Fallen soldier and former Bolton captain Harry Goslin to be honoured in the presence of his family in Italy
The family of former Wanderers captain Harry Goslin have travelled to Italy alongside 28 members of the 103 Regiment Royal Artillery this week as part of a field study trip retracing the steps of the 53rd Bolton Royal Artillery and their battle actions of 1943.
Goslin, who spoke to the Burnden Park crowd before a 1939 home game prior to the start of World War II, encouraged those present to join him in volunteering for the military.
Alongside this, the whole Bolton team followed him in signing up and fought in action in France, North Africa and Italy as Goslin rose to become a full Lieutenant.
And as part of the 103 Regiment’s plans to revisit the Moro and Sangro river battle sites as well as Monte Cassino – the location of one of the most difficult and deadly battles of the Italian campaign – Bill and Matthew Goslin, Harry’s son and grandson, will join them this week.
Bill himself, who was five when his father departed to fight in the war and only eight when he learned that he had been killed in action, is now 80 and has never before been able to visit his final resting place.
Harry was the only one of the Bolton team not to return from war having been killed by a German shell in 1943 and he is buried in the Sangro River War Cemetery close to where he fell.
Captain Craig Roxby is leading the expedition and Phil Mason, Club Chaplain at Bolton Wanderers, will officiate a ‘Sunset Ceremony’ at the army's graveside.