Our Lone Soldier
Private Peter Farley of the East Yorkshire Regiment was buried in Darwen Cemetery on December 4, 1916. Although referred to as the “lone soldier” by the Friends of Darwen Cemetery, he is not alone.
Click on the below link to open up the above sheet
Farley P
His grave, marked by a Commonwealth War Grave Commission headstone and contains five other bodies.
The first burial, Mary Roberts, occurred on December 29, 1900, and Peter was the last, the grave includes three infants.
The rest of this section of the cemetery contains many unmarked graves.
As you walk around the cemetery, you’ll notice many “empty spaces,” indicating more unmarked graves.
FODC JUNE 2025
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A story we ran back in 2015
Our Lone Soldier
Anyone who walks through the Cemetery will know of our lone Soldier in Section D, this is the lone Commonwealth War Grave in the old part of the Cemetery, we already know that the grave is not actually on its own as the
whole of Section D is filled with common graves with no Headstones, however whilst Tony Foster was gathering information on the War Graves from WW1 Tony has found out that our Lone Soldier is not on its own in its own grave.
Peter Farley, age 23 , buried 4th December
1916, died at War Hospital, Warren Road, Guildford. .
Also buried in the same grave are:-
Isabella Reed, aged 55, buried 20 Sep 1915 1 Finch St ,Darwen
James Appleton, aged 14 son of John Appleton, buried 16th September 1915, 3,Noble St, Darwen.
Francis Riley, aged 8 mths son of Arthur Riley , buried 7th September 1915, 34,Peel St, Darwen
Bridget Cleary, aged 60, widow, buried 1st September 1915, Extreme Street Darwen
Mary Roberts, aged 5 mths daughter of John Roberts, buried 29th December
1900, 44,Railway Road ,Darwen.
All are buried in Section D Grave No 697. None of them related.
FODC April 2015
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Darwen Remembers Booklet
Private Peter Farley is one of the World War One Soldiers who appear on our World War one Memorial War which we unveiled back in July 2018
If you want to find out more about our World War one click on the following link https://www.darwencemetery.org.uk/ww1-memorial-unveiling-2018/
And appears in our Darwen Remembers Booklet that we published in collaboration with the building of the World War one Memorial Wall
If you are interested in finding out more about Private Peter Farley or any of the other names that appear on the World War One Memorial War, the booklet is ideal, the booklet is £5.00 plus postage.
Click on the link below that takes you the booklet page on this website
FODC June 2025