Clifford PARKER

Private 27092, 6th Battalion Yorkshire Hussars (Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own)
Died 17th January 1917 aged 23
No Known Grave Commemorated Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Son of George and Annie Parker
Lived 5, High Street, Heckmondwike

Clifford was born on July 25th 1893 in Mirfield and was baptised on August 20th 1893 at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Mirfield. He was the eldest son of George Parker and Annie nee Brook who were married in 1891. They had another son Brook Parker in 1898.

The Parker family had lived in Mirfield for several generations and as a young man George Parker had been in the textile trade, but after his marriage to Annie Brook who was also from Mirfield, George became a Pork Butcher.

George was living in Lee Green in Mirfield in 1901 but by 1911 the family had moved to 5, High Street in Heckmondwike where George was still a butcher and was assisted by his wife and younger son Brook Parker. Clifford was a plater in a Boot Factory in 1911.

Clifford enlisted in Heckmondwike and joined Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Regiment in the 6th Battalion of the Yorkshire Hussars.

He died on January 17th 1917 in France. His name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.

His name is also on St. James's and St. Saviour's War Memorials.

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Charles Edward PEARCE

Private 27977, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
Died 26th June 1916 aged 20
Buried Mailly Wood Cemetery, Mailly-Maillet, Somme, France
Husband of Alice Pearce
Lived 48, Church Street, Heckmondwike

Charles was born in the 2nd quarter of 1896. He was the second and youngest son of Charles Leader Pearce and Annie née Stocks. He had a brother Haydn, who was two years older. In 1901 the family were living in Powell Street in Heckmondwike and Charles Leader Pearce, who originated in Bradford, was working as a Stuff Presser in a Dye Works. By 1911 the family had moved to Church Street, Heckmondwike and Charles Edward was working as a Yarn Bundler at a woollen mill.

He married Alice Brooke at the beginning of 1916 and they moved to Fairfield Street, Cleckheaton. Charles Edward must have enlisted around the time of his marriage and was sent to France. He died on 26th June shortly after his 20th birthday. His wife Alice was expecting their first child and this child, a son, was born July/Aug/Sep in 1916 soon after his father's death.

He is buried at Mailly Wood Cemetery on the outskirts of Mailly-Maillet village near Albert in the Somme Region of France.

At home his name is listed on both the Heckmondwike War Memorial and also the Spenborough War Memorial (Cleckheaton) as he had links with both towns.

His name is also on St James's Parish Church Memorial & St. Saviour's Church Memorial in Heckmondwike.

He was awarded the War and Victory medals.

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Joseph Edward PEEL

Private 28679, Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment), 16th Battalion (Bradford Pals)
Killed in Action 12th May 1917 Aged 25
Commemorated on the Arras Memorial Bay 4
Son of John Edward and Emma Peel
Lived at 75, Dale Lane, Heckmondwike

Joseph Edward was born on the 10th September 1892, the eldest son of John Edward Peel, a Woollen Spinner from Batley and his wife Emma, formerly Popplewell of Birstall. John and Emma had married in 1887 and had six children. The family was living at 75, Hollinbank, Dale Lane Top, Heckmondwike by 1901.

Joseph attended Heckmondwike Secondary School, which later became Heckmondwike Grammar School, and then worked in the drapery department of the Heckmondwike and District Industrial Co-operative Society Limited in their central stores and later at the Littletown branch. He was connected with the Heckmondwike Primitive Methodist Chapel and Sunday School situated on Batley Road, at the junction with White Lee Road, which had opened in 1869 but closed in 1975 and was later demolished.

Joseph enlisted on the 27th May and was posted to France on 17th September 1916.

Joseph's younger brothers George and Fred were twins and also served in the Army. George was a Market Gardener and Fred, a Creeler for a Brussel's carpet weaver. Fred is recorded in the Heckmondwike newspaper early in 1917 as being in the 1st Birmingham War Hospital, having been taken ill with trench fever and frost bitten fingers. Fred had attested under the Derby scheme and joined the 18th West Yorkshire's in February 1916. After a period of short training in England, he was transferred to Malta, until he was then moved to France in December 1916. He spent a total of 111 days in hospital recuperating before returning to the front. His brother George was said to be training in Ireland and Joseph was in France. Fred was still in hospital when word came through of their elder brother.

From 9 April to 16 May 1917, British troops attacked German defences near the French city of Arras on the Western Front. There were big gains on the first day, followed by stalemate. The battle cost nearly 160,000 British and about 125,000 German casualties. The battle has been nicknamed The Blood Tub by the Australians as it took a greater daily death toll than any other fought by the British Empire in the First World War.

Joseph died from the effects of a shell explosion during the Battle of Arras. It is possible that Joseph may have died alongside Private 32516 Albert Hanson of Halifax also of the 16th Battalion whose story is told in "The Bradford Pals" by R N Hudson, 2013. "Much work was done by the 16th Battalion in strengthening and deepening the trench North and South of the Gavrelle-Fresnes Road with a view to making a good taking-off trench for the Durhams. This activity did not go unnoticed by the enemy who directed a continuous barrage of 4.2 inch and 5.9 inch shells on to the front line. The work was not therefore completed without casualties. The Battalion lost three killed and eight wounded on the 12th and two killed and thirteen wounded on the 13th. Among those was Private Hanson who died on the 12th in a casualty clearing station with a wound to the head."

The Cleckheaton and Spenborough Guardian published a report on Friday June 1st 1917 "that official notice of Joseph's death on 12th May had been received on Saturday 26th May, a sympathetic letter from the chaplain having arrived the previous day."

Medals: Victory and British.

Commemorated: Heckmondwike Secondary School Roll of Honour; St Saviour's Memorial, now in Heckmondwike Parish Church; The Green Park Memorial; Vellum Roll.

Fred and George are recorded on the Vellum Roll as having survived the war. It is kept in the Heckmondwike Library within a large oak casket.

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Clement POGSON

Private 202158 (4986), 1st/4th Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Died 8th July 1916 Aged 20
No Known Grave Commemorated Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Son of Albert Edward and Violetta Pogson
Lived Hadfield Buildings, Heckmondwike

Clement was born at White Lee in 1896, the third son of Albert Edward Pogson, a Cloth Weaver from Holmfirth and Violetta Cartwright from Bolton. They had married in 1889 at St John's Church at Carlinghow, and made their first home at West View, White Lee. Clement's Grandfather, Henry Pogson, had moved his family into the area from Holmfirth by 1871, to work as a Music Teacher. On leaving school, Clement found work in the woollen mills, as had his father and brothers before him. All three brothers are remembered on the Heckmondwike Great War Roll of Honour, living at Hadfield Buildings. Ernest and Ramsden survived the war.

The eldest brother Ernest was born in 1891 and worked as a Cloth Finisher being employed by J & B.W. Hirst of Batley. He had previously served in the 4th King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and rejoined the Territorial Force at Wakefield on 5th August 1914, but was discharged the same day as medically unfit on mobilization.

Ramsden Pogson was the second son, born in 1894 and employed as an Under Overlooker. At the end of the war he was awarded the British War and Victory medals having served as Private 306620 in the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment's) 2nd/7th and 6th Divisions.

Clement Pogson, aged 14, was working as a Doffer in a worsted mill in 1911. He enrolled at Dewsbury in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, but his service record is now lost. Clement was killed during the Battle of the Somme and he has no known grave. The war diary for the 7th July 1916 states that the battalion was engaged in heavy fighting:-

"The Germans delivered a textbook artillery bombardment as a prelude to an attack in the first hour of the next day, July 7th. At 2 am, their guns were turned on the 1st/4th KOYLI in the A lines and 50 minutes later shells began landing in the communication and support lines as they attempted to choke off the possibility of KOYLI reinforcements reaching the front line. Enemy bombers advanced down the trenches towards A18 and A16 and across the open to A17. Furious fighting took place till 6.30am with lots of casualties from bombers and snipers who shot our men as they fired and threw bombs out of the trenches."

The Heckmondwike Herald newspaper listed him as missing on the 10th August 1916. It would be many months before the family received any confirmation of his death.

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Medals: Victory and British.

Locally commemorated: Heckmondwike Roll of Honour and Green Park Memorial. St Saviour's Church (now demolished) Memorial named as Clement H. Pogson.

Clement is also remembered on the Batley Roll of Honour.

George Fred PRESTON

Private 10809, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Died 15th September 1916 aged 22
No Known Grave Commemorated Loos Memorial, France
Son of Strickland and Ada Preston
Lived Eldon Street, Heckmondwike

George was born 24th June 1894 in Harrogate. He was baptised 2nd September 1894 at Christ Church, Harrogate. He was the eldest son of Strickland Preston and Ada nee Rowley. Strickland had been born in Heckmondwike and went to the Harrogate area to live with Octavious Parker and serve his apprenticeship as a Butcher in 1891. He married Ada in Normanton All Saints Church in 1894 and settled in the Harrogate area. In 1911 Strickland was staying with his parents in Eldon Street.

In 1901 George was at home with his younger siblings, Walter born in 1896, Victoria May born in 1898 and Annie born in 1900. By 1911 aged 16 years, he was a sea-going fisherman lodging with John Taylor and his mother. John Taylor was also a fisherman and lived at Carlton Row, Brighton.

George served in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and died on 15th September 1916 during the Somme Offensive. He has no known grave but his name is commemorated on the Memorial at Loos-en-Gohelle Panel 97 & 98.

George was the nephew of Leonard Preston whose name is also on the Heckmondwike War Memorial in Green Park.

George Fred Preston is also commemorated on St. James's and St. Saviour's War Memorials.

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He was given the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Leonard PRESTON

Private 202573, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Died 27th November 1917 aged 37
No Known Grave Commemorated Cambrai Memorial, Louveral, France
Husband of Rhoda Ann Preston
Lived 6, Darley Street, Heckmondwike

Leonard was born in 2nd Quarter of 1881 in Heckmondwike. His father, George Preston, lived in Heckmondwike all his life in various locations. His mother was Jane nee Strickland. Leonard had an older brother Strickland born 1874, and three younger brothers, Henry Cecil Preston born 1883, George Granville Preston born 1884 and Harold Foster Preston born 1892. He also had two older sisters, Mary Louisa Preston born 1878 and Eliza Ann Clegg (nee Preston) 1880.

Leonard was a Mason by trade as were his father and brothers.

Leonard married Elizabeth Coultas nee Green on the 23rd July 1910 at St. Peter's Church at Birstall and they moved to Birkenshaw. Sadly his wife Elizabeth died in 3rd Quarter of 1912 aged 26years. He married again in 3rd quarter of 1914 to Rhoda Ann Sargent and continued to live in Birkenshaw where he ran a greengrocer shop.

The family were all active members of George Street Congregational Chapel in Heckmondwike and Leonard's name is commemorated on their War Memorial. Leonard's father, George Preston, died in December 1916.

Leonard enlisted in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and was sent to France in 1916. In June of that year he was gassed and sent home to recuperate. He had only been back in France for two weeks when a shell fell amongst his company as they were coming out of the line.

His younger brother George Granville Preston also served in the Great War but survived and his name is in the Heckmondwike Memorial Book.

His nephew, George Fred Preston born 1894 (son of his brother Strickland Preston), also served in the Great War in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and died on 15th September 1916. His name is also on the Green Park War Memorial in Heckmondwike as well as the St. James's and St. Saviour's War Memorials.

Leonard was buried behind the line and his name is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial at Louveral.

He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

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John Willie PRIESTLEY

Private 156542, 19th Battalion Machine Gun Corps (Infantry)
Killed in Action 7th September 1918 aged 32
Buried Chocques Military Cemetery near Bethune, France
Husband of Martha Ellen Priestley
Lived 13, Milton Square, Heckmondwike

In 1901 John married Martha Ellen Schofield. By 1911 John aged 25 and Martha aged 26 had two daughters: Mildred born 22 March 1908 and Nellie, just 3 months old. Their address was 8, Omar Street, Heckmondwike and John worked as a Rag Grinder. They had two more daughters: Annie born in 1914 and Lilian born in 1916.

Few military records have come to light, but it was later reported in the local newspaper that John had joined the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) and went to France on 29 November 1916. His service number was 23648. At some point Private Priestley was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps. Equipped with Vickers machine guns, the Corps closely supported the infantry in both defence and attack, with a team of 6 soldiers needed to operate each gun.

In early September 1918 the Battalion was in action during an attack near to the Canal d'Aire to the North of Bethune. The threat posed by the machine gun teams often meant that they were a particular target for retaliatory artillery fire from the Germans. In the course of the war around one third of the soldiers in the Corps became casualties. On the 5 September the Battalion had 25 soldiers wounded in a gas shell attack and on the day Private Priestley was killed, 7 September, the entry in the war diary has just one line: "1 OR [other rank] killed and 2 OR's wounded".

His body was buried in the Chocques Military Cemetery to the West of Bethune about 5 miles from where he was killed. In 1920 the cemetery was transformed into the style and layout we see today. The War Graves Commission records for this time are noted 'original burials' which suggests that no re-interment of his remains was needed. With the passage of time the standard wording on the headstone has become worn.

Payments made to Mrs Priestley following her husband's death are more complex than usual. On 29 January 1919 outstanding pay of £2 6s 11d was sent to Mrs Priestley, followed on 4 December 1919 by a war gratuity of £9 3s 1d. This unusual sum (war gratuities were normally in multiples of 10 shillings) suggests that an earlier service grant had already been made. The Corps appears to have claimed 13s 1d from any monies due to Mrs Priestley.

In 1918 Mrs Priestley was left a widow in her thirties with daughters aged around 10; 7; 4 and 2. Though no records exist specifically for Mrs Priestley, the normal weekly pension would have been: 13s for a widow; 5s for the first daughter; 4s 2d for the second; 3s 4d for the third and 2s 6d for the youngest; a total of £1 8s 9d. It is understandable in those circumstances that Mrs Priestley could not afford the additional cost of 3½d a letter for an additional personal message to be carved onto her husband's headstone. The Victory Medal and British War Medal were sent to Mrs Priestley in 1920. John Priestley's nephew, Thomas Lindsay, died of wounds on 27 October 1918 whilst serving with the Duke Of Wellington's Regiment.

Albert Erwin QUARMBY

Private 75064, 21st Field Ambulance Royal Army Medical Corps
Died 8th October 1917 aged 21
Larch Wood (Railway Cutting) Cemetery, Belgium
Son of Joseph and Annie Quarmby
Lived Nunroyd, Heckmondwike

Albert was born in 1896. He was one of the three children of Joseph who was from Normanton and his wife Annie who came from South Shields. His two brothers Leonard and William also joined the army, Leonard was killed in July 1916 but William survived.

Before the war, Albert worked as an Errand Boy in a dairy.

Albert was a Private in the RAMC which had only been in existence for sixteen years when The Great War broke out. Prior to this the management of care and welfare for the sick and the wounded was often inadequate and confined to binding up wounds. Many men were left neglected or were treated by untrained and unskilled individuals; several were left in the hands of the enemy, and it has even been recorded that many, who appeared helpless or unlikely to make a recovery, were killed by their own troops to put them out of their misery. The Great War produced vast numbers of casualties all requiring treatment at the same time and it was soon evident that a man's chances of survival depended on how quickly his wound was treated. For this reason a system was set up known as the Chain of Evacuation. Each section of the chain had its own tasks but the objective was the same – to deal with all medical matters, and to treat the sick and the wounded. Albert was part of a Field Ambulance team, it was not a vehicle; it was a mobile front line medical unit. The Field Ambulance was responsible for establishing and operating a number of points along the casualty evacuation chain, from the Bearer Relay Posts which were up to 600 yards behind the Regimental Aid Posts in the front line, taking casualties rearwards through an Advanced Dressing Station (ADS) to the Main Dressing Station (MDS). It also provided a Walking Wounded Collecting Station, as well as various rest areas and local sick rooms.

The RAMC was not a fighting force but its members saw the full horror of the war, Officers and men performed their duties unarmed and the Corps lost approximately 6,873 personnel; of these an estimated 470 officers and 3,669 other ranks were either killed in action or died of wounds. To date the Commonwealth War Graves Commission are still adding names to their roll of honour.

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Leonard QUARMBY

Private 20629, 12th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers
Died 11th July 1916 aged 28
No Known Grave Commemorated Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Son of Joseph and Annie Quarmby
Lived Nunroyd, Heckmondwike

Leonard was born in 1898; he was one of the three children of Joseph who was from Normanton and his wife Annie who came from South Shields. His two brothers Albert and William also joined the army, Albert was killed in October 1917 but William survived.

Before the war Leonard had worked as an Errand Boy for a confectioner and he also worked at Firth's Mill at some point, he is commemorated on the Firth's of Heckmondwike War Memorial in Firth's Park in Bailiffe Bridge, alongside his brother Albert who died in 1917.

He enlisted in Cleckheaton and was killed at Mametz Wood during the Battle of the Somme. The 12th (Service) Battalion the Northumberland Fusiliers was formed at Newcastle in September 1914 as part Kitchener's Third New Army.

The battalion was moved to Mametz Wood on the 10th July 1916 which was taken by the 38th Welsh Division on 12th July 1916. The 12th Northumberland Fusiliers were one of the battalions who relieved the 38th Welsh Division; they were heavily shelled whilst trying to dig-in to area between Fricourt and the wood prior to relieving the Welsh division, resulting in many casualties.

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Charles RADBONE

Private 42848, 4th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment
Died 16th April 1918 aged 28
Buried Hedauville Communal Cemetery Extension, France
Son of William and Alice Radbone
Lived 5, Bottoms, Heckmondwike

Charles was born in 1889 in South Leigh, Witney in Oxfordshire. His parents were William (Radburn) an Agricultural Labourer and Alice (formerly Robinson) who had married in 1880. They had five children Frances Annie, William, John, Charles and Frank Thomas.

Sometime between 1901 and 1911 Charles and his elder brother William moved to Heckmondwike. On the 1911 census they were both living with their grandfather Charles Radbone at New Street, Flush, Liversedge, but their parents remained in Witney.

On August 5th 1911 a double wedding took place at Birstall Parish Church when Charles Radbone of 44, New Street, Liversedge married Catherine Ann Cooper who was born in Barnsley but living in Liversedge. At the same time his elder brother William also married a local girl Charlotte Martin and they settled in Listing Lane, Littletown. A third member of the family, their widowed grandfather Charles, also married in 1911 just before Christmas at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Heckmondwike.

Charles was a Firelighter Maker at Gill's Firelighters for eleven years before enlisting in the army. His uncle, Thomas Peter Radbone, was also living in Heckmondwike, as a lodger with the Weaver family whose son, Charles Weaver, also a Firelight Maker from Witney, was later killed in France on the Somme on July 1st 1916.

Charles enlisted in 1917 in the Lincolnshire Regiment as Private 33067 and embarked at Folkstone for Boulogne on 12th March 1917, where he then served in Etaples for several weeks. On 4th March 1918 he was transferred to the North Staffordshire Regiment. The regiment was involved in the First Battle of Bapaume and the final push on Flanders. Charles was reported as wounded in action on April 16th and then died of his injuries on the same day.

Catherine and Charles had had no children. His widow Catherine remarried and moved to Hillsdown, Chesterfield. His brother William remained in Liversedge, whilst his parents and sister, Annie, remained in South Leigh, Whitney.

Commemorated: St Saviour's War Memorial, now within St James' Parish Church, Heckmondwike and on the Parish Church of St James Great Mar Memorial in South Leigh, Oxfordshire.

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Medals: Victory and British

Further information can be found by using the following links

http://coggesparish.com/southleigh/inscrip/c/c021.htm

Frank REDHEAD

Drummer 19498, 15th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Died 4th March 1917 aged 28
Buried Brown's Military Cemetery, Festubert, Pas de Calais, France
Husband of Lilian Redhead
Lived 115, High Street, Heckmondwike

Frank was born in 1888, the eldest son of James Arthur Redhead from Leeds, a "Clicker" in the boot trade, and his first wife Eva Smith of Victoria Street, Cleckheaton. His mother, Eva died in 1900 aged 36, and by 1901 James's unmarried sister Emily was living with them at Occupation Lane, Staincliffe, to help with bringing up Frank and his brother Herbert. In 1905, James Arthur married Eliza Sophia Kenning from Ossett. Frank was educated at Healey Council School and then apprenticed to Mr Wormald, an Outfitter of Market Street, Heckmondwike.

The family were living at 115 High Street, Heckmondwike by 1911 when James Arthur was a Confectioner, his wife Eliza and children, Frank aged 22, a Shop Assistant in a Gents Outfitters, Herbert aged 21, a Plasterer, and young daughter Annie. Frank was living and working in Warrington when he married Lilian Thomas on the 21st April 1913 at St. Mary's Parish Church, Kippax. He spent a total of five years in Warrington where their son George Edward was born in 1914. They moved back to Yorkshire when Frank was then engaged by Mr T. Armstrong as the Manager of the Outfitters Department on Daisy Hill, Dewsbury.

Prior to enlistment in the Royal Worcester Regiment as a Drummer on May 24th 1915, Frank was a member of the Dewsbury Military Band and often assisted at concerts given at Beck Lane Working Mens Club in Heckmondwike. He was connected with Upper Independent Chapel and was at one stage a Teacher in the Sunday School.

Frank is first mentioned in the Upper Chapel, Active Service Magazine Issue No.5 July 1916, as Bandsman Frank Redhead, 4th Royal Warwickshire Regiment, Sandown Barracks, Isle of Wight. A note in the magazine from Frank dated October 1916 reads "F. Redhead expected to get to France last month. He has had a good time on the Isle of Wight, the band with which he is connected having playing engagements in different place daily." In the November and December 1916 issues Frank is still on the Isle of Wight.

The Upper Independent Chapel, Heckmondwike, Young Men's Guild, began the monthly production of the "Active Service Magazine" in 1916 to pass news from and about active service members on their "Roll of Honour". The editors asked "if soldiers would communicate with the member of the Committee who posted them a copy of the magazine, immediately they were removed to fresh quarters so they could easily be kept in touch with everyone".

The 15th Battalion was formed in December 1916 and Frank was posted to France on 16th December 1916. The February 1917 issue of the Chapel magazine says Frank is in 10 Platoon, C Company, 15th R. W. Regt. BEF France and a message from Frank says "that he is now right amongst the 'whiz-bangs', and not half! They are getting very good food and a clean change every week." In the same issue his brother Private Herbert Redhead of the 25th Northumberland Fusiliers says that he is "in hospital in Hardelot, Boulogne and will probably have to undergo an operation".

The April Issue of the Chapel magazine had a photograph of Frank under the heading "R.I.P. The horrors of war has again been driven home to us with the loss of one of our brave lads, Bandsman Frank Redhead, who was killed in action in France, on 3rd March. The sacrifice we are making, the price we are having to pay is heavy and we can only pray that God will help us bear the burden. A memorial service was held at the church on Sunday afternoon, March 18th conducted by our pastor."

A letter to his wife Lilian, from the Platoon Officer, says: "I cannot speak too highly of his excellent conduct and his faithful devotion to duty. Always cheerful and high-spirited he was ever ready and willing to do all that was asked of him. I assure you that both officers and men feel his loss greatly". The Leeds Mercury newspaper reported on 17th March 1917 that "Bandsman Frank Redhead of Barber Street Dewsbury has been killed in France. He was the son of Mr J. Redhead, Grocer, of High Street".

Frank's wife Lilian was living at Field House, Kippax and his parents in Heckmondwike at the time that his Commonwealth War gravestone was erected at Brown's Military Cemetery and engraved 'TO MEMORY EVER DEAR'. His grave is Headstone 256 Plot 111 Row A Grave 2.

The Cleckheaton Advertiser and Spenborough Times records that Frank's younger brother Private Herbert Redhead of the Northumberland Fusiliers had only just returned to the front line when Frank was killed after having been in hospital for five weeks in France. He was later wounded in fighting during the Easter week in 1917 being moved to York to recover and given an opportunity to visit home. However, he was again in hospital by December, in the Merry-Flats Hospital, Govan, Glasgow and took no further part in the war, being unfit, he was awarded a silver war badge.

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Medals: Victory and British.

Commemorated: Upper Independent Chapel Memorial. Heckmondwike Vellum Roll and Green Park Memorial.1/index.php

Lawrence Edward RHODES

Private 28981, 1st Battalion Border Regiment
Killed in Action 1st April 1918 aged 28
Buried at Oxford Road Cemetery, Ypres, Belgium
Husband of Elsie Rhodes
Lived 5, Chapel Lane, Heckmondwike

Lawrence was born on 15th December 1889. Ten years later on 3rd September 1899 he was baptised and the "rite was administered in his parents home", by the Vicar of the Methodist Free Church of Heckmondwike. Lawrence was the only son of Percy Rhodes, Rag merchant of Millbridge, and Ann Littlewood of Flush, Liversedge who had married on 21st October 1882 at St Peter's Parish Church in Birstall. His parents had moved to 53, Battye Street, Heckmondwike by 1901 and Percy was working on his own account as an agent for the sale of wool. However Percy died on 6th June 1902 aged 43, leaving his wife to bring up their two young children alone.

Lawrence was employed as a Wool Buyer and Salesman in 1911, living at Smithies, Heckmondwike with his widowed mother Ann Rhodes (51) a dressmaker and his older sister Catherine Elizabeth Rhodes (25) a teacher. Sadly his only sister died on June 12th 1915 aged 29. She was buried in the family grave in Heckmondwike Cemetery. His mother moved to live at 5, Chapel Lane, Heckmondwike.

It is known that Lawrence enlisted at Halifax on 22nd February 1917, first into the Durham Light Infantry as Private 64750 and was then moved into the Labour Corps as Private 20157, followed by the 6th Border Regiment as Private 28981 and finally being moved to the 1st Border Regiment. His service details have since been lost. The 6th Border Regiment was a service Battalion which was disbanded on 9th February 1918. The 1st Border Regiment moved to France in March 1918. Lawrence was home on leave in the early part of 1918 when he married Miss Elsie Allen of Grimethorpe. They had only been married for five weeks when he was killed in action.

A report in the Cleckheaton Advertiser & Spenborough Times newspaper on 18th April 1918 stated "that his wife has received a Chaplin's letter to the effect that her husband, Private Lawrence E. Rhodes, had died of wounds in France. Official notification was received on Wednesday. Private Rhodes was twenty eight years of age and previous to joining up he was wool buyer with his uncle's firm Messrs. Rhodes Bros. and Co. Ltd. of Beck Lane. He attended the United Methodist Free Church, was an "old boy" of the Secondary School, and corresponding secretary to the Mechanic's Institute. He was the son of the late Mr. Percy Rhodes".

Lawrence is buried at Oxford Road Cemetery, Ypres, Belgium, his grave reference is Plot V. E. 30.

Elsie was living at 5, Chapel Lane, Heckmondwike at the time of his death and received his effects. She chose the phrase "Until the day dawns" to be added to his Commonwealth gravestone. Elsie and his mother Ann lived together at this address for a further 20 years until his mother died and her name was added to the family gravestone beneath that of her husband and children.

Medals: British War and Victory Medals

Commemorated: On the family gravestone in Heckmondwike Cemetery; Heckmondwike Secondary School (later Heckmondwike Grammar School) Memorial; St. Saviour's War Memorial now held within St James's Parish Church; Vellum Roll of Honour, Green Park Memorial.

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Alfred Henry ROBINSON

Private 268219, 9th Battalion Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)
Died of Wounds 27th August 1918 aged 21
Buried in Bagneux British Cemetery, Gezaincourt, France
Son of John Edwin and Ann Robinson
Lived 23, Eldon Street, Heckmondwike

Alfred’s parents were married on 26 December 1885 in St John's Church Cleckheaton. They were John Edwin who was living in Batley and Ann (née Walker) who was from School Street, Cleckheaton. They spent the following years in South Parade, Cleckheaton and by 1901 they had two sons: John James aged 15 and Alfred Henry, born in 1896. Ann Robinson died in 1906 aged 45. John Edwin remarried on 30 April 1907 at Eastbrook Hall, Bradford. He lived at Westgate Hill, Tong and his wife Annie (née Bastin) was from Birkenshaw.

In 1911 the family were living at 52, Jeremy Lane Heckmondwike. Alfred then aged 14, was working as a Clerk for a wire manufacturer; his elder brother was a Draper; his father an Insurance Agent. Records suggest it was around June 1916 when Alfred enlisted in Heckmondwike with the 9th Battalion of the West Riding Regiment (WRR). Though this Battalion was intended for service only in the UK, pressures of war led to the Battalion being moved to France in July 1915. In the second half of 1916 they were in action on the Somme around Fricourt and Delville Wood, then in 1917 they moved North to the Ypres area.

After the German offensive of March 1918 the Battalion was again in action in the Somme area on ground familiar to the soldiers of 1916. An advance was ordered for 4.00am on 24 August 1918 in an Easterly direction from near the ruins of Thiepval. The Germans responded with a barrage of high explosive and gas shells. Little progress was made that day with particular difficulty being caused by a pocket of German troops armed with machine guns. The situation became serious and for a time the line was held only by a Lieutenant Colonel and HQ staff from the Lancashire Fusiliers. The following day, 26 August, two Companies of the WRR were sent round the North flank of the enemy pocket, but some machine gun fire continued. On the 27 August the Battalion was ordered to withdraw to defensive positions and was replaced by other troops. This respite was short-lived and the WRR was soon in action again. The records show that for August 1918 the Battalion had 179 casualties and though there is no detail for 'other ranks', all the officer casualties occurred on 25, 26, or 28 August. It is most likely therefore that Private Robinson was wounded on 25 or 26 August near the ruins of Martinpuich. After initial treatment he would have been taken to a Casualty Clearing Station out of the battlefield area. Though these stations were generally large well equipped facilities, as the name suggests they were designed for short stays, and their patients might be quickly returned to active service or sent on for further treatment elsewhere. Records show that Private Robinson died of wounds on 27 August 1918. He is buried in Bagneux British Cemetery near the sites of three Casualty Clearing Stations, around 25 miles from the Somme area.

Private Robinson had outstanding pay and allowances totalling £14 4s 9d and this was sent from the York Records Office to his father John on 20 December 1918. The War Gratuity of £12 10s was sent on 8 December 1919. A temporary wooden cross in the Cemetery was replaced in 1921 and John (now living at 23 Eldon Street Heckmondwike) made a contribution of 3½d for each letter of the inscription 'He gave his life that others might live' to be carved on the base of his son's headstone.

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The Society thanks The War Graves Photographic Project (www.twgpp.org) for providing this headstone photograph.

George ROE

Lance Corporal 28670, 9th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince Of Wales's Own)
Died 17th January 1917 aged 19
No Known Grave Commemorated Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Son of George and Hannah Maria Roe
Lived Hadfield Buildings, Heckmondwike

George was formerly a scholar at Healey Council School and then at St James'. Before the war he was an Apprentice Tailor with the Co-op. He was attached to White Lee United Methodist Church and Sunday School and he was also associated with the Batley Ambulance Corps.

He was one of nine children, his father George was from Barnsley and worked in the Mills, his mother, Hannah Maria Shires came from Batley. George joined the West Yorkshire Regiment and trained at Blyth and Whitley Bay, whilst he was in the camp he met and befriended a young man called William Roe they were both employed by the Co-op, were both 19, received their call-up at the same time, were made Lance Corporals on the same day, went to France together and were killed on the same day. George's brother Arthur also served during war and he survived.

George is remembered on the family grave in Heckmondwike Cemetery which is on the North Wall.

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Benjamin SCHOFIELD

Private 161013, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Died 27th September 1915 aged 23
No Known Grave Commemorated Loos Memorial, France
Son of Edgar and Mary Schofield both deceased
Lived 18, Cook Lane, Heckmondwike

Benjamin was born in April/early May 1892 in Westmorland and was baptised at Holme in Westmorland on 8th May 1892. His father Edgar Schofield was from Heckmondwike and so was his mother Mary nee Firth, so perhaps the family were in Westmorland in 1892 because of Edgar's work as a miner. Benjamin, known as Ben, was the eldest son of Edgar & Mary but had three older sisters all born in Heckmondwike. Another son Clifford was born in Heckmondwike in 1897. The family were living in Clarydon Place Heckmondwike in 1891. Unfortunately Edgar died at the end of 1898 aged 36 years, leaving Mary with five young children. Mary married John Hine in 1899 and the family were living at 2 Centre Street Heckmondwike in 1901. Also living at 1 Centre Street in 1901 were Mary's parents Joseph and Sarah Ann Firth. Sadly Mary also died in 1907 leaving John Hine with step children and 2 more young daughters, Edith & Ethel Hine. By 1911 Ben was still living in 2 Centre Street with extended family and was a coal hurrier in Mirfield.

He enlisted in September 1914 and went to France a year later, Loos being his first engagement. He was reported missing in September 1915 but his death on 27th September 1915 was not confirmed until a year later when his sister received notification. He has no known grave but his name is listed on the Loos Memorial. This memorial is situated in the Dud Corner Cemetery at Loos-en-Gohelle in Pas-de-Calais, France. His name is also on St. James' and St. Saviour's war memorials. He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory medal.

His brother Clifford Schofield also served in WW1 and his name is in the Heckmondwike Memorial Book. Two of his cousins also died in WW1, Percy Schofield (son of his father's brother William Henry Schofield) and James Arthur Schofield (son of his father's brother Arthur Schofield). Their common grandparents were Joseph Schofield and Martha nee Naylor. Other cousins are also named in the Memorial Book.

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James Arthur SCHOFIELD

Private 15024, Northumberland Fusiliers
Died 25th September 1918 aged 27
Buried Rocquigny-Equancourt Road British Cemetery, Manancourt, France
Son of Arthur and Sarah Rebecca Schofield
Lived 2, Eldon Street, Heckmondwike

James was the eldest son of Arthur Schofield and Sarah Rebecca nee Goodall. He was born in March 1891 and was baptised on 5th July 1891 at George Street Congregational Chapel in Heckmondwike. He had three older sisters and after James was born the family went on to have two more daughters and two more sons. The family were living in Clarydon Place, Heckmondwike when James Arthur was born, but by 1901 the family had moved to Upper Battye Street and by 1911 they were living in Brighton Street.

The family maintained a close connection with George Street Congregational Chapel and James Arthur's name is commemorated on their War Memorial. He played for their Cricket and Football teams before enlisting.

His paternal grandfather was Joseph Schofield and two more of his grandchildren died in World War 1. They were Benjamin Schofield (son of Edgar Schofield) and Percy Schofield (son of William Henry Schofield). The names of these three cousins are all on the Green Park War Memorial in Heckmondwike.

James attended Heckmondwike Grammar School and his name is recorded on their Roll of Honour. After leaving school he worked as a Mechanic at Messrs. Wilson Knowles and Sons Chapel Lane, Heckmondwike.

James Arthur enlisted on 6th September 1914. He trained at Leighton Buzzard and Halton Camp with the West Yorkshire Regiment but joined the Northumberland Fusiliers and went to France in September 1915. During 1918 he suffered from shrapnel wounds in the neck and knee and was invalided home. After his recovery he was again sent to France and had only been there for 6 weeks when he died from suffocation along with his friend due to lack of ventilation from a coke brazier in his dug-out. His Sergeant Major wrote to his family extending his sympathy and praised James Arthur for being a good upright soldier and a gentleman and was beloved by all his comrades.

He died on 25th September 1918 and was buried in the British Cemetery at Manancourt in Northern France at the side of the friend who died with him.

His name is also commemorated on St James's and St. Saviour's War Memorials. He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

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Percy SCHOFIELD

Private 50116, 7th Lincolnshire Regiment
Died 13th Highland Cemetery Le Cateau October 1918 aged 30
Buried Highland Cemetery Le Cateau, France
Husband of Clara Schofield
Lived 48, Regent Street, Heckmondwike

Percy was born in 1888 in Heckmondwike, the youngest son of William Henry Schofield and Elizabeth nee Hince . He had two older brothers and three older sisters and one younger sister. In 1891 the family were living on Nunroyd in Heckmondwike. By 1901 the family had moved to Francis Street in Heckmondwike where they stayed until Percy got married and moved out of the family home to live in Regent Street.

He was a member of Back Lane Working Mens Club and also the Cricket Club and Football Club. He was a member of Friendship Lodge and connected to George Street Congregational Chapel.

He married Clara Crosswaite in 1913 and they had two children, Clara born in 1914 and Joseph born in 1915.

Percy enlisted on 3rd May 1917 and trained in Ireland before being sent to France on 11th August 1917. He was wounded on 12th October 1918 and died from his wounds the next day.

He was the cousin of Benjamin Schofield (Father Edgar Schofield b1867) and James Arthur Schofield (Father Arthur Schofield b1852). All these three cousins Percy, Benjamin and James were grandchildren of Joseph Schofield and Martha nee Naylor.

His name is commemorated on Heckmondwike War Memorial as well as at St. Saviour's now at St James's and George Street Congregational Chapel War Memorials.

He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

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John Reynolds SCORER

Lance Corporal R/13265, 9th Battalion King's Royal Rifle Corps
Died 24th August 1916 aged 23
Buried in Delville Wood Cemetery, Longueval, Somme, France
Son of Thompson and Catherine Scorer
Lived 9, Powell Street, Heckmondwike

John was born in Knaresborough in 1893; both of his parents were from North Yorkshire. John was one of three surviving children, his sisters Annie May and Mary died in the 1970s without ever marrying.

John was actively involved with St Saviour's Church, he was a cross bearer, a server at the altar, a Brother of St Andrew and a Sunday School teacher. After his death the local paper reported that, St Saviour's lost one of the finest churchmen she ever possessed.

Prior to the outbreak of war he was employed at CWS Shoe works.

He joined the Kings Royal Rifle Corps on 27th May 1915 and landed in France in September of the same year. He died at the Battle of Delville Wood, a part of the Somme offensive His battalion succeeded in taking a very difficult piece of terrain and it was whilst they were advancing under heavy machine gun fire that John died from shrapnel wounds in the act of taking the German trench.

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William SHARP

Private 77508, 22nd Battalion Durham Light Infantry
Killed in Action 26th April 1918 age 19
No Known Grave Commemorated Poziers Memorial, France
Son of Jane Sharp
Lived 15, Queen Street, Heckmondwike

William was born in Liversedge on 14th May 1899. On the 1911 Census he is shown as living at 45, Queen Street, Heckmondwike with his mother Jane (born Northorp and aged 43, a Weaver) and his older sister Charlotte (born Liversedge and aged 14, a Twister by occupation). Also on the census are his older brother Charles Walter (born Liversedge, aged 13 and working in Cloth Manufacturing) and his younger brother Ralph (born Heckmondwike, age 6 and a Scholar). Prior to enlisting in the army he worked as a Mule Piecer at Messrs J.W & F.N Priestley of Liversedge. He initially enlisted at Bradford and was on a reserve list, he began active service on 15th September 1917 and trained at Catterick before being transferred to the Durham Light Infantry at Seaham.

William's Battalion was part of the 5th Army which was driven back across the former battlefield of the Somme by overwhelming German forces during March and April 1918. It was during this withdrawal that William was posted as missing. Red Cross personnel reported that he was killed by machine gun fire but in a statement made in 1919, a comrade informed the authorities that he was blown up by a mortar shell as a small group of soldiers were entering a village.

His body was never found. His older brother, Charles Walter, also served during the war and survived.

William was awarded the British and Victory Medals.

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Harry SHAW

Private 26132, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Died 11th April 1917 aged 21
Buried Warlingcourt Halte British Cemetery, France
Son of Alfred and Harriet Shaw
Lived 8, Brighton Street, Heckmondwike

Harry was born in the 2nd Quarter of 1896. His father, Alfred Shaw, was born in 1868 in Gildersome and his family moved to Brighton Street in Heckmondwike when Alfred was a young boy. Alfred married Harriet Longstaff in 1890 and they were living in Brighton Street in 1891. They had 4 sons during the 1890's and Harry was the youngest of these four boys. Sadly, his mother Harriet died in 1897 aged 31. Harry was only one year old when his mother died. Harry's father remarried in 1899 and he went on to have 4 more children. Harry's father was a Greengrocer in Brighton Street.

Harry's maternal grandmother, Jane Longstaff, had been born in Bridgenorth in Shropshire in 1847 and was a widow when her daughter Harriet died in 1897. She had several children of her own, but Harry was also living with her in 1901 and 1911 in Ravensthorpe. Most of his activities were in the Ravensthorpe area. Harry was working as a Cloth Finisher before enlisting on 21st January 1915 into the 10th Battalion of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was sent to France and fought in the Battle on the Somme in 1916. He was injured in his left thigh in July 1916 and was treated in hospital but sadly died of wounds on 11th of April 1917. He was buried in the Warlencourt Halte British Cemetery near Bapaume in Northern France. This cemetery was formed in 1919 by amalgamating several smaller cemeteries. The British Cemetery was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and George Hartley Goldsmith.

Harry's name is commemorated on the Heckmondwike Green Park War Memorial. He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

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Arthur Wilson SIMPKIN

Captain, 8th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment
Died 30th September 1918 aged 22
Buried Ruyalcourt Military Cemetery, France
Son of John William and Emily Simpkin
Lived Joan Royd, Heckmondwike

Arthur was born in 1894 the son of John William and Emily Simpkin. John was a Mining Engineer and came from a family who had long standing connections with Joan Royd Colliery in Heckmondwike.

Arthur's parents moved to Midsomer Norton in Somerset when his father took up a post as a Mining Instructor for Somerset County Council. The family later moved back to Yorkshire and lived at Woodkirk.

Arthur was born in Midsummer Norton and baptised in Morley – his mother's home town – before the war Arthur was a mining pupil at Snydale Colliery near Pontefract. He and his two brothers Harry and Stanley served in the army, Arthur and Harry both died in 1918 within six months of each other. Stanley was severely wounded but survived.

They served together with the 13th Battalion and in early 1917 were engaged in action on the Somme. On November 23rd 1917 they were in action during the Cambrai offensive and took part in bitter fighting at the capture of Bourlon Wood and village. Captain Harry Hargreaves Simpkin was killed in action on March 22nd 1918 aged 21 and he is remembered on the Arras Memorial. He has no known grave.

After the 13th Battalion was disbanded Arthur was attached to the 8th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. At 6:30am on September 30th the 8th West York's attacked the village of Seranvillers. Captain Arthur Wilson Simpkin was killed in this action on September 30th 1918, he was 22.

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Medals: Victory and British

Commemorated: Green Park Memorial and Vellum Book in Heckmondwike; St Saviour's Memorial now in Heckmondwike Parish Church; Midsomer Norton Cricket Club Memorial Plaque and Midsomer Norton War Memorial.

The copyright image of Arthur used on this webpage is from the Imperial War Museum "Bond of Sacrifice" collection, the reference is Arthur Wilson Simpkin � IWM (HU 128040). This image and other related ones can be viewed in the Imperial War Museum "Bond of Sacrifice" collection by clicking on the link below:-

Arthur Wilson Simpkin (C) IWM (HU 128040)

An article written by Robert Coulson for the Yorkshire Regiment Website can be viewed by following this link.

Harry Hargreaves SIMPKIN

Captain (T), 13th Battalion Yorkshire Hussars (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Regiment)
Killed in Action 22nd March 1918 aged 22
No Known Grave Commemorated Arras Memorial, France
Son of John William and Emily Simpkin
Lived Joan Royd, Heckmondwike

Harry was born in 1895 in Midsomer Norton, Somerset and baptised there on 10th July 1895. His parents, John William Simpkin, a Mining Engineer from Drighlington, and Emily Wilson of Morley, had married on 16th August 1893 at St Peter's Church, Morley. The couple then moved to Midsomer Norton where John had taken a job as an Instructor in Mining Engineering for the Somerset County Council. Their first child Arthur Wilson Simpkin had been born in 1894 and his parents took him back to their native Yorkshire for his baptism at St Peter's Church in Morley on 15th July. Their third son Stanley Furness was baptised on 15th April 1898 in Midsomer Norton.

The three sons were privately educated at the King Edward School, Bath where they took a prominent and active part in cricket and the Officers Training Corps (OTC). The OTC had been formed by the Government in 1908 to address the shortage of officers and the junior division was based in the private schools.

Their father, John William, was one of six brothers and two sisters who lived with their parents, Jonathan Simpkin and Selena Hargreaves, at the Colliery House at Joan Royd Colliery, White Lee Road, Heckmondwike having lived first at Ferry Fryston, Yorkshire. Travers Simpkin, one of the six brothers of John William Simpkin, and uncle to Arthur, Harry and Stanley enrolled in the Honourable Artillery Company. He was killed on 3rd May 1917 aged 37.

The Yorkshire Regiment website records that "The brothers, Harry Hargreaves and Arthur Wilson Simpkin, joined the Inns of Court Officer Training Corps and first saw service with the Notts and Derby Regiment. They served together with the 13th Battalion and crossed from Southampton to Le Havre on June 6th 1916. The brothers saw action in the Loos and Lens sectors in 1916 and in early 1917 were engaged on the Somme. On November 23rd 1917 they were in action during the Cambrai offensive and took part in bitter fighting at the capture of Bourlon Wood and village. When the German spring offensive opened in March 1918 the two Simpkin Captains were rushed up to Hamelincourt and from the rear into trenches east of St Leger".

The War Diary of 13th Battalion gives the following information:-

"St LEGER Sunken Rd. B4b. 22nd March 1918. At 7am Capt. H.H. Simpkin of the "D" Coy with two platoons made a bombing attack on the portion of the trench occupied by the enemy and succeeded in clearing the trench, killing about 20 of the enemy and capturing 7 Machine Guns. Within a few minutes however the enemy counter-attacked in force, estimated at 300, and drove out the party, Capt. H.H. Simpkin being killed and 2/Lieut. E.E. Wood severely wounded".

His body was never recovered and he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial, Bay 5.

In September 1919, a handsome silver challenge cup was presented to King Edward's School by Mr J W Simpkin, formerly of Midsomer Norton, in memory of his three sons to be awarded annually for proficiency in cricket. In August 1925 Harry Hargreaves Simpkin and Arthur Wilson Simpkin were named in remembrance on a brass plaque unveiled to eleven cricket club members at the Midsomer Norton cricket pavilion.

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Medals: Victory and British War Medals

Commemorated: St Saviour's Memorial now in Heckmondwike Parish Church (Harry Hargreaves Simpson); Memorial Book (as Hepburn H Simpkin): Harry H. Simpkin on Green Park Memorial. The Midsomer Norton Cricket Club Memorial Plaque and Midsomer Norton War Memorial.

The copyright image of Harry used on this webpage is from the Imperial War Museum "Bond of Sacrifice".This image and other related ones can be viewed in the Imperial War Museum "Bond of Sacrifice" collection by clicking on the link below:-

Harry Hargreaves Simpkin � IWM (HU 119136)

An article written by Robert Coulson for the Yorkshire Regiment Website can be viewed by following this link.

Travers SIMPKIN

Private 9866, Honourable Artillery Company
Died 3rd May 1917 aged 37
No Known Grave Commemorated Arras Memorial, France
Son of Jonathan and Selina Travers
Lived Joan Royd, Heckmondwike

Travers, born in 1880, was the youngest son of Jonathan and his wife Selina. He was the uncle of Captain Harry Hargreaves Simpkin ï¿½ 13th Battalion (The Prince of Wales's Own) West Yorkshire Regiment and Captain Arthur Wilson Simpkin of the 13th and 8th (The Prince of Wales's Own) West Yorkshire Regiment.

Jonathan Simpkin was the proprietor of Joan Royd Colliery. Travers was born in Castleford but spent most of his life in Heckmondwike at Joan Royd house where he was still living in 1911 with his brother Fred and sister Effie. He was a Chartered Accountant. He joined the Honourable Artillery Company in December 1915, was posted to France in March 1917 and probably died on 3rd May 1917 on the first day the 2nd Battle of Bullecourt, his body was never found. His sister Effie found this difficult and in 1918 she wrote to her brother's Commanding Officer asking for details of his comrades as she wished to write to them to see if they had any more news of him.

The second offensive on Bullecourt was a result of the failure of the initial assault to penetrate the German lines. British artillery bombarded the village, which by 20 April had been virtually destroyed. The infantry assault, initially planned for 20 April, was pushed back a number of times and finally set for the early morning of 3 May. At 3:45am, elements of the Australian 2nd Division attacked East of Bullecourt village while British troops from the 62nd Division attacked Bullecourt.

Despite heavy fire and close-in fighting, the West Yorkshire Regiment penetrated through to the northern outskirts of Bullecourt, but reinforcements could not reach them. The attempts to reinforce the parties that had advanced the furthest proved costly and fruitless. Orders were hurriedly sent to 22nd Brigade to assist, but it was not until 10.30pm that the 2nd Honourable Artillery Company and 1st Royal Welsh Fusiliers came into action, and they very soon faced counter attacks. For all the efforts of 3 May, only a small lodgement had been made in the enemy system. 18,000 British and Australian men were killed or wounded in this offensive.

{PL-120}

The copyright image of Travers used on this webpage is from the Imperial War Museum "Bond of Sacrifice" collection. This image and other related ones can be viewed in the Imperial War Museum "Bond of Sacrifice" collection by clicking on the link below:-

Travers Simpkin IWM (HU 205388641)

Charles SMITH

Private No. 51959, 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment
Killed in Action 28th September 1918 aged 23
No Known Grave Commemorated Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium
Son of Thomas and Mary Elizabeth Smith
Lived Cawley Hill Farm, Heckmondwike

Charles was born on 28th May 1895, the eighth son of Thomas Smith of Dewsbury Moor, a Farmer and Mary Elizabeth Horsby who had married on 25th March 1876 in his mother's home town of Horbury. Charles was baptised as Charlie on 4th July 1897 at St John the Evangelist Church, Dewsbury Moor.

The family had attended St John's Church for the baptism of all their nine children, Robert William (1878); Mary Ann (1878); Thomas Herbert (1879); Edward (1882); John William (1884); Clifford (1888); Frank (1890); Harry (1893); Charlie (1895). Four of the children died in infancy.

The census returns record the family living first at Knowles Hill, Dewsbury, but by the time of the 1911 census their address is identified as Squirrel Hall Farm, Staincliffe Road, Dewsbury where four of the sons, Edwin, Clifford, Frank and Charlie are recorded to be living and farming with their widowed father, their mother, Mary Elizabeth, having passed way in the summer of 1910 aged 57. Thomas moved his family to Cawley Hill Farm, off Kilpin Hill, Heckmondwike in about 1913 and it was from this address that two of the brothers enlisted at same time.

Charles enlisted at Dewsbury, first in the West Yorkshire Regiment as Private 75852, but he had been transferred to the 11th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment as Private 51959 by the time he was killed in action on 28th September 1918.

It is known that the 11th Battalion spent the first days of September 1918 in training with occasional football matches between the companies. On 15 September, when the Battalion was based at Hondeghem in Belgium, the Battalion received 141 reinforcements. On the 24 September a move began, by train and on foot, towards Bailleul South West of Ypres. The following day they were in the trench system just outside Armentieres, a village which had been in German hands since April 1918. The Battalion was shelled throughout this period. A move out of the line on the night of 27/28 September was only temporary, and most of the Battalion moved back to the front lines to support an attack by the 10th East Yorkshire's (which used to be known as the Hull Commercials) and the 11th East Lancashire's (the Accrington Pals). This part of the attack on Ploegsteert Wood was launched at 3pm on 28 September. Though called a 'wood' its appearance was that of other woods along the Western Front – stumps of trees; pools of water.

Casualties amongst all the Battalions were high from shelling and machine gun fire and Private Smith is recorded as having been killed in action on that day. Charlie has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial on Panel 47 to 48 & 163A. The Germans withdrew from Ploegsteert Wood later that night and Armentieres was retaken by the Allies on 29 September.

Charlie Smith's war effects and gratuity was sent to his eldest brother and grantee, Thomas H. Smith in 1919 as their father, Thomas Smith, had died on 15 Jan 1919 aged 68.

After the Great War, Charlie's brother Frank, is listed as a survivor in the Heckmondwike Memorial Book. He was a 29 year old Butcher and Farmer living at Cawley Lane Farm when he married Nellie Wilby in 1920. As their father Thomas Smith had died by that time, Clifford witnessed their marriage. Clifford died the following year aged only 33. This address was used when Charles Smith was remembered in the Heckmondwike Vellum Book which together with the Memorial in the Green Park was funded by Heckmondwike townspeople by public subscription and in remembrance of their sacrifice.

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Medals: Victory and British

Commemorated on: Heckmondwike Green Park Memorial and Vellum Roll; Dewsbury Memorial in Crow Nest Park; Dewsbury Roll of Honour; The St John's Church, Dewsbury War Memorial.

Ernest SMITH

Private 306302, 1st/7th Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)
Killed in Action 29th April 1918 aged 19
No Known Grave Commemorated Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium
Son of John and Agnes Smith
Lived 79, Brighton Street, Heckmondwike

It was not the usual start to war service on the Western Front. When Private Smith joined his Battalion the soldiers were billeted in houses along the sea front in Belgian coastal pre-war resorts and 'bathed in very luxurious Belgian military baths'. As we know, this was not to last.

Ernest Smith's parents were John, originally from Leeds, and Agnes (née Fawcett) from Heckmondwike. They married on 18 March 1896 and both gave their address as Brighton Street, Heckmondwike. By 1901 they were at 94, Brighton Street with 2 year old Ernest; nephew James aged 8 and niece Alice aged 3 both from Pontefract. In 1911 they were all at 79, Brighton Street except for James who was lodging elsewhere in Heckmondwike.

Before enlisting on 23 October 1915 Ernest worked for the Liversedge Coal Company, who ran the Strawberry Bank Mine (near the present Headlands Road). After training in the UK, Ernest was posted to what was still called the Expeditionary Force and arrived in France on 3 August 1917, eventually joining his Battalion on 20 August 1917 as one of a group of 20 new soldiers. The Battalion had recently been in the front line where the troops were heavily shelled with gas. The move to coastal billets resulted in a significant reduction in the 60 or 70 soldiers reporting sick each day with gas related problems.

April 1918 saw the Battalion defending the area to the South of Ypres during the Spring offensives of 1918. On 13 April the war diary says "the men were particularly cheerful, especially those in the front line, yesterday's experience of beating back the Boche with rifle and Lewis gun fire having given the men confidence in their weapons". But at 3.00am on Monday 29 April a heavy artillery barrage fell on the soldiers in the front line which lasted until 7.45am when the German Infantry attacked in mass formation. The war diary reported that "one barrage [from the British artillery], Lewis gun and rifle fire broke up the attack which was over by 8.10am. The men were magnificent". The German shelling continued through the day and the Battalion losses were estimated at 100 men, with Ernest one of that number. His body was never recovered or identified. He is commemorated on panel 84 of the Tyne Cot Memorial near Ypres, Belgium.

Ernest's father John was sent £2 18s 5d from his son's pay and allowances on 12 August 1918 and the war gratuity of £11 10s in November 1919.

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Harry SMITH

Private 27020, 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own)
Killed in Action 30th July 1917 aged 22
No Known Grave Commemorated Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, Belgium
Son of John and Catherine Smith
Lived 17, Barber Square, Heckmondwike

Harry was born in 1896, the youngest child of John and Catherine Smith. The marriage of his parents, John Nowell Smith and Catherine Lee had taken place in Birstall Parish Church on 12 April 1878. Both parents were from Heckmondwike. There were four other surviving children: Herbert was born in 1881; Elizabeth Ann in 1883; Norman in 1886 and Alice in 1889. The family lived for some years in Barber Square, Heckmondwike. For further family details see the entry for Norman Smith.

Harry worked at Scandinavia Belting Company, Cleckheaton before enlisting on 4 February 1916 in the Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regiment). This regiment is usually referred to in official records as the Yorkshire Regiment, but is probably better known to us as the Green Howards. Private Smith trained with the 3rd Reserve Battalion in the West Hartlepool area before being posted to France to join the 2nd Battalion. Local newspaper reports differ on the month he went to France. One suggests it was April or May 1916, if that was the case then Private Smith might have taken part in the attack on the first day of the Somme. Another report puts Private Smith's arrival in France as around August 1916 and that would mean that he might still have taken part in later actions that year. Private Smith's Battalion continued to have an intense involvement in the War, taking part in attacks in April 1917 on the Hindenburg Line to the East of Arras. On Wednesday 24 April 1917 Harry's Battalion was in action near the village of Heninel, just over 3 miles from where his brother Norman was killed on Thursday 3 May 1917.

The Battalion then moved North to the Ypres salient, training and preparing for the attack known formally as the Third Battle of Ypres, but which has become known to later generations by just one name: 'Passchendaele'. From the first day to the end of the battle in November 1917, conditions experienced by the soldiers are universally described as appalling. There is widely accepted evidence that men, and horses, drowned in the mud.

Private Smith was one of a team operating a Lewis gun. This was a machine gun weighing about 26 lbs (12 kgs) intended to be used by infantry. A team of between two and five soldiers was needed to reload and fire the gun effectively. Used in a mobile attacking situation the threat posed to the enemy by the Lewis gun often drew heavy fire from the defenders.

On 29 July 1917 the Battalion's A Company, to which Private Smith belonged, occupied isolated posts in the front line. On 30 July the Battalion was said to be 'settled in Assembly Positions for the advance next morning'. Official records show that Private Smith was killed on that day, though the War Diary does not record day by day casualties for this period. Some doubt is cast on the accuracy of that date of death in a letter written to Harry Smith's father by the officer in charge of A Company, Captain (later Lieutenant Colonel) G P Lund. He wrote saying that "your son Harry was killed in action on the 1st of August during the last attack".

That attack was launched from positions South of the Menin Road on 31 July 1917. At 3:10am the Battalion, including two machine gun teams, left their trenches and lay down in no-mans-land. At 3:50am the British artillery creeping barrage began and shells landed 50 to 60 yards in front of the Battalion, allowing the soldiers to advance behind it. The war diary says: "no opposition was met and little shell fire was experienced. A few Boche were killed and about 6 captured". Understandably reports on the action vary and in contrast a battalion attacking directly alongside the Yorkshire Regiment reported a "heavy barrage on the assembly positions" and "considerable machine gun fire from the right which somewhat hindered the 2nd Yorkshire Regiment".

The Battalion reached their final positions in Bodmin Copse by 2 August and were withdrawn from the line later that night. Their war diary shows a total of 235 casualties for this period. Heavy rain had begun to fall on 31 July and Harry's body was never recovered or identified. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Part XXXII. His father John was sent his son's outstanding pay and allowances of £1 16s 11d on 22 December 1917 and the War Gratuity of £6 on 28 October 1919.

Harry was born in 1896, the youngest child of John and Catherine Smith. The marriage of his parents, John Nowell Smith and Catherine Lee had taken place in Birstall Parish Church on 12 April 1878. Both parents were from Heckmondwike. There were four other surviving children: Herbert was born in 1881; Elizabeth Ann in 1883; Norman in 1886 and Alice in 1889. The family lived for some years in Barber Square, Heckmondwike. For further family details see the entry for Norman Smith.

Harry worked at Scandinavia Belting Company, Cleckheaton before enlisting on 4 February 1916 in the Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regiment). This regiment is usually referred to in official records as the Yorkshire Regiment, but is probably better known to us as the Green Howards. Private Smith trained with the 3rd Reserve Battalion in the West Hartlepool area before being posted to France to join the 2nd Battalion. Local newspaper reports differ on the month he went to France. One suggests it was April or May 1916, if that was the case then Private Smith might have taken part in the attack on the first day of the Somme. Another report puts Private Smith's arrival in France as around August 1916 and that would mean that he might still have taken part in later actions that year. Private Smith's Battalion continued to have an intense involvement in the War, taking part in attacks in April 1917 on the Hindenburg Line to the East of Arras. On Wednesday 24 April 1917 Harry's Battalion was in action near the village of Heninel, just over 3 miles from where his brother Norman was killed on Thursday 3 May 1917.

The Battalion then moved North to the Ypres salient, training and preparing for the attack known formally as the Third Battle of Ypres, but which has become known to later generations by just one name: 'Passchendaele'. From the first day to the end of the battle in November 1917, conditions experienced by the soldiers are universally described as appalling. There is widely accepted evidence that men, and horses, drowned in the mud.

Private Smith was one of a team operating a Lewis gun. This was a machine gun weighing about 26 lbs (12 kgs) intended to be used by infantry. A team of between two and five soldiers was needed to reload and fire the gun effectively. Used in a mobile attacking situation the threat posed to the enemy by the Lewis gun often drew heavy fire from the defenders.

On 29 July 1917 the Battalion's A Company, to which Private Smith belonged, occupied isolated posts in the front line. On 30 July the Battalion was said to be 'settled in Assembly Positions for the advance next morning'. Official records show that Private Smith was killed on that day, though the War Diary does not record day by day casualties for this period. Some doubt is cast on the accuracy of that date of death in a letter written to Harry Smith's father by the officer in charge of A Company, Captain (later Lieutenant Colonel) G P Lund. He wrote saying that "your son Harry was killed in action on the 1st of August during the last attack".

That attack was launched from positions South of the Menin Road on 31 July 1917. At 3:10am the Battalion, including two machine gun teams, left their trenches and lay down in no-mans-land. At 3:50am the British artillery creeping barrage began and shells landed 50 to 60 yards in front of the Battalion, allowing the soldiers to advance behind it. The war diary says: "no opposition was met and little shell fire was experienced. A few Boche were killed and about 6 captured". Understandably reports on the action vary and in contrast a battalion attacking directly alongside the Yorkshire Regiment reported a "heavy barrage on the assembly positions" and "considerable machine gun fire from the right which somewhat hindered the 2nd Yorkshire Regiment".

The Battalion reached their final positions in Bodmin Copse by 2 August and were withdrawn from the line later that night. Their war diary shows a total of 235 casualties for this period. Heavy rain had begun to fall on 31 July and Harry's body was never recovered or identified. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Part XXXII. His father John was sent his son's outstanding pay and allowances of £1 16s 11d on 22 December 1917 and the War Gratuity of £6 on 28 October 1919.

Norman SMITH

Private 203060, 2nd Battalion Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)
Killed 3rd May 1917 aged 32
No Known Grave Commemorated Arras Memorial, France
Husband of Ethel Smith
Lived 17, Barber Square, Heckmondwike

These notes focus on Norman Smith, but further information is included in order to illustrate the impact of the war in 1917 on his family and local relatives.

Norman was born in 1886. The marriage of his parents, John Nowell Smith and Catherine Lee had taken place in Birstall Parish Church on 12 April 1878. Both parents were from Heckmondwike. There were four other surviving children: Herbert was born in 1881; Elizabeth Ann in 1883; Alice in 1889 and Harry in 1896. The family lived for some years at 16, Barber Square, Heckmondwike.

Aged 25, Elizabeth married John Rhodes of Liversedge on 27 June 1908. Alice married Ernest Hendry of Heckmondwike on 17 October 1908 and Norman married 21 year old Ethel Marshall from Pyrah St, Dewsbury on 27 June 1914 at Holy Trinity Church, Batley Carr. They had one child, Randal Marshall, born 1st November 1914.

Norman was living in Hardy St, Crackenedge, Dewsbury when he was called up in September 1916. In February the following year his mother Catherine Smith died aged 56, and a local paper later reported that her death had been "in some measure due to anxiety about her sons", two of whom were in France. Private Smith wrote his last letter to his wife on 27 April 1917, when he said he "expected to be in the trenches at any time". On that day the Battalion was in camp at Liencourt, 16 miles West of Arras. Reveille on 28 April was at 4:30am and the Battalion marched off at 6:15am. By 29th April they were indeed in the trenches at Fampoux, just to the East of Arras.

The Battalion's attack began at 3:45am on Thursday 3 May 1917 over ground which had already been attacked on 9 April 1917 by the same Battalion and by the South African Brigade on 12 April 1917. The result was sadly, the same. Within just 40 seconds of the attack being launched a heavy artillery barrage fell on the 2nd Battalion and other soldiers of the 12th Brigade. The German heavy machine guns were deadly, but the Battalion won praise for its determined attack on the German held ruins of a chemical factory (now the site of a supermarket) and railway embankment, both of which had well prepared defences. The War Diary is very detailed in it's account of the action, but no permanent advance was possible against high explosives, gas shells and machine gun fire. At 6:00pm orders were received for the Battalion to move back to their front line trenches. At the end of that day a remarkably high figure of 279 soldiers were listed as missing. That might suggest that the retirement order never reached many of the Battalion's men. Private Smith was one of those missing. Later military records show: 'on or since 3/5/17, death presumed'. His body was never found or identified.

He was still reported as missing in August 1917 leaving the hope alive that he might be a prisoner of war. That was not to be, but Private Smith's outstanding pay and allowances of £1 5s 9d were not sent to Ethel Smith until 14 May 1918, over a year later. Ethel was awarded a weekly widow's pension of 18s 9d from 17 January 1918. Six shillings of that sum would be in respect of Randal and that would cease when he reached the age of 16. The £5 death grant was sent on 30 August 1918 and a war gratuity of £3 followed on 18 October 1920. There is no record of a re-marriage for Ethel and she died in 1970.

Norman's wife Ethel was the eldest child of the Marshall family. Two of her brothers served in the war: Sam and Albert. Sam enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery Territorials in Heckmondwike on 25 November 1912. He was therefore soon in France after the outbreak of war and was awarded the 1914/15 Star. He was wounded on 7 September 1916 and again on 14 October 1918 when he received a gunshot wound to the head. He survived the war.

His younger brother Albert Marshall was also in the Royal Field Artillery, he was promoted to Sergeant and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal. He was killed in action on 2 October 1917 and is buried alongside many of his comrades in Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery near Ypres, Belgium. His headstone carries the words 'He gave his life that others might live'.

Norman Smith's younger sister Alice had married Ernest Hendry in 1908. They had two children: Clara born in 1909 and Ronald in 1910. Ernest enlisted on 6 December 1915 as Private 29412 in the 9th Battalion Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment). He went to France on 29 December 1916 and on 29 April 1917 he was shot in the right ankle. He was discharged on 15 April 1918 and because of his wound was awarded the Silver War Badge which he could wear on the right lapel of his civilian clothes. His pension was £1 7s 6d a week reviewed every 6 months. His name is recorded in the Heckmondwike Roll of Honour.

To summarise the local impact of the war in 1917 we can look at the year from the perspective of Norman Smith's wife Ethel: her mother-in-law Catherine died in February, from causes perhaps made worse by her worry about her sons; her brother Sam continued at the front, despite being wounded in 1916; brother-in-law Ernest was wounded in April; her husband Norman was posted as missing in May; her brother-in-law Harry was killed in July 1917 (see separate notes); her brother Albert was killed in October and her husband would have been confirmed as dead by late Autumn.

The Society would like to thank Claire Wright for the additional details she provided about her family in November 2025.

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John William SPINK

Private 52041, 1st Battalion Leicestershire Regiment
Killed in Action 23rd October 1918 aged 23
Buried St. Souplet British Cemetery, Nord, France
Son of Thomas and Mary Ann Spink
Lived 9, Brooke Street, Heckmondwike

It must have been a great blow to William and Jane Headley of Heckmondwike to learn that two of their grandsons had been killed on the same day - 23 October 1918. These notes focus on one of their grandsons – John William Spink. The details of the other grandson, his cousin Harry Headley also appear on this website.

John William was born in 1895, the first child of Thomas and Mary Ann Spink. They had married on 23 December 1894 at Bilborough near York. Thomas had worked on farms in the area. Mary Ann was born in Northallerton around 1878 and was a younger sister of Isabel Headley, later to be the mother of Harry Headley, John William's cousin. The sisters worked together for a time in the household of a Vicar near Richmond. Mary Ann was a 14 year old nurse there in 1891.

In 1901 Thomas lived at Lodge Farm, Norristhorpe, Liversedge with Mary Ann, John aged 5, Ethel aged 2 and newly born Edward. Sadly Thomas died in 1903, aged 38, and by 1911 the remaining Spink family lived at Redvers Mount, Norristhorpe, Liversedge, with the Headleys. Mary was a Charwoman, John was a Woollen Piecener; and Ethel and Edward were still at school.

John enlisted under the Derby Scheme in the West Riding Regiment in Heckmondwike sometime in 1916. He was wounded in France in 1917 and after recovering in the UK he returned to France on 15 September 1918. It is possible that at this point he transferred to the 1st Leicestershire Regiment with service number 52041.

Private Spink was soon back in action. On Wednesday 23 October 1918 three British Armies attacked along their entire front. This was the period of more mobile warfare and prepared trenches were a thing of the past. At 01.24 on the 23 October 1918, the Battalion moved forward from their positions near the village of Bazuel. John's cousin Harry Headley was attacking at the same time a short distance away on the other side of what is now the D463 road leading to the Oise Canal. The Leicestershire's had great difficulty in moving forwards through an area of orchards and thick hedges (see note for Harry Headley). These delays meant that any protection from the creeping barrage was lost. In the darkness and confusion some soldiers were reported to be heading towards Pommereuil where Harry Headley's Battalion was in action.

The soldiers faced artillery and machine gun fire as well as snipers firing from amongst the trees. Support was given by elements of the American Tank Corps, but by 12.30 pm on 23 October 3 officers and 74 soldiers had reported wounded to the Regimental Aid Post. In the afternoon the Leicestershire's were told that they would be relieved by the 2nd Sherwood Foresters, but they were delayed and did not fully take over until early hours of 24 October, by which time the Germans were in retreat towards the Oise Canal and the River Sambre.

John William Spink was killed on 23 October 1918.

On 3 May 1919 outstanding pay of £11 16s 11d, which included a £8 war gratuity was sent to John's brother Edward who received £5 18s 6d and his sister Ethel who received £5 18s 5d. John William Spink was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He is buried in St. Souplet British Cemetery which lies around five miles from Pommereuil where his cousin, Harry Headley, is buried. He is remembered on the Heckmondwike War Memorial in Green Park, The Book of Remembrance in Heckmondwike Library, and on the WW1 Memorial of Norristhorpe Congregational Church.

As well as Harry Headley and John William Spink, two uncles, who survived the war, are also remembered in the Heckmondwike Roll of Honour at Heckmondwike Library. All four have been given the same address of 9, Brooke Street, Heckmondwike. The surviving sons of William and Jane Headley are Fred Harper Headley, Private 13740 of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was awarded the 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. Christopher Henry Headley was in the Royal Garrison Artillery, Gunner 388213, and was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

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John William Spink is remembered on The Royal Leicestershire Regiment website, click on this link to view his entry.

Joe Hartley STEAD

Private 35130, 25th Northumberland Fusiliers (Tyneside Irish)
Died of Wounds 27th April 1917 aged 38
Buried Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, France
Husband of Alice Stead
Lived 111, Brighton Street, Heckmondwike

Joe was born on 16th October 1877, the only son of Walter Stead, a Spinner, of Cleckheaton and Sarah Hartley, who had married at Birstall Parish Church. Joe was baptised on 28th November 1880 at Cleckheaton's Providence Place Congregational Chapel. The family had been living at Scratt Lane, Gomersal in 1881 but then moved to Springfield Cottage, Heaton Street, Cleckheaton where Walter continued to be employed as a Worsted Overlooker in a mill. When Joe was thirteen, he started work as a Millhand, but later moved into the grocery trade, being employed in his grandfather, David Hartley's, shop on the corner of Westgate and Old Robin in Cleckheaton.

In the summer of 1907 Joe married Alice Haley and they had moved to Heckmondwike by the 6th December 1909. Joe Hartley Stead was granted an ale licence as the tenant of a grocers and off-licence shop at 111, Brighton Street, Heckmondwike. They continued to live and work at the shop until the outbreak of war, they had no children. Joe joined the Heckmondwike Volunteer Training Corps, a voluntary home defence militia formed during WW1 for those over military age or in business which made it difficult for them to volunteer for the armed services. He won a shooting prize at Oakenshaw.

Eventually Joe was called up for military service and on December 20th 1916 he enlisted in the Northumberland Fusiliers at Heckmondwike, spending time training at Blyth, Northumberland, with the reserve battalion before going out to France early in March 1917. The ale licence was transferred into Alice's name on 5th February 1917.

The 25th (2nd Tyneside Irish) Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers was a Pals Battalion, raised at Newcastle on the 9th of November 1914, by the Lord Mayor and City. In June 1915 the Battalion joined the 103rd Brigade, 34th Division at Ripon and after further training they moved to Salisbury Plain in late August for final training. They proceeded to France in January 1916 where the 34th Division concentrated at La Crosse, East of St Omer. They were in action during the Battles of the Somme, including the capture of Scots and Sausage Redoubts, the Battles of Bazentin Ridge and Pozieres Ridge. The 103rd Brigade and the Divisional Pioneers also saw action in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. In 1917 they fought in the First and Second Battles of the Scarpe and the the Battle of Arleux during the Arras Offensive. Joe Hartley Stead would probably have joined the company at the time of the second battle of the Scarpe, fought near Arras, but the precise records are lost.

Joe had only been in France for six weeks, three weeks of which he had spent at the base, and had been in the trenches on two occasions, when he was wounded on the 26th April 1917 and admitted to hospital. Alice received a field postcard from the Chaplin W.S. Butler stating that he was in hospital, sick, but doing well. However the post which arrived on Saturday 5th May brought two letters for Alice, a letter from the Chaplin to inform her that it had been necessary to amputate his right arm and right leg but the doctor expected him to make a full recovery, and a second, with official news from the Infantry Record Office in York, stating that her husband had died from his wounds in hospital on 27th April. The local newspaper, the Cleckheaton Advertiser and Spenborough Times, on Thursday May 10th 1917 carried Joe's picture and the news of his death.

He is buried at Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension, France, his grave reference is II. G. 36.

Joe had been a member of the Heckmondwike VTC, Back Lane WMC, Brighton Street WMC, an active member of the Tradesman's Cricket Club and also the Cleckheaton Liberal Club where flags were flown at half mast. Joe's widow, Alice, eventually remarried and remained at Brighton Street.

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Medals: Victory and British

Commemorated: Heckmondwike Green Park and Vellum Roll; Providence Place Chapel photographic memorial; Ireland's Memorial Records 1914-1918.

Info from: www.wartimememoriesproject.com/

Edgar SUTCLIFFE

Bugler 12/2151, 10th Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Killed in Action 13th April 1918 aged 20
No Known Grave Commemorated Ploegsteert Memorial, Belgium
Son of Ellis and Ellen Sutcliffe
Lived 7, Birkhead Street, Heckmondwike

Edgar was born in Brighouse on 11th March 1898, he was one of ten children and the fourth of five sons of Ellis and Ellen Sutcliffe. The family moved to Heckmondwike shortly after Edgar's birth where his father took up the post of Manager of the Co-op Furniture Department. Before the war Edgar was an Apprentice Upholsterer to Mr North of Brighouse. He attended St Saviour's Church where he had been a choirboy and was a member of the Church Lads' Brigade. Two of Edgar's four brothers also served, Harry was discharged on medical grounds in 1915 and 1st Air Mechanic Leonard served with the Flying Corps, in Lincoln, until the end of the war.

Edgar enlisted, aged 17, in October 1915 at Killinghall, a village just north of Harrogate. He went to France in June 1916. In the two and a half years that he was in France he had a few narrow escapes but was killed in action in April 1918 just one month after his twentieth birthday.

One of his sisters received a letter from a Lance Corporal E Stone saying then Edgar had been killed on April 13th. Also in the letter the Lance Corporal stated that "he [Edgar] was highly respected by all his officers and comrades, who were very sorry to lose such a noble and good lad"

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Alan TATTERSFIELD

Acting Bombardier 95023, 1st/1st Essex Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
Killed in Action 21st November 1917 aged 34
Buried Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery, Belgium
Son of Frederick James and Frances Mary Tattersfield
Lived The Hollins, Kilpin Hill, Heckmondwike

Allan was born on 19th November 1883 in Batley; one of the seven children of Frederick James Tattersfield, a Blanket Merchant, and his wife, Frances Mary Walker, who had married in 1876 and lived at The Hollins, Kilpin Hill, Heckmondwike. On the 1901 census Allan was listed as a Woollen Merchant's Assistant but by 1911 he had become a Cloth Merchant on his own account. His Grandfather, Jeremiah Tattersfield, also of The Hollins, had been a well known Blanket Manufacturer, employing 280 men, women and boys at Bower Lane, Kilpin Hill, Heckmondwike in the 1870's. The Tattersfield family are able to trace their ancestry back to Thomas Tattersfield who married Ann Appleby at Dewsbury Parish church on 10th November 1696. Allan's father died in 1912 aged 63.

Allan attested on 18th January 1916 at Liversedge and was put into the army reserve until 9th June 1916 when in Great Yarmouth, Suffolk, he was posted, as Bombardier 95032, in the 71st Essex Heavy Battery to No 4 Depot Royal Garrison Artillery. He remained on British soil until he was sent to France with the British Expeditionary force on 25th May 1917.

Soon after the outbreak of war the Heckmondwike Upper Independent Chapel's Young Men's Guild began to produce a monthly 'Active Service Magazine'. The publication enabled the active service members to receive news of one another's whereabouts and also messages from the minister. In March 1917, Allan's entry was

A/Bombardier Allan Tattersfield (95023), A Company, 4th Depot, Royal Garrison Artillery, Hut 4, 3 Lines, South Camp, Ripon. His older brother Frederick's address was Headquarters, Friends Ambulance Unit, B.E.F., France.

The Chapel encouraged those serving in the forces to supply a photograph to be mounted in several large frames and then displayed in an exhibition on 24th April 1917. However Allan's photograph was not amongst the 84 that were displayed. His service record shows that he set off with the British Expeditionary Force to France on 25th May 1917 when his mother was still living at The Hollins. She later moved to Framlingham in Suffolk. In the December 1917 issue, Allan's entry read as "Bomb. A. Tattersfield (95023) 1/1st Essex Heavy Battery, R.G.A., B.E.F. France". The next issue carried news of his death as follows:-

"For God, for Righteousness, and for Liberty.

Another name from our roll has been added to the scroll of fame which will be handed down throughout the ages to come, of the men who took their stand in the great battle for God, for righteousness, and for liberty.

Allan Tattersfield has passed onward to a higher life. He was killed in action during November. A descendant of strong puritan forefathers, he had inherited much of their great love of liberty, and although he hated war, and everything connected with war, with a passionate hatred, he loved and was ever ready to stand firm for liberty, for righteousness, and for God.

And with that vision grand at morn he passed -

That he with others yielded up his life

For love of race, Truth's victory at last,

To win a wider vision for the strife;

The "greater love" that more no man could give,

The sacrifices outpoured that men may live.

We deeply sympathise with our deceased's friend's mother and near relatives, and in this heavy trial which they have been called upon to bear trust that God will be very close to them, will put his loving arms around them and give them strength and hope for the future. As our pastor pointed out in his letter last month the names of those belonging to our church who have made the great sacrifice have doubled in number during the past year, but we believe that the sacrifice has not been in vain. It would be wrong to say that these men are dead, 'O rather say: that these do live (does nobleness o'er die?)' "

Allan was killed in action on 21st November 1917 in Flanders and is buried in Vlamertinghe New Military Cemetery two and a half miles West of Ypres. When Allan's will was published his widowed mother had moved to live at Storthholme, Pembroke Road, Framlingham, Suffolk.

The Cleckheaton Advertiser & Spenborough Times published a report of his death on 6th December 1917 as follows "We regret to announce that Bombardier Allan Tattersfield, 1st-1st Essex Heavy Battery, R.G.A. has been killed in action in recent fighting in France. He was the fourth son of the late Mr Frederick Tattersfield, of The Hollins, Dewsbury Moor, and one of the heads of the late firm of Messrs. Jeremiah Tattersfield and Sons, blanket manufacturers, of Kilpin Hill Mills. A staunch Liberal, he was a member of both the Batley and Staincliffe Liberal Clubs. He enlisted in the Royal Garrison Artillery and had been in France some months. One of his brothers, Mr Frederick Tattersfield, is on the Headquarters Staff of the Friends' Ambulance Unit and has been in France since the early days of the war"

Medals: Victory and British

Commemorated: Heckmondwike Green Park and Vellum Roll; Upper Independent Chapel Memorial, Active service magazine; St Saviour's Parish Church Memorial; Batley War Memorial.

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Ernest TATTERSFIELD

Private 18/1566, 15th/17th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
Died 12th April 1918 aged 25
No Known Grave Commemorated Ploegsteert Memorial, Belgium
Son of Arthur and Mary Jane Tattersfield
Lived 30, Boundary Street, Flush, Heckmondwike

Ernest was born at the end of 1892 and his parents were Arthur Tattersfield born 1868 and Mary Jane nee Warden born 1869. The family were living in the Flush area of Heckmondwike in 1901 and 1911. Ernest was the eldest son and had an older sister and two younger sisters as well as two younger brothers, all born between 1890 and 1907.

His father was a Spinning Overlooker in 1891, 1901 & 1911 but, sadly, died in 1912 aged only 45 years.

Ernest and his family were connected with the United Methodist Chapel.

Ernest joined up in 1915 in the 'Leeds Pals' Regiment and had twice been in hospital. The first time was with 'trench foot' and the second time he was suffering from shock, having been buried by the explosion of a shell.

He had been missing since Easter 1918 and is presumed to have died on 12th April 1918 but has no known grave. His name is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial, Hainault, Belgium.

His name is also on the Heckmondwike Green Park Memorial and St Saviour's War Memorial as well as the Parish Church Memorial.

Prior to his enlistment, he worked at Flush Mills of T.F. Firth & Sons Ltd as a Yarn Hanker in 1911 and consequently his name is on the Memorial in Firth Park, Heckmondwike. His name is also on their Roll of Honour at the Clifton Mills site at Bailiff Bridge. When the company closed this Roll of Honour was moved to Brighouse Library.

His name is also on the Bailliff Bridge War Memorial. The land and this memorial was donated by the then owner of T. F. Firths, Sir William Henry Ackroyd, who lived in Lightcliffe.

Ernest was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

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Robert Hodgson TAYLOR

Private 1827, 12th Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Died 13th January 1919 aged 35
Buried Bowling Cemetery, Rooley Lane, Bradford
Husband of Charlotte Taylor
Lived 18, King Street, Heckmondwike

Robert was born on 22nd September 1883 at 19, Priestley Street off Bolton Road, Bradford. His parents were John and Sarah Ann (née Hodgson); John was from East Retford; Sarah was from Wetherby. Robert was baptised on 20th January 1884 in Bradford Parish Church.

By 1901 Robert, then aged 17 was working as a Pavior, like his father. On 4th April 1904 Robert married Charlotte Ann Lewis at St John’s Church, Cheetham, Manchester. In 1911 Robert, Charlotte, 4 year old son Ralph and daughter Evelyn, born 23rd November 1910, were living at 14, Bolland Buildings, Low Moor, Bradford. Robert worked for the Building Department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company. By 1914 the family were at 5, King Street, Heckmondwike and a son John Vincent was born on 30th November 1914. Their first son Ralph died around this time.

On 11th August 1915 Robert joined the 12th Service Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (Pioneers). He gave his address as 18, King Street, Heckmondwike; his occupation as a Pavior and his age as 31 years 11 months. In October 1915 the Battalion moved to a camp at Fovant near Salisbury before sailing for Egypt, arriving there on 6th December 1915. The Battalion carried out maintenance work along the Suez Canal until they received orders to move to France, arriving in Marseilles on 3rd March 1916.

The Battalion took part in the attack on the remains of the fortified village of Serre on the first day of the Battle of the Somme: 1st July 1916. The Battalion’s orders were that they should support the attacks by the Leeds, Bradford and Accrington Pals Battalions by maintaining communications; wire cutting and trench repair. In addition to their packs each soldier carried tools and 170 bullets for their Lee-Enfield rifles – the Pals soldiers were equipped with 220 bullets. The severe losses suffered by the Pals Battalions meant that the 12th Battalion was fully engaged in the attack. At roll call at 16:30, 197 soldiers of the Battalion were listed as killed, wounded or missing.

At this point the records for Pte Taylor are unclear: he returned to England on 7th July 1916, though a note that says he had been wounded has been deleted. A son, also named Ralph, was born on 27th July 1916 but the likelihood of a soldier being granted leave on that account, at that stage of the Somme offensive, seems remote. The usual leave period was 10 to 14 days, including travel and Pte Taylor did not return to France until October 1916.

But it is clear that he was posted on 3rd September 1916 to the 3rd Battalion, which was then in Reserve at Withernsea on the East Coast. When Pte Taylor did return to France on 6th October 1916 it was with the 10th Battalion.

He continued to serve with the 10th and was wounded whilst the Battalion was in an area to the South-East of Bethune in Northern France when attacks were being made on the German defence lines during December 1916. German ‘Blue Cross’ gas shells fell on the Battalion’s positions and the Battalion records show that two men were wounded on 10th December 1916; one on 19th December and one on 21st December. Pte Taylor was amongst those wounded and he was back in England on 29th December 1916. He spent some time in Eastbourne, perhaps in the large military hospital there. He was later assessed as ‘no longer fit for war service’ and was discharged from the Army on 15th October 1917. On 28th November 1917 he was awarded the Silver War Badge as a soldier discharged on account of wounds.

Robert died on 13th January 1919 in Horton War Hospital, now St Luke’s Hospital Bradford. Causes of death were heart failure and a stroke. He was 35 years old and his home address was 60, Saville Street, Bradford 4. He is buried in Bowling Cemetery Bradford, block M. In addition to the Silver War Badge he was awarded the 1915 Star, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal. His total service for pension purposes was 2 years 66 days. Mrs Taylor received two payments on 8th March 1920: outstanding allowances of 15s 7d and a war gratuity of £9 10s. In late 1920 Charlotte married John Britton in Bradford and in 1925 arranged for the inscription ‘Thy will be done’ to be included on the Imperial War Graves Commission headstone in Bowling Cemetery. Charlotte died in 1927, aged 43.

Robert Taylor’s nephew Robert Hodgson also served in the Army, mainly with the Machine Gun Corps, from 20th February 1918 to 13th December 1919.

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George Henry TOWNEND

Private 5954, 1st/4th Battalion Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)
Killed in Action 15th August 1916 aged 20
No Known Grave Commemorated Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Son of Joss and Alice Townend
Lived 11, Bottoms, Heckmondwike

Joss Townend was 27 and Alice Exley 23 when they were married on 14th June 1879 in the Parish Church. They were both from Heckmondwike. Two years later Joss, Alice and their one year old son George were living at Barbers Fold, Heckmondwike. Three members of the Exley family lived there with them including Alice's father, Mark. By 1891 the Townend family were still at Barbers Fold, but now with sons Fred, aged 10; Ernest, born 19th July 1883 and daughter Sarah aged 3. George Henry was born in 1896 and in 1901 the family were at 44, Brighton Street, Heckmondwike with eldest son George; Ernest; Sarah; George Henry; Harriet aged 2 and Edith aged 1. The 1911 census saw further changes, with four of the eight surviving children at 4, Park Street, Heckmondwike.

George Henry enlisted in Halifax on 6th February 1915, originally with the Yorkshire Regiment. He described his occupation as Willeyer and was aged 19. At some point he transferred to the 1st/4th West Riding Regiment and arrived in France on 15th June 1916. In early August 1916 the Battalion was in the trenches in the Somme area near Thiepval and it was here that George Henry was killed on 15th August 1916. The War Diary gives little detail for that period other than to say that the Battalion provided carrying parties. One of the other sons, Fred,, lived in Dodworth near Barnsley and had enlisted as Private 1220 in the York and Lancaster Regiment 13th (1st Barnsley) Battalion at the age of 34. His Battalion was in the Mailly Maillot area when he was killed on 17th June 1916, just two days after his brother George Henry had arrived in France. The places where the two brothers were killed are around 4 miles apart. A third brother, Ernest, was one of the 1500 1st Royal Naval Brigade who crossed the border into Holland to avoid capture after their defence of Antwerp in October 1914.

In accordance with neutrality laws they were interned at Groningen in a camp which became known as 'HMS Timberland'. Records suggest Ernest was back at his home in Dodworth no later than early 1919.

Mother Alice Townend was named as next of kin for her son George Henry and her son's effects were sent to her in January 1917. These personal effects included his disc; postcards; photos; a purse and two wallets. His outstanding pay of £3 9s 2d was sent to Mrs Townend at the same time. The £3 War Gratuity was sent in September 1919; the British War Medal and the Victory Medal in 1921. On 26th April 1919 Alice Townend completed a form on which she listed some of people related to her son George Henry. Those names are included here to help any reader who is trying to find a family link to the Townend brothers. The names were: brothers and sisters George aged 39, living at Milton Square Heckmondwike; Ernest, 35, in Dodworth; Arthur, 15, in Park Street Heckmondwike; Sarah Emma Firth, 30, in Brighton Street Heckmondwike; Harriet Alice Townend, 20 and Edith, 19, both in Park Street. Nephews and nieces: Florence aged 15; Doris, 4; Fred, 14; Wilmot, 8; Ethel, 14; May, 9 and Percy, 8, all in New Street Dodworth. Uncles and aunts: Edith Littlewood, 67, in Jeremy Lane Heckmondwike; Eva Fox, 54, in Staincliffe Road, Dewsbury and James Townend, 57, in Union Road, Heckmondwike. Though recorded initially on the returns for the Mill Road Cemetery near Thiepval, George Henry is now commemorated, like his brother Fred, on the Thiepval Memorial Pier and Face 6A and 6B.

{AG-130}

Thank you to the Dodworth War Memorial Group of Barnsley U3A for their support in putting together this summary.

Charles Gladstone TREVITT

Private 22511, 8th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers
Died 24th August 1916 aged 18
Buried Avesnes-le-Comte Communal Cemetery Extension, France
Son of Frank Bellwood and Mary Hannah Trevitt
Lived 5, Fountain Street, Heckmondwike

Private Charles Gladstone Trevitt was born 19th May 1898 in Heckmondwike. He was the only son of Frank Bellwood Trevitt and Mary Hannah nee Webb. He was baptised at Heckmondwike Methodist Church on 9th July 1898. The family were settled at 5, Fountain Street, Heckmondwike and a daughter, Emily, was born there 9th October 1901.

Charles's father was also born in Heckmondwike, but his grandfather Richard Trevitt originated in Shropshire where he was a Carpet Weaver and came to Heckmondwike to work in the carpet industry.

Charles enlisted in Bradford into the Northumberland Fusiliers. He died on the 24th August 1916, aged 18 years, during the Somme Offensive. He is buried in Avesnes-le-Compte Communal Cemetery Extension.

His name is commemorated on St. James's and St. Saviour's War Memorials.He was awarded the British War Medal, the Victory Medal and the 1914/15 Star.

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A photograph of Charles's headstone can be viewed and purchased from The Great War Photographic Project by using this link.

George TURTON

Private 48132, 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment (The Green Howards)
Died 22nd March 1918 aged 20
Commemorated Pozieres Memorial, France
Son of George and Emily Ann Turton
Lived 4, Cater Lane, Heckmondwike

George was the son of George Turton of Birkin, near Knottingley and Emily Ann, nee Richards, of Hemingborough. George's father was an Osler or Hosler, that is someone who looked after horses. The family moved around quite often before finally settling in Heckmondwike. In 1911 the family were living at 4, Cater Lane in Heckmondwike, George (senior) was a Horse Keeper for the railway company and is described as, "working at home", this probably meant they were living near the railway sidings, the property of the Yorkshire & Lancashire Railway Company. George's mother had given birth to 10 children but only 4 had survived to 1911.

George (junior) was born in 1899 and in 1901 was living with his parents and 3 sisters and one brother at 4, Cater Street, Heckmondwike. He attended Heckmondwike Secondary School, then a Higher Grade School, accommodating over 900 children. Heckmondwike Secondary School is now the Grammar School. He was also a member of St James's Parish Church.

George was still at school in 1911 and on leaving school he worked at Flush Mills, in the town. He joined the 2nd Battalion, Yorkshire Hussars (Alexandra, Princes of Wales's Own) in March 1917 aged 18 years. He enlisted in Bradford and his army number was 48132.

He went to France in January 1918. In March of that year the battalion was in Roupy, which is near St Quentin in North Eastern France. We know, from Sir Douglas Haigh's Despatches, that the British Army in early 1918 was aware of preparations for a German counter offensive. Sir Douglas wrote: "Towards the middle of February, 1918, it became evident that the enemy was preparing for a big offensive on the Western front. It was known from various sources that he had been steadily increasing his forces in the Western theatre since the beginning of November, 1917. These reinforcements were more than were necessary for defence and as they were moved at a time when the distribution of food and fuel to the civil population in Germany was rendered extremely difficult through lack of rolling stock, I concluded that the enemy intended to attack at an early date.... As the 21st March approached it became certain that an attack on this sector was imminent, and counter-preparation was carried out nightly by our artillery on the threatened front. By 21st March the number of German infantry divisions in the Western theatre had risen to 192, an increase of 46 since the 1st November, 1917."

The German army's offensive, known as Operation Michael, began just before 0500 on 21st March. Haigh wrote that there was fierce fighting at Roupy: "On the morning of the 22nd March the ground was again enveloped in thick mist, under cover of which the enemy renewed his attacks in great strength all along the line. Fighting was again very heavy and short-range fire from guns, rifles and machine guns caused enormous losses to the enemy's troops. The weight of his attack, however, combined with the impossibility of observing beforehand and engaging with artillery the massing of his troops enabled him to press forward."

It was at this time George was killed in action. He is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial, on the road between Albert and Bapaume in the Somme region.

There is a record of George's effects and a war gratuity being paid to his father George. The effects were £2-10-03, paid over on 2nd August 1918 and the War Gratuity of £3-0-0 was signed for on 25th November 1919. He was awarded posthumously the Victory Medal and the British Medal for his war service. George's father died in 1922 whilst his mother lived in Heckmondwike until she died in 1935.

George is commemorated on a number of War Memorials: St James's Church, Heckmondwike Grammar School, T F Firth's Memorial and the Memorial in Bailiff Bridge.

{PL/KW-132}

John WADSWORTH

Private 38152, Yorkshire Regiment
Died 8th May 1918 aged 39
No Known Grave Commemorated Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium
Husband of Eva Wadsworth
Lived 131, Brighton Street, Heckmondwike

John was born in 1878 in Barnsley. He was the second son of Benjamin Wadsworth and Ellen nee Dunhill. Benjamin was an Engineering Fitter and moved around for his work. Benjamin had been born in 1848 in Sowerby Bridge and Ellen came from Ardsley. The family had been in Barnsley when John was born but were back in the Halifax area by 1881. By 1901 the family had moved to Heckmondwike and by this time John was working as an Iron Moulder.

At the end of 1904 John married Eva Haigh and they had 4 children, Herbert William in 1907, Evelyn in 1911 who died 1911, Amy in 1913 and Eva in 1916 who died 1916.

John was working as a Projectionist at the Pavilion Cinema in Heckmondwike when he enlisted in September 1916 into the Yorkshire Regiment. He had previously worked in a similar position at the Cleckheaton Picture Palace.

He left for France on January 1st 1917. He was wounded in the Spring of 1917. He transferred briefly to the Royal Engineers but went back to his old regiment.

He was an active member of Back Lane Working Men's Club and was well known and respected in the district.

His name is commemorated on the Memorial at Tyne Cot Memorial near Ypres as well as on the War Memorial in Green Park, Heckmondwike and on St. James's Church and St. Saviour's Church Memorials.

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Herbert WALKER

Private 25231, 17th Battalion Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment (Sherwood Foresters)
Died 1st August 1917 aged 22
Buried Brandhoek Cemetery, Belgium
Son of Joseph and Sarah Walker
Lived 43, Upper George Street, Heckmondwike

Herbert was the eldest of the four sons of Joseph and Sarah Walker (formerly Stead), he was born 1895 in Millbridge, Liversedge, his parents later moved to Toronto with his two youngest brothers.

Before the war he had worked for Messrs Marshall, Kaye and Marshall of Ravensthorpe - on the 1911 census he was listed as a Creeler in a carpet works. He was associated with Millbridge Wesleyan Chapel and School.

He joined up in April 1915; he had been in France since the beginning of 1916 and had previously been wounded. He died in a casualty clearing station of wounds received at the Battle of Pilckem Ridge which took place between 31st July to 2nd August 1917, it was the opening attack of the Third Battle of Ypres also known as Passchendaele.

{PL-134}

Percy WALKER

Private 242697, 1st/5th Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Died 25th March 1917 aged 26
Buried Longuenesse (St Omer) Souvenir Cemetery, France
Son of Joe and Annie Walker
Lived at 5, Northgate, Heckmondwike

Percy was the son of Joe and Annie Walker who both worked in the Textile Trade, he had one younger brother. For many years Percy was employed by Messrs Law & Sons Ltd of Cleckheaton, he was a Machine Tenter by trade. He was a member of the Beck Lane Working Men's Club and had played football for both Heckmondwike United and Birstall Parish Church teams.

He joined the Duke of Wellington's (West Yorkshire Regiment) on the 19th February 1916 and later transferred to the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He went to France in July 1916 and died of shrapnel wounds to the head the following year.

{PL-135}

Ralph WALKER

Private 14435, 1st Battalion Scots Guards
Died 6th April 1917 aged 31
Buried in Grove Town Cemetery, Meaulte, France
Husband of Sarah Elizabeth Walker
Lived at 102, Brighton Street, Heckmondwike

Ralph was born in Batley in 1886; he was the youngest son of John Willans Walker and his wife Anna. John Walker was a Rag Merchant and before the war Ralph worked for his father as a Warehouseman. He was a member of Brighton Street Working Men's Club.

He married Sarah Elizabeth Senior in 1904 and they had three children, John born in 1908, George Herbert born in 1910 and a third who was born after the 1911 census.

Ralph enlisted in October 1915 and went to France in January 1916. In September 1916, the Scots Guards got involved in the Somme Offensive for the first time, taking part in the subsidiary Battle of Flers-Courcelette, which saw the first introduction of the tank. Between March and April 1917 the Regiment was involved in the British pursuit of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line. During that period Ralph Walker was admitted to hospital suffering from pneumonia from which he subsequently died.

{PL-136}

Thomas Dobson WALKER

Rifleman C/7714, King's Royal Rifle Corps
Died 15th September 1916 aged 19
Buried Bulls Road Cemetery, Flers, Somme, France
Son of Thomas and Eva Walker
Lived Joanroyd, Heckmondwike

Thomas was born at the end of 1896 and was the son of Thomas Walker of Liveresdge and Eva Dobson of Leeds. Sadly, just before Thomas Dobson was born, his father died leaving his widow Eva with at least 5 young children.

Eva married Arthur Haigh in 1898. Arthur was a widower and already had at least three children. Arthur and Eva had a child together named Dobson Haigh. Thomas was living with his mother, stepfather and step siblings at Joanroyd in 1911. He enlisted in Bradford and joined the King's Royal Rifle Corps.

He was killed in action on 15th September 1916 and is buried at Bulls Road Cemetery at Flers in France.

He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. His name in inscribed on the War Memorials of St. James's Church and St. Saviour's Church.

{MA-137}

Anthony WALSH

Private 17213, 2nd Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Killed in Action 14th April 1917 aged 29
No Known Grave Commemorated Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Son of Michael and Mary Walsh
Lived 16, Royle Fold, Heckmondwike

Anthony's father Michael Walsh was originally from County Sligo, Ireland. On 26th January 1885 he married Mary Gallagher from County Mayo at St Patrick's Church Heckmondwike (later named Church of the Holy Spirit, Cemetery Road). Their eldest son Thomas was born in 1886 and by 1891 the family of Michael; Mary; Thomas; Anthony aged 4; Kate aged 2 and new born Mary lived in Royle Fold, Heckmondwike with 5 adult lodgers. Still in Royle Fold in 1901, a son Martin then aged 2 had been added to the family, with just one boarder and one visitor at that address at census time. The 1911 census shows 5 Walsh family members and 2 boarders living at 16 Royle Fold.

But of the 8 children born to the Walsh parents just 3 were still living by 1911: sons Thomas; Anthony and Martin. We know that sadly, both Thomas and Anthony were killed in the War by 1917 and the evidence available at this point suggests that the youngest son Martin had died in 1915 aged around 16.

Anthony volunteered early in the war and arrived in France on 11th September 1915. The local newspaper reported that he had returned to England with septic poisoning towards the end of 1915. After convalescing and enjoying some leave he returned to France early in 1917. The war diary records that at 9am on 9th April 1917 the Battalion received orders to take part in the assault on the remains of the German held village of Fayet Northwest of St. Quentin, France. But there was concern that the soldiers were becoming exhausted by exposure to the abominable' weather, so that day they had to march in snow from 7:45pm to 11pm to billets near Auroir. The Battalion rested there and had a change of clothes on 10th April 1917. At 9pm on 13th April 1917 the Battalion marched for 3½ hours to their position in the trenches ready for the assault at zero hour of 4:15am on 14th April 1917. Heavy fighting lasted throughout the day. The war diary records high losses amongst the officers, 'other ranks' are not shown but Anthony was killed that day. The Battalion held the new line until relieved at 9:30pm on 15th April 1917. Anthony's body was not recovered or identified and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Pier and Face 11C and 12A.

Anthony had £7 16s outstanding in pay and allowances and that sum was sent to his mother Mary on 21st November 1917. A War Grant of £12 was sent in 1919. Anthony was awarded the 1915 Star the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

His brother Thomas was killed on 3rd May 1917 whilst serving with the West Riding Regiment.

{AG-138}

Thomas WALSH

Private 306532, 2nd/7th Battalion Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)
Died 3rd May 1917 aged 32
Buried Ecoust Military Cemetery, Ecoust-Saint-Mien, Pas de Calais, France
Son of Michael and Mary Walsh
Lived 16, Royle Fold, Heckmondwike

Thomas was born on 3rd February 1886, the eldest son of Michael and Mary Walsh (née Gallagher). His parents were married on 26th January 1885 at St Patrick's Church (later Holy Spirit) in Heckmondwike. Thomas was baptised there on 21st February 1886 and confirmed on 4th September 1904. Michael was originally from County Sligo; Mary was from County Mayo.

In 1891 living in Royle Fold, Heckmondwike were Michael and Mary; Thomas; Anthony aged 4; Kate aged 2 and new born Mary; together with five adult lodgers. Still in Royle Fold in 1901 a son Martin aged 2 had been added to the family. But of the total of 8 children born to the Walsh parents just 3 were still living by 1911: sons Thomas, Anthony and Martin. We know that sadly both Thomas and Anthony were killed in France in 1917 and the evidence available at this point suggests that the youngest son Martin had died in 1915, aged around 16.

Thomas enlisted on 6th March 1915 and would have trained with the Battalion in Thoresby Park near Ollerton and other camps in England before eventually moving to Bedford on 2nd November 1916. There the Battalion continued their rifle and light machine gun training on the firing range. The war diary author thought it important enough to record that the training included firing both those weapons 'from the hip', perhaps in the hope that future battles might be more mobile in nature. On 15th January 1917 at 6.00am the soldiers went by train from Bedford to Southampton, sailing for Le Havre at 3.30pm that day. After a series of train journeys and marches the Battalion arrived at Bus-les-Artois North West of Albert on the Somme on 23rd January 1917.

The war diary shows that the Battalion's first experience in the trenches came on 7th and 8th February 1917 'for 24 hour instruction' near Hebuterne before returning to their huts at Bus-les-Artois. The weather remained 'exceedingly cold with hard frosts'. There was a 'plague of rats in the billets, the Medical Officer being bitten whilst asleep'. After a thaw on 15th February 1917 'everything was as sticky as could be, mud very bad'. There were 'no trenches at all just a line of posts in shell holes'. 'Conditions could not have been worse, consistently shelled but the men quite cheery'. That situation continued for the next weeks as the Battalion trained for a forthcoming attack which was to take place over ground which was broadly that of the Somme Battlefield of July 1916.

Then one sentence in the war diary for 17th March 1917 reveals the dramatic changes to come for the Battalion: 'Company patrols failed to get in touch with the enemy'. Largely undetected, the Germans had been preparing new defensive lines some miles to their rear. This entry in the Battalion war diary is one of the very first indications that the German withdrawal to the new Hindenburg Line was taking place.

Soon the Battalion had moved forward to the new German line near Ecoust-Saint-Mien South East of Arras. At 3.37am on 3rd May 1917 the Battalion, with 14 officers and 430 'other ranks' together with other Regiments advanced towards the Hindenburg Line near the ruins of the village of Hendecourt. But the artillery barrage had fallen short, the wire had been only partially demolished and the machine gun fire was very heavy. Some soldiers did enter the German lines, but then had to fall back to a line of shell holes. One group of soldiers was seen by an aeroplane to be through the first and second trenches, but none of them returned. The action ceased around 9.30pm with survivors back in their original positions. In total around 300 soldiers from the Battalion were casualties. Thomas Walsh was killed that day.

On Saturday 12 May 1917 Mr and Mrs Walsh received a letter from a chaplain with news of the death of Thomas. He wrote that Thomas had "fallen on the field of battle. He was brought back to Battalion headquarters unconscious and so badly wounded that he expired in a few moments".

Mary Walsh was sent her son's outstanding pay and allowances of £4 5s 4d in June 1917; the War Gratuity of £4 was sent in October 1919. Thomas, who never married, was awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.

Another Heckmondwike man in the Battalion, Frederick de-Forge Bartle, was killed in the same action. There are three others remembered in the Memorial book all with the Walsh surname: Edward, James and William, all lived in Royle Fold and all survived the war. It has not yet been possible clearly to establish any family link.

{AG-139}

The Society thanks The War Graves Photographic Project (www.twgpp.org) for providing this headstone photograph.

Norman WALSHAW

Sergeant 14729, Yorkshire Hussars (Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own)
Died 1st July 1916 aged 19
Buried Gordon Dump Cemetery, Ovillers-La Boiselle, Somme, France
Son of Albert and Annie Walshaw
Lived 3, Birkhead Street, Heckmondwike

Norman was born in the secoind quarter of 1897 in Rastrick. He was the eldest child of Albert Walshaw and Annie nee Lord. By 1911 they had two more children and were living in Birkhead Street in Heckmondwike, where Albert was a Wool and Yarn Dyer.

Norman enlisted in the Yorkshire Hussars in the Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Regiment. He was killed in action on 1st July 1916 in The Battle of the Somme and is buried in the Gordon Dump Cemetery at Ovillers-St Boiselle, V11 D 8.

He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. At home his name is on the Heckmondwike Grammar School War Memorial, the St. James's Church and St. Saviour's Church War Memorials.

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Victor George WARD

Lance Corporal 33124, Royal Engineers
Died 18th May 1918 aged 25
Buried Conde-Sur-L'Escaut Communal Cemetery, Belgium
Son of George and Mary Ann Ward
Lived 4, Grove Street, Heckmondwike

Victor was born at the end of 1892 in Lincolnshire to parents George Ward and Mary Ann nee Bulmer. He was the youngest of three children, but his brother Cecil George had died early in 1892 before Victor George was born. His father, George, was employed as a Gardener at the Hall in Brant Broughton, Lincolnshire. He left Lincolnshire to move to Heckmondwike where he was working as a Gardener and living on Chapel Lane when he died tragically young in February 1896, aged only 33 years leaving Mary Ann a widow and Victor George and his sister Ethel Mary born in 1889 without a father. The probable reason they came to Heckmondwike was because Mary Ann's younger sister Frances Bulmer born near Scarborough had married Eli Crossland whose family were living in Hightown.

Eli Crossland and Frances did not have any children and seem to have taken care of their niece Ethel Mary Ward and nephew Victor George, by 1901 they are living at 4, Grove Street in Heckmondwike and are still there in 1911.

Both Victor's father, George Ward and his sibling Cecil George Ward were buried in Heckmondwike Cemetery and Victor George Ward's name is also recorded on the family grave stone.

Victor attended Heckmondwike Grammar School and is recorded on the War Memorial there. In 1911 he was working as a Mechanic. He was working at Watson's Engineers at Gomersal prior to enlisting. He played the organ at Millbridge Wesleyan Chapel and was involved with the Sunday School and Young Men's group there.

He enlisted in the Royal Engineers and suffered from gas poisoning in 1917 and was confined to hospital for a few months. He returned to the front line at Cambrai and his family received a letter on December 1st 1917 that he was missing. He had been forced to withdraw from a part of the line which had become untenable under enemy pressure. According to the letter from his Major, Victor had lost touch with his Company during this withdrawal and was captured by German troops. Later his family were notified that he had been captured and was a prisoner of war, being held in Gefangenlager in Germany, but were hopeful that he was still alive and would be released at the end of the hostilities.

Sadly they received the communication from the Red Cross Society, on what would have been his 26th Birthday, that he had died at Friedrichfeld on 18th May 1918 and had been buried at Conde-sur-L'Esaut in Belgium.

His name is commemorated on St. Saviour's and St. James's War Memorials.

He was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

{MA-141}

Charles WEAVER

Private 16/1631, Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment)
Died 1st July 1916 aged 25
Buried Serre Road Cemetery No.1, Pas de Calais, France
Husband of Grace Weaver
Lived 37, Upper Beauregard Street, Heckmondwike

Charles was born in Witney in Oxfordshire in Jan/Feb/Mar 1891. His parents were John Weaver and Eliza nee Fardon. He had 6 older brothers and one older sister all born in Oxfordshire. Another sister Rose was born in 1894 and shortly after this the family moved to Heckmondwike where they were living on Upper Beauregard Street in 1901. However, their father, John, was not with the family in 1901. Their mother Eliza died in 1908 and in 1911, the rest of Charles's brothers and sisters had married, leaving Charles living with his brother Stephen at Croft Street , Heckmondwike. They had Thomas Peter Radbone and his family living with them as boarders. The Radbones were also from Oxfordshire and Thomas Peter was the uncle of Charles Radbone.

On October 26th 1912, at St. James's Parish Church Heckmondwike, Charles married Grace Goodall. They had a daughter, Rose, born Oct/Nov/Dec 1913.

Charles enlisted in the Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment). He was killed in action on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He is buried at Serre Road Cemetery No.1 about 20 km South of Arras. His grave is given as Section 5 Row D3.

His name is also on St. James's Parish Church War Memorial and St. Saviour's Church War Memorial. He was awarded the War Medal and the Victory Medal.

{MA-142}

Leonard WHITAKER

Clerk 249154, Royal Air Force
Died 24th November 1918 aged 27
Buried at Sea Commemorated Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton
Husband of Grace Whitaker
Lived 82, High Street, Heckmondwike

Leonard was born in Heckmondwike in 1891. His father, George, was born in Sandal but had moved with his family to Dewsbury by the time he was five years old. George married Lavinina Senior in 1887 and they had three children - Leonard was their youngest son. Both Leonard and his father worked in the Textile Trade, Leonard was a Mungo Rag Sorter but rose to become a Manager by the time he joined the Royal Air Force in 1917. He was very musical and played the piano in many local concerts, whilst in the RAF he played in concerts that were staged for the benefit of soldiers and sailors. He also composed music for song lyrics written by his commanding officer.

Leonard married Grace Oldfield from Batley in 1914 and they had one son called Horace who was born in 1917.

He was posted to the Shetland Isles in 1917 and contracted Spanish Flu on Armistice Day. His father and grandfather travelled to see him when reports of his illness reached his family, he died of pneumonia two weeks after contracting the illness aboard the hospital ship Agadir.

Leonard's entry on the Commonwealth War Graves Commision site reads "Whitaker, Clerk 3rd Class, Leonard, 249154, Royal Air Force. Buried at sea (from 'Agadir') 24 November 1918."

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Edwin WILLETT

Private 205573, 4th Battalion King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
Died 23rd November 1918 aged 33
Buried Earlsheaton Cemetery, Dewsbury
Husband of Edith Willett
Lived 60, Church Street, Heckmondwike

Edwin was born in Earlsheaton, Dewsbury, late in 1885, the son of Eliza Ann Willett (nee Buckley) and named in memory of his father Edwin, a Cloth Finisher, who had died on 1st August 1885 aged 34, shortly before Edwin was born. He was the youngest of five children.

At the age of 15 Edwin was working as a French Polisher but ten years later, the 1911 census, shows him aged 25 a Labourer on the Railways living at Sheep Hill, Earlsheaton, with his elder brother Walter Herbert Willett and his widowed mother Eliza Ann. Edwin witnessed his brother's marriage at St Peter's Church in Earlsheaton in 1912.

Edwin married Edith Senior from Earlsheaton in the late summer of 1917, they moved first to 53, Upper George Street, and then later to 60 Church Street, Heckmondwike. They had no children. At some time Edwin joined the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry before being moved into the Labour Corps as Private 595084 in the 494th Company . His service record was amongst those that were destroyed in September 1940, when a German Bombing raid struck the War Office Repository in Arnside Street, London.

The Labour Corps was formed in January 1917 and had grown to some 389,900 men (more than 10% of the total size of the Army) by the Armistice. Of this total, around 175,000, were working in the United Kingdom and the rest in theatres of war. The Corps was manned by officers and other ranks who had been medically rated below the "A1" condition needed for front line service. Labour Corps units were often deployed for work within range of the enemy guns and sometimes for lengthy periods. In the crises of March and April 1918, on the Western Front, Labour Corps units were used as emergency infantry. The Corps always suffered from its treatment as something of a second class organisation: the men who died are commemorated under their original regiment, with the Labour Corps being secondary. Few records remain of the daily activities and locations of the Corps units.

Edwin died on 23rd November 1918 aged 33 at York Military Hospital, twelve days after the Armistice was signed. He was buried at Earlsheaton Cemetery, Dewsbury, on 28th November. The Earlsheaton cemetery records document Edwin as being a Farmer and his abode as York Military Hospital. The grave stone confirms his father's death as 1st August 1885 but gives Edwin's death as 25th November 1918.

Medals:- Victory and British.

Commemorated on three War Memorials: Heckmondwike, Earlsheaton and Dewsbury and also in the Heckmondwike Vellum Book. His name is on the Highfield, Earlsheaton, Congregational Church Memorial, now saved within Dewsbury Baptist Chapel.

The entry in the Dewsbury Roll of Honour reads "Edwin Willett, 162, Bank Top, Earlsheaton, Dewsbury Pte 595084 K.O.Y.L.I. Died of Pneumonia 23.11.1918."

The Dewsbury Roll of Honour has 1,052 names, and their names are also inscribed on the Great War Memorial which stands in Crow Nest Park, Dewsbury and was unveiled on 6th September 1924.

{PL/KH-144}

Sherman WILSON

Private 27398, 7th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment (The Green Howards)
Died 8th February 1917
No Known Grave Commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Son of William Sutcliffe and Theodosia Wilson
Lived 80a, Walkley Lane, Heckmondwike

Sherman Wilson came from a well-known local family, his father William was the president of Back Lane WMC and chair of the Building Committee of Heckmondwike Co-op. Sherman himself was employed in the drapery department of the Co-operative Society. He was baptised at George Street Independent Chapel and was still connected with the United Free Methodists as an adult and was a member of the Mechanics Institute.

Sherman joined the Green Howards in February 1916 and went to France in July of the same year. He died on his return from a bayonet charge - as he was climbing over the parapet of his own trench he was shot and died instantly.

Sherman's brother Driver Harry Wilson of the Royal Field Artillery also served in France and survived the war.

{PL-145}

John Bradfield WINN

Private 22483, 12th/6th Northumberland Fusiliers
Died 3rd July 1916 aged 33
No Known Grave Commemorated Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Son of William and Sarah Jane Winn
Lived 36, Brighton Street, Heckmondwike

John was born in 1883, the eldest child of William Winn of George Street, Heckmondwike and Sarah Jane nee Alderson from Barnard Castle. William had been a Butcher at the time of his son's christening which took place in St Thomas' Church in Huddersfield, but by 1891 he had become a Public House Waiter in Heckmondwike. They attended the George Street Chapel where at least two of the younger children were baptised.

The family then moved to live at the Victoria Tavern in Knowler Hill, Liversedge where another child was born and where William was the Licensee in approximately 1897. William died in 1900 and Sarah Jane and family moved back to Upper George Street at some time before March 1901.

The 1911 census records that John Bradfield Winn was aged 28, unmarried, living with his mother and employed as a Boot Riveter at the Co-operative Wholesale Society boot and shoe makers, also known as Goliath Footwear, in Brunswick Street, close to Heckmondwike Library.

The outbreak of war came and John enlisted in the Northumberland Fusiliers alongside Albert Yeadon and they embarked for war on 17th December 1915. His younger brother Private Charles Winn also enrolled, but in the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment). Later he was reported as suffering from shell shock and in the 3rd General Hospital, Newport, Monmouthshire, but he went on to survive the war.

The Heckmondwike Herald newspaper published the following information in July 1916, "Unofficial news has reached Heckmondwike of the death in action of Private John Bradfield Winn, whose home is at 36, Brighton Street, Heckmondwike. The sad intelligence was conveyed in a letter written by Private Albert Yeadon, son of Mr Arthur Yeadon in which he said that Winn was killed on 3rd July. Thirty three years of age, Private Winn joined the Northumberland Fusiliers along with Private Yeadon in June 1915 and went to France about six months later. He was, before enlisting, employed at the C.W.S. Boot works."

He died during the first phase of the Battle of the Somme and his effects and money, which amounted to £4 3s 10d, were left to his mother. Private Yeadon was killed in action eight days later.

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Medals: Victory, British and 15 Star.

Commemorated: St Saviours Memorial, now displayed within St James' Parish Church; the Green Park Memorial and Vellum Roll of Honour.

Arthur WOOD

Private Ply/21(S), Royal Marine Light Infantry
Died 3rd May 1915 aged 27
No Known Grave Commemorated Helles Memorial, Turkey
Husband of Jessie Wood
Lived Upper Beauregard Street, Heckmondwike

Arthur was born on 27 August 1888 to Herbert and Annie Wood. Herbert was from Heckmondwike; Annie (née Turphrey or Turfrey) was from Scotland. Three years after his birth the family with sons William and Arthur, daughters Sarah and Charlotte were living at 59, South Street, Millbridge. Herbert and Annie had two more daughters: Jane in 1894 and Blanche in 1898. By 1901 the family were at 35, Upper George Street, Heckmondwike. Herbert and William were working as Machine Minders in textile industry, the rest including 13 year old Arthur were at home.

Arthur married Jessie Butcher, aged 23, early in 1911 and in April they were living at 9, Firth Street, Boothroyd Lane, Dewsbury. He worked as a Miner at Dymond's Pit, Liversedge and Jessie was a Cotton Spinner. A son, Willie, was born later that year. Herbert and Annie had moved by 1911 to 11, Union Street, Heckmondwike, the address given for Arthur on the Heckmondwike Roll of Honour.

On the outbreak of war Arthur volunteered and enlisted on 8 September 1914 with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI). He was described as 5ft 4½ins tall, with blue eyes and light brown hair, and gave his address as 110, Well Street, Flush, Heckmondwike. The date of his enlistment coincided with a recruitment drive by the newly created Royal Naval Division. Naval officers toured Army Depots in search of men willing to transfer, and after just one day with KOYLI, Arthur became a Private with the Royal Marine Light Infantry, Plymouth Battalion. There were around 200 KOYLI recruits who made the move at the same time, including at least five others from the Heckmondwike area: Christopher Hallam Ply174/S; George Gale Ply175/S; Josiah Hardiman Ply/176/S; Thomas Dent Ply184/S and George Waite Ply185/S. Only Josiah Hardiman and George Waite survived the war. In these service numbers the PLY indicates the Plymouth Battalion; the number is simply their place in the queue for transfer to the Battalion, and S shows that the enlistment was for the duration of the war.

After training, Arthur spent Christmas at home. On 6 February 1915 Arthur's Battalion left the camp at Blandford Forum, Dorset for Devonport and sailed that evening on the 'Braemar Castle' for the Mediterranean. After five days in Malta the Battalion sailed east. After some time in Egypt the Battalion took part in the assault on 'Y' Beach on the West coast of the Gallipoli peninsular on 25 April 1915. The landing, on a narrow beach backed by cliffs around 200 feet high, was unopposed, but by late that afternoon the Turks began a series of attacks which lasted throughout the night until 6:45am the following morning. Isolated, suffering heavy casualties and with no sign of the expected reinforcements, all surviving troops were evacuated around 11am on 26 April 1915. It was during this action that Arthur and around a third of the Battalion were killed or wounded. The CWGC records his death, and that of others, as 3 May 1915, but this masks the difficult circumstances following the evacuation. The officers responsible for the Battalion records were on the troopship 'Franconia' off the Dardanelles and they no doubt had little opportunity to complete their task until 4 May 1915. The 'Y' Beach Battalion deaths were simply described as occurring 'about the 3rd of May 1915'.

Mrs Wood received a letter from the Records Office of the Royal Marine Division dated 14 May 1915 saying that her husband had been killed in action near the Dardanelles. Shortly afterwards Mrs Wood received an insurance payment of £22 but £15 of this was stolen from her home. The person convicted of this theft was her sister. A war gratuity of £5 was awarded to Mrs Wood on 26 June 1919, and Arthur qualified for the 1914/15 Star, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial Turkey.

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Harold WRIGHT

Private B/20296, 26th Battalion London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers)
Killed in Action 7th October 1916 aged 23
No Known Grave Commemorated Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Son of William Henry and Sarah Ann Wright
Lived 13, Laurel Mount, Heckmondwike.

Harold was born in 1893, the second son of William Henry Wright from Shipley and Sarah Ann Lee of Liversedge. His parents were married in the Dewsbury area in 1883 and were living in Hightown, Liversedge in 1891 and 1901. Their eldest son, Horace had been born in 1884 and their daughter, Marion in 1895.

The family had moved to Brook Street, Heckmondwike by 1911 when their father William Henry was a Corn Miller Clerk and Harold was apprenticed to a carpet designer. By 1915 they had moved to 13, Laurel Mount, Cemetery Road.

Harold joined the London Regiment (Royal Fusiliers), and saw active service as part of the 26th (Service) Battalion, also known as the Bankers' Battalion. His war record is lost but it is known that the 26th Battalion was formed in London on 17th July 1915 by the Lord Mayor of the City of London and landed in France on 4th May 1916. He was killed in action on 7th October 1916 during the Somme offensive.

The Heckmondwike Guardian newspaper reported "that Private Harold Wright's parents Mr and Mrs W.H. Wright of Laurel Mount, had received unofficial news of his death, in letters from two of his comrades. The paper also stated that he was a member of the George Street Congregational Church and connected with their cricket club. Previous to enlisting he was employed by Messrs T.F. Firth and Sons Ltd."

The Herald and Courier reported on October 26th that official notice had not yet been received by his parents, but they had received a letter which their son had left behind when he last went into the trenches with a request that it should be posted in the event of his not returning. One of Harold's Dewsbury pals had written to his parents "that just as Harold was in the act of fixing his machine gun, he was shot through the head and killed instantly". This paper stated that he was attached to the machine gun section of the Royal Fusiliers and before enlisting was employed by Messrs H.F. Cockill & Sons Ltd, Cleckheaton and a member of George Street Congregational Church.

Harold has no known grave and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing on Pier and Face 8C, 9A & 16A. Harold's elder brother Horace survived the war and is named on the Vellum Roll.

Medals: British War and Victory Medals.

Commemorated:- George Street Congregational Church Memorial; St Saviour's Church Memorial; Heckmondwike Grammar School Memorial; Green Park Memorial and Vellum Roll.

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Joe WRIGHT

Private 4547, 1st/4th Battalion Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment)
Killed in Action 4th July 1916 aged 21
No Known Grave Commemorated Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Son of Albert and Florence Wright
Lived Robin Lane, Kilpin Hill, Heckmondwike

Albert Wright, aged 21 and Florence Heighley, aged 20 married in 1894. Albert had lived in Bower Lane, Florence was nearby in Heights, in the Kilpin Hill area of Heckmondwike. Their son Joe was born in 1895. By 1901 there were three other children: Tom, born 1898; Harry, 1899 and Annie, 1901. The family lived in Robin Lane, Kilpin Hill, Heckmondwike. Joe and Tom were both Apprentice Machine Makers by 1911, but by that time Annie had died and there were two more children: Hilda, born 1905 and Cyril, 1909.

On 11 October 1915 Joe joined a Territorial Battalion, the 3rd/4th West Riding Regiment. On enlistment in Bradford he was 20 years old, 5ft 3ins tall and described himself as a Cloth Finisher. Because the Territorial status of the Battalion meant that its soldiers were not liable for service overseas, Joe signed a form in which he agreed to waive that restriction. He was transferred to the 1st/4th Battalion on 20 April 1916 and left Southampton for Le Havre the following day. After a short time at a base camp he joined his new battalion, which was in the area of the Somme near the River Ancre, on 15 May 1916.

The Battalion War Diary records on 3 July 1916 that: 'Battalion relieves the 5th Batt West Yorkshire Regiment at Johnson's Post, Thiepval Wood under heavy shell fire – the majority of the Batt being in the open. Casualties 5 NCOs, 15 men'. On 4 July 1916 the Diary continues: 'very heavy shelling during the day – at 6.30am the 2nd South Lancs attacked Thiepval without success- the Battn provided carrying parties for ammunition and for stretcher bearing'. The Battalion suffered 42 casualties. Joe was killed that day and his body was never found. His platoon commander, Second Lieutenant Frank H Kelsall, wrote to Joe's parents to say that: - 'It is my unenviable task to inform you that he was killed this morning (July 4th) in action. I am extremely grieved at this, for although he had not been with me very long, yet he was a lad of good promise. His death was absolutely instantaneous, he being crushed in a dug-out, which was struck by a shell'. Frank Kelsall later became a Captain and survived the war. In 1919 Joe's mother Florence completed the required form so that she could receive the War Gratuity of £3 and later, in 1921 his British War Medal and Victory Medal.

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Two of Joe's brothers, Harry and Tom, both served in the forces and both survived, Harry, Private 3296, was in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment (the Sherwood Foresters).

Albert Edward YEADON

Private 22484, 12th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers
Died 11th July 1916 aged 33
No Known Grave Commemorated Thiepval Memorial, Somme, France
Son of Arthur and Mary Yeadon
Lived 86, Cemetery Road, Heckmondwike

Albert was born in Rawdon on 31st March 1884, the son of Arthur Preston Yeadon, a Woollen Weaver , who had married Mary Swaine of Rawdon in 1883. In 1891 they were living at South Parade, Yeadon with their three children, Albert, Nellie (1886-) and Joe (1891-1962). A fourth child, Fred, had died in infancy in 1889. Their father was a well known cricketer in his home town of Yeadon.

By 1901 the family had moved to 113, Cemetery Road , Heckmondwike where Arthur was employed as a Woollen Weaver and Albert found work as a Boot Riveter at Goliath Footwear the Cooperative Wholesale Society (CWS) factory at Brunswick Mill in Heckmondwike. Aproximately four hundred staff were in employment there producing six to eight thousand pairs of boots a week.

Arthur Yeadon continued to be involved in the game of cricket. A report in the Wharfedale and Airedale Observer newspaper in March 1906 stated that "he had been engaged by the Yeadon Cricket Club as professional and groundsman for the forthcoming season" and shortly afterwards "that he was soon getting the ground and players into condition." In July of the same year he scored eighty five runs in an innings when he played for the Yeadon side.

The 1911 census recorded that Arthur was employed as a Caretaker at the working men's club in Heckmondwike. Both his sons Albert and Joe were Boot and Shoe Operatives and his daughter Nellie was a self employed Dressmaker. In 1913 Nellie married Robert Sheard and they moved to Leeds.

On June 1st 1915 Albert enlisted at Cleckheaton into the Northumberland Fusiliers as Private 22484 alongside his fellow work mate Private 22483 John Bradfield Winn. The Northumberland Fusiliers had been formed at Newcastle at the outbreak of the war in September 1914 as part of Kitchener's Third New Army. Albert trained with the signaller's section, 3rd Reserve Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, at East Boldon Camp near Sunderland. He was deployed to France on March 31st 1916 as part of the 12th (Service) Battalion. He was involved in the first battle of the Somme.

Albert knew that his friend John Bradfield Winn had been killed on 3rd July 1916 and personally wrote to inform John's parents. A few days later, on 10th July 1916, Albert's battalion was moved to Mametz Wood. The 12th Northumberland Fusiliers was one of the battalions who were to relieve the 38th Welsh Division, they were heavily shelled whilst trying to dig-in to an area between Fricourt and Mametz Wood, resulting in many casualties, including Albert. The wood was taken by the 38th Welsh Division on 12th July 1916.

Albert's family were given the news of his death in a letter from the front line written by another Heckmondwike soldier, Pte 28615 Allen Whitehead of 28, Victoria Street. He wrote saying that Albert had been killed by a shell which burst in the midst of a company of men and that he had been buried on the 17th.

The soldier's effects payment of £5-0s-4d was received by Albert's father in November 1916 followed in 1919 by the War Gratuity payment of £4. Albert's mother Mary of 86, Cemetery Road was identified in January 1919 as his dependant and awarded a pension of five shillings a week.

Albert had been a non playing member of the Heckmondwike Cricket Club and also a member of the Brighton Street Working Mens Club. He is remembered on the Heckmondwike War Memorial in Green Park and also on the large wooden memorial originally in St Saviour's Church Heckmondwike but now held in St James' Parish Church. He was posthumously awarded the Victory and British Medals.

Albert's younger brother, Private Joe Yeadon, survived the war. He had joined the 16th Battalion Prince of Wales Own West Yorkshire Regiment (A Company) at Bradford on 1st August 1915 and trained at Clipstone Camp in Nottinghamshire before serving in France from April 1916. He returned home to his parents at 86, Cemetery Road in March 1919. By August 1927 he had moved to Roberttown and was once again working as a Boot and Shoe Operative when he married Ida Earnshaw of Westgate, Cleckheaton at St Luke's Church. Joe also received the Victory and British medals and is remembered with all those Heckmondwike men who took part in WW1 on the Heckmondwike Velum roll.

Details of his employment are available at the National CWS archive at Manchester and are possibly available to view by arrangement. To view the scope of the records available follow this link and in the SEARCH option type Goliath Footwear.

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