My great grandfather, Danny Anderton was the youngest of at least 13 children, including one set of twins, born to Robert and Ellen Anderton. Robert worked as a "Carter-Trader" and the family lived at 192, Belle Green Lane, Ince, near Wigan. As he seems to have been their youngest son, this would explain why his children still living don't remember their grandparents and weren't even able to tell me their names, as they had probably died before Danny had children, possibly even before he married.

Daniel Anderton

As his father was a carter by trade, Daniel would have been around horses from the moment he was born. Horses were his passion and his work.

At the age of 16, he went to work at the stables of Wrightington Hall, just outside Wigan. He married Winifred Turner, a catholic girl from the village of Wrightington at St. Joseph's Church on 4th June 1908. After the marriage they lodged at 24, Wigan Lane, Standish and later the family lived at "Grove Villas", a mock Tudor House belonging to the Wrightington Estate, just opposite the Hall. It was because of his great experience with horses that during the First World War he was in the Army Veterinary Corps.

Grove Villas, Wrightington

The Army Veterinary Department was created in 1881 and in 1906, officers, NCOs and men amalgamated into the Army Veterinary Corps. At the end of the First World War, King George V conferred the title 'Royal' on the Corps in recognition of the enormous contribution it had made.

Although we usually view the First World War as the first mechanised, modern war, in fact it was the war which used the greatest number of horses in history. In 1914, the British Army had just 80 motor vehicles, but 25,000 horses.

Winifred Anderton (ne้ Turner)

By 1917 the number had risen incredibly to over 530,000 horses and 230,000 mules. Becasue such large numbers of horses were killed and wounded (about half a million horses are calcularted to have died in the First World War), it was necessary to buy around 15,000 horses a month to keep up the numbers needed by the army.

After the war Daniel Anderton continued to work at the Wrightington Estate, on hunting days, his job always consisted of driving Mrs. Gerard-Dicconson, the lady of the Manor, in a "dog cart".

In later life, he returned to Wigan. Two of his brothers were tradesmen in Wigan. James Anderton had Anderton's Butchers in Wigan town centre and George Anderton was a coal merchant there. We believe that two of his other siblings were teachers in Southport.