GRID REF: NY39689 56370 Postcode CA3 8UR
COLLECTION OF RECOVERED MEMORIALS
The Cumbria Museum of Military Life is located in ALMA Block within Carlisle Castle. It is rightfully the home of a collection of Memorials donated or gathered as Churches and other premises have closed.
Regrettably the history or origin of some of those Memorials has been lost as the purpose of the buildings or locations in which they have originally been installed has changed in the years since the Great War. Those who may have some knowledge of a specific memorial are invited to contact the RBL or the Museum of Military Life.
CARLISLE CITY POLICE
GREAT WAR Roll of Honour.
This Roll of Honour commemorates the service of members of the Carlisle City Police in the Great War. For a small city force – they were not part of the County Constabulary until 1967 - this is quite impressive.
This was originally located in the long gone Police Headquarters building on West Walls, Carlisle. The Roll of Honour is now in the care of the Museum of Military Life.
While most of those honoured here for their service were returned to their families four would never again walk the City they had served in the Office of Constable. Three lie in faraway graves. A fourth returned gravely injured. He did not recover and is interred in a local cemetery.
Pte Alfred Pearson, 36 years old when he died from wounds on 2nd March 1916, was the son of Robert and Sarah Pearson, of Lorton, near Cockermouth, and the husband of Mary Jane, of 50 Howe Street, Carlisle. He is interred in Carlisle City Cemetery, Dalston Road, in grave 11.M.2.
Pte (Cpl?) George Ritchie was serving with 7th Bn Border Regiment (Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry) when he died on 30th August 1918. He is interred in Bancourt British Cemetery, Pas de Calais, in grave V.J.17.
L/Cpl (Acting Sgt?) John Smith, son of John and Mary Smith, of 9 Peel Street, Newtown Road, Carlisle, was 23 when he died on 29th April 1917. He was serving with 22nd Bn Royal Fusiliers. He has no known grave and is commemorated on Bay 3 of the Arras Memorial to the Missing.
L/Cpl James B Dalzell died on 16th June 1918, of wounds received in battle. He was 26 years old and serving with 1st Bn Border Regiment. James was the son of Richard and Mary Dalzell and was living at Kirkbride when he enlisted with the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry. His grave is II.E.15. in Bagneux British Cemetery, Gezaincourt.
WAR MEMORIAL FROM COCKERMOUTH TocH
This marble plaque commemorates the sacrifice in the Great War of a number of men local to Cockermouth. It was located in a Cockermouth building which had been a meeting place until the 1930s of the Toc H club. Toc H was an international charitable movement originating from the soldier’s club of WW1 founded by Tubby Clayton. The building was damaged in the flooding of Cockermouth and the memorial was subsequently transferred to the Museum.
The men remembered here are:-
Cpl Robert (Rowland?) Dalton, who served with 7th Bn Border Regiment until brought home badly wounded. He died on 15th Nov 1916 at the age of 30 and is interred in the churchyard of Christchurch Parish Church, Great Broughton. He was the husband of Esther Dalton, of Maryhill, Glasgow. Robert was born I Workington.
Pte Rowland Perkes Cooper who was 38 when he died on 23rd May 1918 while with 115th Coy Labour Corps. He had been recovering from wounds received while serving with The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey) Regiment. Rowland was the son of William and Hannah Cooper, of Cockermouth, and the husband of Elizabeth, of Muswell Hill, London. He is interred in Cabaret-Rouge British Cemetery, Souchez, near Arras.
Cpl William Arthur Long, of 60th Australian Infantry Regiment, AIF, badly wounded and brought back to the UK, died on 19th October 1918 at the age of 24. He is interred in Cockermouth Cemetery, grave E.NC.791. William, born at Keswick, was the son of William and Mary Long, of 19 Main Street, Cockermouth.
L/Cpl William Percy Chicken died in battle on 10th Jan 1916 at the age of 18 while serving with 5th Bn Border Regiment. William was born in Wigton, the son of Mr and Mrs H and E Chicken, later of 10 Market Place, Cockermouth. He is interred in grave I.J.18., Perth Cemetery (China Wall), east of Ieper (Ypres).
L/Cpl Robert Smith, of 8th Bn Border Regiment, was 23 years old when he was killed in action on 20th Dec 1915. He lived with his parents John and Mrs Smith, in 8 New Street, Cockermouth; the town of his birth. His grave is in Lancashire Cottage Cemetery, Hainaut, south of Ieper (Ypres), ref II.C.10.
Pte Walter Atkinson, reported Killed in Action on 10th July 1916, is interred in Perth Cemetery (China Wall) east of Ieper, grave I.H.33. Born in Cockermouth, he was serving with 5th Border Regiment.
Driver Charles Kerse, of the Canadian Army Service Corps was lost on 9th May 1915 in the Ypres Salient. He was 31 years old. His body was not recovered and he is commemorated with the Missing, on Panel 32 of the Menin Gate. Charles was the son of Mr and Mrs Gavin Kerse, of Huntspool, Earlston, in Berwickshire.
WAR MEMORIAL ORIGINALLY WITHIN THE LODGEROOM OF THE LOYAL EXELSIOR LODGE OF ODDFELLOWS IN MARYPORT
This unusual War Memorial and Roll of Honour is a painted canvas mounted within a wooden frame. It was displayed in the Lodgeroom of the Loyal Excelsior Lodge of Oddfellows of Maryport, until the building was converted for other use. The canvas was for a time in the Maryport Senhouse Museum nearby. It was eventually offered to the Museum of Military Life.
Of the many names listed thirty-eight were never to return to the Maryport area again. They lie in distant graves. They are identified on the canvas by a small white cross.
The Oddfellows was a charitable society and a brotherhood of skilled working men. The unusual designation, ‘Oddfellows’, has its roots in the fact that its earliest members were of various skills as unlike some other traditional fraternal organisations they did not identify with one skill. They were of many, or ‘odd’, skills.
It is possible that not all of those named were members of the Oddfellows. They were however the young men of the Maryport area who answered their country’s call to arms.
They went to war as brothers. And died as brothers.
THE TRIBUTE WITHIN THE MAIN TELEPHONE EXCHANGE TO THOSE EMPLOYEES OF THE CARLISLE POST OFFICE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT WHO SERVED IN THE GREAT WAR
This Roll of Honour, originally within the Carlisle Main Telephone Exchange, and therefore inaccessible to the general public, is now part of a collection of War Memorials given a special place in Cumbria's Museum of Military Life. It tells us of the 30 men of the Carlisle section of the Post Office Engineering Department who went off to war.
Five would not return to their families.
The five who made the Supreme Sacrifice are:-
Sapper J Burnett, of the Royal Engineers 22nd Airline Section, died on 4th June 1916 at the age of 32. The son of Mr and Mrs Burnett, of 1 Bishop’s Court, Princess Street, Carlisle he is interred in Amara War Cemetery grave XXI.D.13, in Iraq. An “Airline Section” was part of the telephonic communications systems of the Army in the field. During the Great War, this was one of the many roles of the Corps of Royal Engineers.
Sgt George Stirling Bain Died on 13th April 1918. He was 25 years old, born in Edinburgh, the son of Thomas and Euphemia Bain. George was the husband of Constance, of 2 Bedford Place, Kempston, Beds. He was serving with the Royal Engineers and attached to 51st Division Signal Coy. His grave is B28, Lillers Communal Cemetery Extension, near Bethune.
Able Seaman John William Marsden, serving with Howe Bn of the Royal Naval Division, died on 13th November 1916 in the final straggling battles of the Somme offensive. He had been a Royal Navy Volunteer Reservist but found himself serving as an infantryman in the bloody mayhem of that grim struggle. He has no known grave and is commemorated on Panel 1A of the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.
Sgt George Henry Basil Shaddick, was reported Killed in Action on 19th June 1915. He was born at St Stephen’s, London and had enlisted in 2nd Bn Border Regiment early in the war. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Le Touret Memorial, Le Touret Military Cemetery, near Bethune.
Pte Maurice J. Towers, born in Keswick, was serving with 11th Bn Border Regiment when he was reported Killed in Action on 18th Nov 1916. He was one of thousands who fell victim to the long-drawn out sequel to the Somme offensive which began so disastrously on 1st July 1916. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, on panel/face 6A/7C.
WAR MEMORIAL FROM THE CHURCH OF CHRIST IN KING STREET, WORKINGTON
The Church of Christ was a small independent faith group which met and worshipped within the general umbrella of the non-conformist denominations. It later became a part of the United Reformed Church of England. When their Meeting-house became redundant the Memorial to their Fallen of the Great War was eventually entrusted to the care of the Museum of Military Life.
This marble plaque bears the names of four young men of that small congregation, two of whom were brothers, who left home and hearth at the call of duty, never to return.
They were:-
Pte Robert Williams of the Canadian Army Medical Corps had departed his native Cumberland to begin a new life in Canada, leaving his parents James and Elizabeth Williams and the family home in William Street, Workington. But as war intervened he stepped forward to serve his new country. He was 31 years old and married to Mary, from Miflin St Homestead, Pennsylvania. The hospital ship to which he was posted left Halifax, Nova Scotia, bound for Liverpool, its task to bring wounded Canadian servicemen back home. On 27th June 1918, the Hospital Ship Llandovery Castle, though clearly identifiable as such, was torpedoed by U86. This was in contravention of international law. The crime was aggravated by the subsequent attempt to destroy the survivors.
This is an extract from a report of the sinking:-
HMHS Llandovery Castle was one of five Canadian hospital ships that served in the First World War. On a voyage from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Liverpool, England, the ship was torpedoed off southern Ireland on 27 June 1918. Twenty-four people survived the sinking, while 234 doctors, nurses and patients were killed in the attack. In terms of the number of dead, the sinking was the most significant Canadian naval disaster of the war. The incident became renowned internationally as one of the war’s worst atrocities.
Sgt A. Knight, commanding a lifeboat which held all fourteen of the nursing sisters attached to the ship, realised the lifeboat would be swamped as the ship sank. He survived to say later at the investigation; -
"Unflinchingly and calmly, as steady and collected as if on parade, without a complaint or a single sign of emotion, our fourteen devoted nursing sisters faced the terrible ordeal of certain death--only a matter of minutes--as our lifeboat neared that mad whirlpool of waters where all human power was helpless."
All the nurses were lost.
Pte Robert Williams is commemorated on the Halifax Memorial to the Canadian Missing at Sea. Three months later Robert's younger brother Wm Lace Williams was killed in France.
Pte William Lace Williams died on 28th September 1918 while serving with 10th Bn East Yorkshire Regiment. He was born at Parton, Workington, was 24 years old, and had lived with his parents at 27 William Street Workington until enlistment. He is interred in Strand Military Cemetery, Hainaut, south of Ieper (Ypres). His brother had died three months earlier.
Pte John Henry Davies son of Mr and Mrs John Davies, of Parton, Workington, and husband of Isabella, died on 24th March 1919 at the age of 34. He had served with 1/4th Bn Royal Scots Fusiliers. He is interred in Cologne Southern Cemetery, grave III.D.23.
L/Cpl John Henry Conners died of wounds on 4th November 1918 at the age of 19 while serving with 7th Bn (Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry) Border Regiment. He is interred in Forest Communal Cemetery near Le Cateau. His parents were Mr T H and Mrs M Conners, of 15 Barnes Road, Workington.
Roll of Honour of the 1/4th Bn Border Regiment
Roll of Honour of 2/4th Bn Border Regiment
These two bronze plaques are currently in the care of the County Headquarters of the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment in Carlisle Castle. They commemorate the Fallen of the 1/4th Battalion and the 2/4th Battalion of the Border Regiment of the Great War. These were Territorial Army battalions whose Drill Hall was then in Strand Road, Carlisle, near the present Trinity School.
When the Drill Hall was converted to other purposes the Memorials were relocated to the County Headquarters building within the Castle, and near the Museum Of Military Life.
They may be viewed by arrangement with the Museum.
The War Memorial Of Etterby Mission Hall
THE WAR MEMORIAL OF THE ETTERBY MISSION HALL OF THE WARWICK ROAD PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH in ENGLAND, CARLISLE
The Etterby Mission Hall, which was the first of six mission halls opened by the church, jutted out on to Etterby Road at the point where the road narrows between the end of Scaurbank Road and Caledonian Buildings. The mission hall opened in May 1881 on land rented, at a nominal rent, from the Caledonian Railway Company. In 1914 the site was purchased from the Caledonian Railway Company. It closed in 1947 and the property was sold, in the following year, to CarlisleCity council, who operated it as a community centre for some time. It was demolished sometime in the late 1960s.
The war memorial, which was discovered recently in a basement room of the mother church, is now in the possession of Cumbria’s Museum of Military Life. It is a brass wall plaque on an oak base.
Details of those commemorated on the war memorial are as follows:
Thomas Armstrong – he has not been identified to date.
Private Alexander Black of the 7th Battalion, Border Regiment, service number 260492, died of wounds received on 25 November 1917, at the age of 19, he is buried in Mendinghem Military Cemetery, Belgium. Alexander, who was born in Lochmaben, was formerly of the Cumberland and Westmorland Yeomanry. He was the eldest son of Alexander, a railway worker, and Maggie Black of 25 Caledonian Buildings, Etterby Road, Carlisle.
2nd Corporal John Campbell of the Royal Engineers, 4th Broad Gauge Operating Company, service number WR/272748, was accidentally drowned in France on 15 June 1919, at the age of 31, and is buried at TerlincthunBritishCemetery, Wimille, Pas de Calais. John, who was described as a railway engine cleaner in the 1911 census, was the youngest son of the late John, a railway permanent way inspector, and the late Janet Russell Cambell, formerly of 1 CaledonianBuildings, and husband of Hannah Campbell of 15 Kells Place, Stanwix, Carlisle
The three Dixon brothers, who died during the war, were three of the nine children born to John and Mary Elizabeth Horn Dixon. The family came from a farming background and at the time of the 1901 census John was farming at Westmoor, Stainton. However, in the 1911 census, by which time the family were living at 74 Etterby Street, his occupation was given as Teacher of Agriculture at an industrial school. Sometime after 1911 the family must have moved to 6 Strawberry Terrace, Edentown, because that was place of residence given in the notices, in the Cumberland News, of the deaths of each of the three brothers.
Lance Corporal James Simpson Dixon of the Cumberland and Westmorland Yeomanry, service number, 2653, died at home on 21 February 1916, at the age of 22, and is buried in Dalston Road Cemetery, Carlisle. He was the second son of John and Mary. Before enlisting, on 11 November 1914, James was a plumber and electrician. On 16 January 1915 he was appointed Lance Corporal but, on 1 August 1915, he was discharged from the army on health grounds having being diagnosed with tuberculosis of the spine. According to his service record he had contracted his illness ‘in civil life on a date unknown’.
Private John Dixon of the 10th Battalion Canadian Infantry, the eldest son of John and Mary, service number 622349, was killed in action on 9 April 1917, during the attack on Vimy Ridge, aged 27, and is commemorated on the Vimy Memorial, Pas de Calais. An article in the Cumberland News of 8 September 1917 provided the following information:
‘He was a sniper in a Canadian Regiment, and his death was reported in April. He was killed through a shell bursting where he was resting. He finished his education at CarlisleGrammar School, and afterwards became an assistant teacher at Stanwix, where he was also a Sunday school teacher and Church worker. He went to Canada in 1913, leaving the training schools there to join the colours in 1915. He was a well known player in local football having played for St Ann’ Rovers for four seasons, scoring over a hundred goals for them. He was a great favourite with his club mates and friends in other circles’.
The web site calgaryhighanders.com refers to the assault on Vimy Ridge being delayed a day until 9th April and continues, ‘The killing began a few minutes before zero hour when a random German shell ended one person’s life, and four other troops were hit along with him, still waiting for whistles’. This information appears to equate with the description, of how John died, in the Cumberland News article.
A more detailed description of John’s life can be found in the book by Linda Hodgson and Sarah Lee, The Stars of Night (Carlisle, 2014) p37.
Private Thomas Dixon of the 1st Battalion Border Regiment, service number 202800, died in hospital in France, of wounds received in action, on 14 April 1918, at the age of 19, and is buried in Aire Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais. Before the war he was employed in the office of Messrs Blackburn and Main, solicitors, Carlisle. A brief article in Cumberland News 27 April 1918 closes with the following words: ‘This is the third of Mr Dixon’s sons who had laid down his life for his country’.
Private William Gordon Forbes of the 12th Battalion Royal Scottish Fusiliers, service number 295380, died from gas poisoning and pneumonia on 2 July 1918, aged 33, and is buried in Bleue-Maison Military Cemetery, Eperlecques, Pas de Calais. He was the eldest son, one of seven children, of William, a station policeman, and Mary Forbes of Etterby Lodge, Carlisle. At that time Etterby Lodge was a ten roomed house. It is situated at the foot of Etterby Road, on the left, next to where the path runs down to Etterby wath on the river Eden.
Private Thomas Donald Forbes was the brother of William Gordon Forbes and second son of William and Mary Forbes. He served in the 5th Battalion, Border Regiment, service number 3180, and was killed in action on Sunday 23 July 1916, aged 24. He is buried at Dranoutre Military Cemetery, Belgium. Prior to enlisting, at Kendal, he was a clerk in a flour mill.
Private John William Graham of the 1st Battalion the Border Regiment, service number 242256, died of wounds at a casualty clearing station on 19th July 1918 and is buried in Longuenesse (St Omer) Louvenir Cemetery, Pas de Calais. John, who was 21 years old, was the son of Josephine Smith (formerly Graham) of 76 Corporation Road, Carlisle, and the late William Graham, Etterby, Stanwix. He is the only person on the Mission Hall memorial who is also commemorated on the War Memorial of the mother church in Warwick Road.
Private Robert (Bertie) Hall of the 11th Battalion of the Border Regiment, service number 27986, was killed in action, aged 24, on 18 November 1916, and is buried in the Waggon Road Cemetery, Beaumont-Hamel, Somme, France. Robert was the son of Robert, the owner of St Ann’s nurseries, and Maggie Hall and brother of Percy James. At the time of the 1911 census he was assisting his father in the nursery.
Private John George Johnston of the 28th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, service number 4270, was killed in action sometime between 3 and 6 November 1916, at the age of 29. He is commemorated on the Villers Bretonneux Memorial, Somme, France. John was the fourth son of William and Elizabeth Johnston of 7 Etterby Cottages, late of Newtown. On 12 October 1910 he departed from London for Australia on board the Geelong, which was bound for Albany King, GeorgeSound, Western Australia. In 1914 he married Rose Maude Morrell Baxter and at the time he enlisted on 9 February 1916 he was working as a groom and he and Rosemary were living in Albany. Sometime after his arrival in France, in early November 1916, he was brought before a Military Court Martial for self inflicted wounds.
Lance Corporal Robert Johnston of the 14th Battalion, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, died of wounds on 28 March 1918, aged 24. He is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais. Robert was the son of Andrew, an engine driver, and Janet Johnston of 46 Edentown, Carlisle. He had enlisted on 9 September 1914 and had been twice wounded firstly in August 1916 and secondly in early November 1916 only three weeks after he had returned to the front. The following details are from an obituary in the Cumberland News of 13 April 1918:
He was [previously] wounded twice, receiving the fatal wound, in the thigh, in the big German offensive…. As an engineer at the Hyde Park Works, Glasgow, he was greatly respected. He was an ardent Wesleyan Mission worker with untiring zeal. His parents have received a copy of the memorial service held in Glasgow, where there was an exceptional gathering of his many friends…. A well attended memorial service was held at the Wesleyan Mission Hall, Stanwix [30 Etterby Street], where Corporal Johnston resided when at home, having conducted services prior to his departure again overseas over seven weeks ago.
He was survived by his parents, his two brothers Hugh and John, and his sister, Florence Victoria. There is a photograph of Robert Johnston in the Cumberland News of 18 November 1916.
Corporal Joseph Little is described in the CWCG as originally of the 12 Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment having transferred to the 17 Company Labour Corps, service number 10023. However, according to the war memorial in Stanwix Cemetery he served in the Northumberland Fusiliers and according to the family history website Find my Past he was Corporal, 10023, of the Labour Corps formerly 5782 Northumberland Fusiliers. What is certain is that he died of wounds, received in action, on 30 October 1917, aged 29, and is buried in Wimereux Communal Cemetery, Pas de Calais. Joseph was the youngest son of the late George, a gardener, and Mary Little of 2 Strawberry Terrace, Edentown, Carlisle. He was survived by his wife Isabella and a daughter; according to the CWCG, Isabella lived at the Pike, Nicholforest, Penton.
Sapper Frederick Albert Robinson of the L.R.W. Company, Royal Engineers, service number WR/275395, died suddenly, probably of Spanish Flu, on 18 January 1919, aged 30, and is buried in Etaples Military Cemetery, Pas de Calais. Fred, who at the time of the 1911 census was a railway engine fitter, was the dearly loved husband of Mary Ann née Peascod. of 9 Scaurbank Road, Etterby and youngest son of the late Thomas, a railway engine driver, and Hannah of 5 Caledonian Buildings, Etterby Road.
Private John Scott of the 13th Battalion, Cheshire Regiment, service number 201871, died from wounds received in action, on 12 August 1917, aged 27, and is buried in the Brandhoek New Military Cemetery, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium. John was the son of Margaret and the late William Scott, a farmer, of 13 Strawberry Terrace, Edentown, Carlisle and the grandson of John Scott of Kingstown, who had been the grocer and sub-postmaster at Kingstown. He served his apprenticeship with Holywells, grocers and tea merchants, of 48 English Street, Carlisle, and subsequently moved to Manchester from where he enlisted, initially, with the Shropshire Light Infantry.
With the exception of Thomas Armstrong and John George Johnston, all of the above are commemorated on the war memorial in Stanwix Cemetery. Alexander Black and the Forbes brothers are also commemorated on the Church of Scotland [Border Kirk] war memorial.
With acknowledgement of the work of Mr Ian Moonie in researching and compiling the entry for Etterby Mission Hall.
The War Memorial of the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel of Embleton
This Memorial commemorates three young men of the small Wesleyan (Methodist) congregation of the village of Embleton, near Cockermouth, who fell in The Great War. Two were brothers.
The building in which this was displayed is now no longer used for worship. The Memorial was removed for a time to the nearby Parish Church. It is now in the care of the Museum of Military Life and is presented there in a small Corner of Remembrance.
The three young men are;-
Pte Thomas Cecil Beck, of the 2/6th Bn North Staffordshire Regiment. He died on 15th April 1918. His body was not recovered and he is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, on panel 8.
Pte Alfred Edmond Watson, who was serving with the 44th Regiment Canadian Infantry at the time of his death. He was 24 years old when he was badly wounded. He was brought home to Cumberland but succumbed to his wounds on 9th Dec 1915. Alfred is interred in the burial ground of the parish church of St Cuthbert, at Embleton. His brother Robinson also died.
Pte Robinson Watson, younger brother of Alfred, who died on 8th June 1918 and is interred in Cologne Southern Military Cemetery, grave III.C.26. Robinson was 19 years old. They were the sons of Robinson and Jane Watson, of Embleton.
