents and siblings Maurice (16), Doris (10), Ben (6) and Frances (3). The following year the family emigrated to Australia, arriving at Waimana, New South Wales, on 28 August 1912.
The family later lived at Hill Street, West Kogarah, Sydney, New South Wales.
WW1 SERVICE
Jack enlisted with the Australian forces on 6 September 1915. He stated that he was employed as a sign writer and his next of kin was his father, John Preston Broadhurst, of Hill Street, West Kogarah, Sydney, New South Wales.
Jack was admitted to hospital at Cairo on 1 January 1916 for ten days, suffering from diptheria. After recovery and training he disembarked at Marseilles, France on 29 June 1916. Six months later he was again admitted to hospital suffering from influenza and after recovery rejoined his unit on 12 January 1917. Jack was killed in action on 2 April 1917.
COMMEMORATION
Private Jack Broadhurst is buried in Grave Ref. I. B. 6 (Coll.) of Lebucquiere Communal Cemetery Extension, Pas de Calais, France. His father asked for the words "IN LOVING REMEMBRANCE FROM FATHER, MOTHER, SISTERS AND BROTHER" to be added to his headstone.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission holds casualty details for Private Jack Broadhurst.
Locally, Private Jack Broadhurst is not known to be commemorated on any memorials.
NOTES
Brother of Pte Maurice (Morris) Broadhurst, who served as Private 816 with the 18th Bn. Australian Infantry and died at Gallipoli on 22 August 1915, aged 20.
Another Macclesfield man, John Broadhurst, was discharged from the Army due to ill-health and died in Macclesfield in 1917. It is likely that he is the John Broadhurst named on the Macclesfield war memorials.
SOURCES
Cheshire Parish Baptism Registers (Find My Past): St Michael’s Church, Macclesfield
1911 Census
Commonwealth War Graves Commission website
New South Wales, Australia, Unassisted Immigrant Passenger Lists (Ancestry)
WWI Australian Imperial Force Service Records (Ancestry)
Research by Rosie Rowley, Macclesfield.