Wigan Album

This is my Grandfather Thomas Houghton, a private in the Manchester Regiment. This is the earliest photograph I have of him, taken just before he went off to the trenches in Flanders. He was born in the Great Acre area of Scholes to an Irish Mother. His first job was working as a driver for Atherton Brothers whose confectionery business was at the top of Great Acre (there is a photograph elsewhere on this site). He met my Grandmother Mary Alice Foot at the Empress ballroom (Later The Wigan Casino) where she worked in the evenings for the Atherton Brothers as a cloakroom attendant. She was a weaver by day. We think he was involved mainly in military transport whilst in "France".