An exhibition featuring original sketchbook drawings by a military award-winning First World War Altrincham soldier has opened in Sale.

The Remembrance Exhibition at the Trafford Local Studies Centre, running until November 30, showcases items from the permanent heritage collections and front-line-drawn sketches by Noel Whittles, who was born in Altrincham on Christmas Day in 1890.

The exhibition has opened in Sale (Image: Supplied)

Commissioned to the Lancashire Fusiliers' 19th Battalion as a Second Lieutenant, he served in France from 1915 to 1917 and then in Belgium from 1917 to 1918.

Noel was a talented draftsmen and artist, who kept sketchbooks from his time at war.

Noel’s regiment arrived in the Somme region in late November 1915.

Billeted in Albert, they were posted to trenches in the area throughout the Battle of the Somme in summer, 1916.

In Winter 1915/1916, the Lancashire Fusiliers served in trenches at La Boiselle.

Writing and drawing in 1930s, Noel reflected on this period. He described the trenches as "vile" – deep mud and rat infested.

Noel was familiar with the difference in quality of Allied and German barbed wire trench defences.

The Lancashire Fusiliers 19th Battalion had been converted into a "pioneer" company.

Skilled support soldiers, trained in trench and road repairs, laying duck boards and tracks for light railways.

Solider Noel Whittles was born in Altrincham (Image: Supplied)

In the summer of 1917, the 19th Battalion moved to the Nieuwpoort sector on the Belgian coast. This was the most stressful period of Noel’s service.

Constant shelling and waves of gas caused many deaths and casualties.

Essential trench repairs were often carried out at night due to the darkness providing some cover for the working parties.

In autumn 1917, Noel was promoted to the rank of captain and his regiment moved South to the Ypres Salient.

Writing in the 1930s, he described the action as "Haig’s desperate bid for Passchendaele".

A huge number of British, Anzac and Canadian Regiments were in the sector to pressurise enemy lines.

After months of heavy rain, the ground was a quagmire.

Thousands of soldiers had been killed. In conjunction with Canadian soldiers, the Lancashire Fusiliers formed working parties to repair roads.

Frequently working between Ypres and Zonnebeke, just behind the front line.

The work was hard, physical toil, also laying plank tracks for guns – sometimes over shell holes and deep mud where dead soldiers lay.

By late October 1917, Noel was a captain, in charge of a company of soldiers.

Three companies were repairing the road between St Jean and Frezenburg.

Towards the end of the day, without warning, heavy shells landed among the working parties.

Noel supervised evacuation to nearby woods. As soon as he considered it safe, he and a stretcher party arranged the evacuation of dead and wounded British and Canadians. For his actions, he was awarded the Military Cross.

The citation for the award reads: “For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when in charge of a working party.

"When a shell pitched on the road among his men, causing several casualties, he withdrew his men to a place of safety, and then went back with stretchers to remove the wounded.

"When the shelling abated brought up the men again and finished the work.”

Passchendaele was eventually taken by Canadian troops on November 6, 1917, after months of fighting and the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.

In April 1918, the regiment moved a short distance south west to take part in combat near Kemmel Hill.

This period is now recorded as the 4th Battle of Ypres.

The Lancashire Fusiliers’ war diary gives many accounts of the hilly area coming under heavy enemy fire, causing deaths and injuries.

On April 16, 1918, Noel was shot in the left arm. Bleeding profusely, he was treated at a field hospital, then transferred to the military hospital at Camiers, France.

Noel was taken to London via ferry and ambulance train. En route, he was shocked to see so many badly wounded soldiers.

In summer 1918, after surgery and recuperation, a medical board decided that Noel was no longer fit for overseas service.

After home leave, he was posted to train young soldiers in the Royal Warwickshire reserves.

After the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, Noel remained as an army officer until November 1919.

He served with Allied troops in the British Army of the Rhine in Germany.

Noel was self-taught and drew pictures for recreation, not publication. Many images were made during the First World War.

In the 1930s, he worked as a civil servant, wrote war reminiscences and made drawings of locations near the family home in South Manchester.

During the Second World War, Noel served in the South Manchester Home Guard.

Noel and Lillian were married in 1921 and had two children, Graham and Margaret.

In the Second World War, Graham served with No. 3 Commando – landing in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

The following month, on July 14 1944, Graham was killed, on patrol in Amfreville. He is buried in CWGC Ranville, near Caen.

Noel died in December 1944.

A collection of sketches are available to view (Image: Supplied)

The exhibition also includes 1919 film footage, loaned from the North West Film Archive, of Chapel Street, Altrincham, which was labelled "The Bravest Little Street in England" by King George V.

The title was given due to the high number of soldiers from that street who fought in the war.

The drawings in the exhibition were lent by community member David Burrows, Noel's grandson.

The exhibition follows an event held on Saturday, November 9, where local historians George Cogswell and Tony Sant displayed their personal collections at Sale Waterside.