I AM sure many of you are aware of the plans to mark the centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign, over April 24 and 25.

The battle was one of the major engagements of the First World War, involving more than 400,000 British, more than 40,000 French and around 140,000 Commonwealth and Irish servicemen.

At the beginning of the month I bumped into a friendly face, Paul, in Hardshaw Street and invited him to contribute a local tale and photos about his grandfather Joe Crooks, who took part in the campaign.

Paul and his brother intend wearing the medals in London for the parade on April 25.

At dawn that day it will be 100 years since the start of the WW1 Gallipoli Campaign, Churchill’s plan to strike at Germany’s ally, Turkey, through the Dardanelles.

He writes: "In St Helens Cemetery there is a dilapidated grave stone diagonally opposite the memorial placed there last year by the Friends of St Helens Cemetery to commemorate the Great War.

"The barely readable inscription at the top reads: HERBERT BELOVED SON OF JOSEPH & GERTRUDE CROOKS DIED 1933 AGED 8 YEARS.

"Below that inscription are Joseph's name, died in 1959 aged 65 and Gertrude’s, died in 1988 aged 91.

"Like many young men from St Helens in 1914 and the rest of the British Empire, Joe Crooks, my grandfather, was amongst the first civilians to answer Kitcheners’ call “Your Country Needs YOU”! Enlisting into the British Army at Warrington in September or October he joined the local Infantry Regiment, the 6th Battalion of the South Lancashire Regiment.

"The South Lancs arrived in Gallipoli on the 1st of July 1915 and endured the heat, stench, flies and the cold until December 1915, before withdrawing for further action in Mesopotamia, present day Iraq.

"He was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal, affectingly known as “Pip, Squeak & Wilfred”. After shrapnel wounds at Gallipoli he was also given the Silver War Badge and discharged as “No Longer Physically Fit for War Service” on the September 6, 1917.

"Apart from young Herbert, Joseph Snr. had three other sons Joe, Eric and Norman. Joe and Eric both were called up during the Second World War, Norman was too young.

Joe, Eric and Norman survived the war, married and had children of their own. Most of the grandchildren never met Joseph Crooks and they grew up knowing little of his service at Gallipoli.

From their parents, however, they knew after the war he lived with a piece of shrapnel near his heart which could have killed him at any time.

On his return to St Helens, not surprisingly after surviving Gallipoli and his condition, he was a bit of a drinker and gambler.

"Possibly, having served alongside Australian and New Zealand troops, he might have picked up a few bad habits: smoking, drinking and gambling for instance?

On getting his wages from Pilkingtons, he often drank and gambled the money away. Playing Two-Up he would bet on the outcome of two old pennies thrown into the air on if they fell down heads and tails or two-up.

On returning home drunk he would say to his long suffering wife: 'Gertie I’ve done it again' to explain his penniless condition. It was a phrase all the grandkids grew up hearing from their parents.

"In 2014 to commemorate the survival of my grandfather, the Gallipoli veteran, I planted poppy seeds in a pot of compost and carefully watched over them as they grew. Just as the first of the seeds began to flower I placed the pot on his grave and two days later came back to water them.

"Sadly the cemetery workers had tidied up his and other graves with a strimmer, cutting down the flowers in the prime of their brief lives; much like the Maxim Machine Gun did in France and at Gallipoli to the soldiers of the British Empire.

"As a former soldier myself with a black sense of humour, I hope my granddad would have found that quite funny?

"This year to commemorate ANZAC Day I have planted more poppies and placed a wooden Royal British Legion cross and Poppy in the plant pot, hopefully this year they will last a little longer? At the going down of the sun we will remember them."

CONTACT

• Email chrispcoffey@gmail.com or ring 01744 817130 or write to 37 Holbrook Close, St. Helens, WA9 3XH.