THE TRAGEDY OF WAR

In these days of counselling, compensation and pensions (albeit not very generous ones) it is difficult to imagine the grief and poverty suffered by some people as a result of the First World War. Every one of the 508 lost Spenborough lads and 1 young lady must have caused great suffering to their loved ones but some people must have found that grief almost too much to bear.

One such person was a widow who had 3 sons serving in the war, and a younger son and two daughters at home in Flush.

Emily Walker lost her oldest son Fred in February 1917 on the Somme. Seven weeks later she received notification that her youngest son Arthur had been killed at Ypres.  A year later a third son Harry was killed in the second Battle of the Somme. Fred and Harry are buried in war graves but Arthur’s body was never found. The gravestone of Emily and her husband John in Heckmondwike Cemetery also commemorates their three lost sons.

 Another Spen widow, Mrs Emma Smith of Liversedge, also lost 3 sons. Twenty one year old Charles was killed on the Somme in September 1916 and is buried near to where he fell; Thomas was killed at Arras seven months later and his body was never found aged twenty. Her oldest son Waugh, a regular in the Royal Navy, died of pneumonia and is buried in a war grave in Heckmondwike Cemetery.

 The Goldthorp family also lost 3 sons but the loss was even more of a disaster for one of their daughters Mrs Dorothea Walker (nee Goldthorp) of Pyenot Hall who not only lost 3 of her brothers but also her husband. Frank Goldthorp was killed and buried on the Somme in September 1916. Brother Ben died at Ypres  in August 1917 and has no known grave whilst Robert never recovered from his war wounds and died in 1923. Dorothea’s husband Cyril Gordon Walker was killed in action in March 1918 and is buried on the Somme.

Mr and Mrs Gill of Millbridge lost 2 sons and a stepson. Ernest was lost at Loos in September 1915 and has no known grave, Miles was killed in action on the Somme in September 1916 and is buried there and Charles fell at Passchendaele in October 1917 and his body was never found. Ernest and Miles were married men with children.

Parents who lost a son in the war received a maximum pension of 5 shillings( 25 new pence) per week less the cost of his board and keep to a maximum of two and sixpence (12.5 new pence). Parents losing 2 or more sons received a flat rate weekly pension of 15 shillings. The pension payable to a widow was thirteen shillings and nine pence (69 new pence) per week.