Here is this week’s round-up of pieces from the Batley News relating to the parish of St Mary’s. As usual I have put in bold the names of those connected to the parish who served with the military. And, as ever, the spelling and punctuation matches that of the newspaper.
There was one parishioner death in the Family Notices columns:
FINN. —On the 8th inst., aged 48 years, Thos. Finn, 11, Ward’s Hill.
Horace Lee and his brother Harry Blake Lee, along with their half-brother, were in the news:
BATLEY BROTHERS WOUNDED
Private Horace Lee, 21, Royal Welsh Fusiliers, son of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Lee, 17, Cobden Street, Batley, writes that he is in hospital in France wounded in the chin but is going on well. Although he joined up at the outbreak of war he has only been at the Front eight months. Before entering the Army he worked at Messrs. Blackburn New Ing Mills. He attended Cross Bank Roman Catholic Church.
Able Seaman Herbert H. Blake, Royal Naval Division, step-brother of Private Lee, in a letter to his mother says he has been wounded by shrapnel and seven pieces of metal have been extricated from him. The shell seriously wounded fifteen, killed two, and he and a pal were slightly wounded. He is now acting as cook at a convalescent camp previously to rejoining his unit. Thirty years of age, Seaman Blake has been with the Forces since the war started, and went through the Dardanelles campaign.
Driver Harry Blake Lee, another member of the family, is in training with the R.F.A.
Finally for this week’s news John Donlan and Mary Ann Fawcett went before the magistrates:
Batley Court – Monday
For being drunk and riotous in Hume Street on February 23rd, John Donlan, miner, of that address, had to pay 10s. “I can only say that I am very sorry it happened,” he observed. It was his first appearance for drunkenness.
Two White Lee women, Ada Miskell, housekeeper, of 95, Mount Pleasant, and Mary Ann Fawcett, rag-sorter, were fined £1 each or 14 days for being drunk and riotous in Carlinghow Lane, White Lee, on February 24th. Constable Thornton said he was in Carlinghow Lane at 8.40 p.m. with Constable Cooper, and saw Miskell in a drunken condition. She had two bottles of beer under one arm and a pint of beer in the other hand. She made use of bad language. Seven previous convictions were reported against her. —Fawcett said, “I am not guilty of being drunk.” —Constable Cooper said he was with Constable Thornton on the night in question. Fawcett was laid helplessly on the footpath, and one of two bottles of beer she was carrying fell to the ground. Witness assisted her to her feet, and found she was in a drunken condition. He told her she would be reported, and she replied, “What, again?” —Constable Thornton said both the women were “beastly drunk.” Asked if she had anything to say, Fawcett replied “I have nothing to say only that I am innocent this time of all times.” In support of her statement she produced notes from two White Lee tradesmen whom she visited at 8 o’clock and 8.15. One did not say anything about her condition, but the other wrote, “I did not see anything the matter with her.” —Inspector Ripley said Fawcett had a very bad record, and had been convicted 11 times previously for drunkenness and six times for using obscene language.
Past To Present Genealogy 