Jack Crabtree

John (Jack) Crabtree was the son of Arthur and Martha Crabtree. In 1939 he was living at Slack House Farm with his uncle and aunt, Stephen and Mary Pickles, and in 1940 he married Olive Hamer. He enlisted in 1940 as a Trooper with the 41st (Oldham) Royal Tank Regiment, and died on 28th October 1942, aged 27, presumably during the Second Battle of El Alamein. He is buried at El Alamein War Cemetery, and is commemorated at Wainsgate graveyard where his sister Minnie Crabtree (who died in 1935 aged 23) is buried. His widow married John Birkett, and died in 1989 aged 81 – she is also buried at Wainsgate.