233542 Capt. Robert Norman Yeld British Army 15th (1st Salford) Btn. Lancashire Fusiliers from:30 Rathen Rd, Manchester Norman Yeld was my grandfather. Born in 1892, and living in Withington, Manchester, he worked as a cotton salesman and calico printer. He enlisted in the TA in the Duke of Lancaster's Yeomanry in 1910. In Sept ember 1914 he was accepted for a temporary commission as 2nd Lt. in the 15th Btn. Lancashire Fusiliers, otherwise known as the 1st Salford Pals. His platoon went over the top on 1st July 1916 on the first day of the Battle of the Somme and he somehow survived, despite most of his platoon being wiped out. It was his duty over the following weeks to write to their next of kin and the guilt he felt at having survived, when his men didn't, lived with him for years, driving him to drink in the 1920s in order to sleep. Thankfully he came through this and survived to have two sons. He died in 1970 in Milford on Sea, Hampshire.
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