A new commemorative beer will be launched in honour of Hyndburn MP Graham Jones’ great-grandfather.
The Accrington Pals committee approached Mr Jones about featuring Edwin Taylor on the bottle of their latest beer produced by Irwell Works Brewery.
Mr Taylor joined the Royal Ambulance Medical Corps (RAMC) in 1914 and was on the Royal Edward ship which was torpedoed by the Germans while transporting Commonwealth troops to Gallipoli.
The ship sank in just four minutes and Mr Taylor was one of only 400 survivors from the 1,200 man boat.
Mr Taylor later served in Alexandria and the Western Front before returning home to Accrington.
Mr Jones said his family were ‘very honoured’ when asked to feature Mr Taylor on the new beer bottles which will go on sale at the Accrington Food Festival on June 6.
He said: “I knew that my great-grandfather has served the whole duration of the First World War in the Royal Ambulance Medical Corps.
“I was approached the by the Accrington Pals committee as both Walter and Cath Holmes knew my family and my great-grandfathers story and they asked to put it on one of the beers.
“I am very grateful to Walter Holmes who was a work colleague and friend of my grandfather. He dug out some of the remnants of his war record and helped piece it together.
“I’m looking forward to the beer, I’m just awaiting the bottles.”
Mr Jones said Mr Taylor lived on Grange Street which is now pulled down and worked as a delivery driver for Accrington Railway Station.
He said: “My grandmother used to tell me some of the stories he would never tell me about how horrendous it was on the Western Front.
“One of the things she used to say was that he used to walk across No Man’s Land with a stretcher trying to avoid gun fire and the horrors of having to look after and care for fallen comrades.
“They were painful memories for him for the rest of his life.
“I think the Pals committee have recognised that Accrington people did not just serve in the Pals but in other battalions too.”
Another Accrington Pals beer named ‘Lest We Forget’ will also go on sale at the Strangers Bar at Westminster between June 30 and July 5.
