263560 Pte. Wilfred Patrick British Army 35th Btn. Machine Gun Corps from:Lubenham (d.15th Apr 1918) Wilfred Patrick, was born in Lubenham, Leicestershire, in 1897 and baptised at All Saints Church, Lubenham on 2nd July 1897.
He was the 2nd youngest child of Thomas and Sarah Patrick.
The Patrick family can be traced back to the late 1600s in Lubenham. His father, Thomas was a farm hand labourer who died in 1905 when Wilfred was only 8. Thomas had married Sarah Ann Sayer from Coventry in All Saints Church Lubenham in 1888 and they had 7 children.
In the 1911 Census the family were living in Back Lane (now known as Rushes Lane), with Sarah as the head of the household and working as a weaver in the local factory.
Before the War, Wilfred was employed as a farm hand labourer.
Wilfred enlisted in Market Harborough in the Leicestershire Regiment. At some point he was transferred to 35th Battalion Machine Gun Corps.
The Machine Gun Corps was formed in October 1915, when it was realised that machine guns needed to be in larger units and crewed by specially trained men. The Germans had already shown how effective machine guns were when properly sited and used.
Wilfred Patrick died on 15th Apr 1918 aged 21.
He is buried at Warloy-Baillon Communal Cemetery Extension in the Somme Department, France. The extension to the cemetery contains 1331 Commonwealth burials from WW1, 2 from WW2 and 18 German graves).
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