Private Willie Mason

Burnley Express June 1 1918

Captured on April 10th

Briercliffe Soldier Wounded and a Prisoner

News has been received at 27 Harrison Street, Briercliffe, by Mr. and Mrs. Mason, that their son, Pte. Willie Mason, has been wounded in the left thigh, and is a prisoner of war in Germany. Writing from Limburg Camp, Pte Mason states that he was captured on the 10th of April, only a few days after he went out to France, and he is being treated well by the Germans. Formerly a weaver at Messrs. Thornton & Co's. Mill, Pte Mason joined up about October 1916, he then being 18 years of age. After training with the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, at Blackdown, he was drafted to France early in 1917, returning in september of the same year with trench fever. On recovering he was training as a signaller when the great German offensive began about Easter, and so he was drafted off to France with the South Staffords. Pte Mason was associated with Haggate Baptist Chapel and sunday School.