Description:The funeral of John Thomas Foster aged 11, and his two sisters, Gertrude Fanny, aged 17, and Emily Mary aged 15, of Brund Farm, Cheddleton took place at the Church of St Edward the Confessor, Cheddleton on Sunday, 2nd of June, 1918.
The children had tragically died by drowning in Deep Hay Pool, Wall Grange on Thursday, 29 May. They had been following an aeroplane flying overhead and eventually turned back for home by a direct route passing the pool. John had spotted a fish on the bank of the steep-sided pool. He tried to get it with a stick and fell in and his sisters drowned in attempting to save him. John Thomas was a probationer choirboy at the church and his coffin was taken into the church by fellow choristers. The sisters worked at Brittain’s paper mill.