Plaques unveiled to commemorate fallen Littleborough soldiers Corporal Jack Stanley and Private Fred Stead

The plaque paying tribute to Corporal Jack Stanley

Plaques commemorating Corporal Jack Stanley and Private Fred Stead have been added to Littleborough’s War Memorial.

The specially-designed plaques pay a lasting tribute to the Littleborough soldiers who were killed in action.

Corporal Stanley died in April 2012, two months after standing on an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan. He was 26-years-old and serving in the Queen’s Royal Hussars (The Queen’s Own and Royal Irish) Regiment. Jack’s mum Brenda and sister Rachel were present at the unveiling of his plaque.

Private Stead was shot at dawn on 12 February 1917 after going AWOL while suffering from shellshock, now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, at the Battle of the Somme.

In 2007 Parliament passed the Armed Forces Act allowing the 306 British soldiers shot at dawn during World War One to be formally pardoned.

The two plaques provide space for additional names to be added to the memorial. The first plaque is for names from The Great War and World War 2 and the second is for post-World War 2 fallen Soldiers.