1900s-1945
Among the names recorded on the Leigh War Memorial is that of Arthur Harry Murray Schofield, an airman whose life was cut short in the Second World War at the age of just twenty.
Arthur was born in 1923 and served during the war as a Sergeant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, holding the service number 1393520. He flew with 272 Squadron. On 22 May 1943, aged twenty, he lost his life. At the time of his death he was listed on the Roll of Honour as missing, believed killed in action, and a notice appeared in the Times Archive on Friday 16 July 1943. Today his name is commemorated on the Malta Memorial, which honours airmen who lost their lives in the Mediterranean region and whose graves are unknown.
The Schofield family home in Leigh was the Gate House, a property known today as Porcupine House. The 1945 Electoral Register places the family there, and the records of that year give a picture of the household in the aftermath of Arthur's death.
Dorothy E. V. Schofield, who was born in 1888 with the maiden name Isham, was aged 57 in 1945 and lived at the Gate House; she appears as entry number 575 in the Leigh Civilian Residence Register. Her daughter Diana M. E. Schofield, born in 1920 and aged 25 that year, also lived at the Gate House and is recorded at entry number 574 of the same register. A third young member of the household, Christopher Corty Isham Schofield, born in 1921 and aged 24 in 1945, was serving in the armed forces; he appears as a Member of Forces at entry number 114 of the Leigh Service Register, with the Gate House given as his residence.
Arthur H. M. Schofield, born in 1923, is remembered on the Leigh War Memorial. This profile was published by the village's local history society, with the page last updated on 1 July 2009.