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Private Clifford Page was born in Stathern in 1881, son of John Page the railway stationmaster. He left Stathern Board School at the age of 12. We know that at the age of 20 he was a steel smelter at Sheffield, and he enlisted in the army there. When he completed his service, he became a member of the Leicestershire Police Force and in the 1911 census at the age of 28 he was recorded as living with his parents at Stathern, and one of 8 children. He married Edith Taberner of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in early 1913.

 

As he was a reservist, when war was declared he was called to his regiment, the Worcestershires, and sent to France as a Private. He was wounded when trying to save one of his fellow soldiers and later after being in hospital for some time he returned to the front at Richebourg and was shot dead on the night of 15th May when again going to assist a wounded comrade, on ground which had to be abandoned. He was aged 34. We know that he was given a burial, but his grave is lost, and he is remembered on the Le Touret Memorial, Pas de Calais, Panels 17 and 18 which is reserved for 356 members of the Worcestershire regiment who have no recorded graves. His parents received letters from fellow soldiers recording his heroic act, but it seems he got no official recognition for his brave deeds, and efforts to trace his grave in the 1920s by his brother, then a colour sergeant in the Grenadier Guards, were to no avail.

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Roger Hawkins 2015