THE impact the war had on each household in Knutsford is demonstrated by the large numbers of men absent from each street in the Absent Voter’s Lists of 1918.

There were 51 in King Street, 18 in Middle Walk, 12 in nearby Moordale Road, 82 in Mobberley Road and 68 in Manchester Road and its adjoining streets, Garden Road, Victoria Street, Queen Street, Albert Street and Green Street.

Some of these absent voters never did return.

In all, 180 Knutsfordians died in the First World War, killed in action or from war-related injuries or diseases such as typhus or flu.

Their deaths impacted on the families of the wealthy and those of modest means, on businesses and the social fabric of the town, church congregations, social clubs and sports clubs.

One such club was ‘The Cranford Lads’ Knutsford Football Club, which lost eight of its members, the heaviest casualty count suffered by one club in the First World War.

Three of these men were players in the famous Cranford team of 1910-1914 that won every major trophy in their amateur league.

They were L/Cpl Harry Cragg of the East Lancashire Regiment.

Harry was a plumber, one of four brothers who served in the war.

He enlisted at the outbreak of war and was killed in action on the Somme in July 1916 a year before his brother Donald, who was killed in action at Ypres in 1917.

Pte William Bracegirdle of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry worked as a mill hand in the paper mill on Mobberley Road.

He was the successful team’s goalkeeper and a keen member of the St Cross Cricket Club team.

He enlisted in 1916 and died in France of pneumonia in May 1917.

Sgt Albert Sumner of the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment was a shoemaker and saddler, whose parents were residents of Garden Road. He enlisted in 1915 and he was killed in action in August 1918.