1918 Batley Electoral Register, North Ward, Polling Districts A and B – Naval and Military Voters

Do you want to find out if your ancestors from St Mary of the Angels parish served in the First World War? Do you want to know if your home was also the home of someone from St Mary’s parish who served with the military during that conflict? If so, this post might help.

This is the first in a series of posts I will be doing about the Batley Electoral Registers of 1918 through to 1921.

This 1918 Electoral Register is a really good way of identifying those men who served in the war and who may not be picked up, or easily identified, in other World War One sources. The drawback is the Register was compiled and published in 1918. In essence it is a snapshot of those serving at the time of the Register’s actual compilation, which predates by some months its 1 October 1918 signing off date by Batley’s Town Clerk.

The Register is also useful for pinpointing the streets and areas of Batley in which the Catholic community lived during the First World War period. Although, do bear in mind many of the streets mentioned here were demolished in the third quarter of the 20th century.

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This 1918 Batley Electoral Register is significant for other reasons too. It reflects the major changes to the electoral system introduced by the Representation of the People Act of 1918.

This Act granted the vote to women over the age of 30 if they met one of the following criteria: being a householder; being the wife of a householder; being the occupier of property with an annual rent of £5; being a graduate of a British university, or similarly qualified but not a graduate. This Act also gave the vote to all men over the age of 21, with those in the Armed Forces able to vote from the age of 19.

As a result of the Act the electorate was increased from 8 to 21 million. This included 8.5 million women, although this was only 40 per cent of the total population of women in the UK. It took another 10 years for women over 21 to be given the same voting rights as men. It was not until 1969 that the voting age for all was lowered to 18.

The 1918 General Election was called immediately after the Armistice, and held on Saturday 14 December, with the count delayed until 28 December so that the ballots cast by soldiers serving overseas could be included in the tallies.

Sadly this historic Batley Electoral Register was already out of date by its 1 October 1918 publication. Because of the time lapse between compilation and publication some residents may have moved, or died. In particular several of the St Mary’s men listed as Naval and Military vote had indeed died as a result of the war. Others died between 1 October 1918 and the election, so never got to cast their vote.

The Register was valid until spring 1919 when a replacement was produced.

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Before you get into the list, it is worth checking out some explanatory notes and terminolgy.

• Division I contains the names of those persons who are entitled to vote both as parliamentary electors and as local government electors.
• Division II contains the names of those persons who are entitled to vote as parliamentary electors but not as local government electors. (Residents who were not ratepaying occupiers).
• Division III contains the names of those persons who are entitled to vote as local government electors, but not as parliamentary electors. (Non-resident occupiers)

Whilst the actual Electoral Register is laid out according to these Divisions, in my list I have amalgamated them as one composite list and ordered the names alphabetically to make it easier to navigate. It does mean though the name order in my list will not match that of the original Electoral Register, where the entry layout for Division I voters may sometimes given a clue to family relationship (for traditional husband/wife/adult voting children families). You may also spot the house number order is not sequential. This is because I have retained the order from the original Division I Register, which seems to go up one side of the street and then down the other, so you have all the odd numbers together, and the same with the even. The street order is as per the Register, and is loosely alphabetical. Note some streets may straddle more than one Polling District so will appear more than once.

The following abbreviations for voting qualification are used:

• R – Residence qualification.
• BP – Business premises qualification.(This was rarely used).
• O – Occupation qualification. (As in property occupation, not job).
• HO – Qualification through husband’s occupation.
• NM – Naval or military voter.

I have extracted the names of all St Mary of the Angels Division I and II Naval and Military (NM) voters from this Electoral Register. In fact, I have listed all St Mary’s voters in the Division II class, as I have identified several of these men (though not all) as discharged ex-servicemen, even though they do not have the NM annotation against their names.

I have also included the names of the other voters in these men’s households in order to aid identification. However, it does mean that if a St Mary’s parishioner does not have a Naval and Military voter in their household, or a Division II voter generally, they do not feature in this list.

Note also that the Electoral Register covers some Birstall addresses which the Catholic parish of St Patrick’s fell within. Although I’ve tried to weed these out, some may have crept in in North Ward Polling District A. Therefore, if your family were parishioners of St Patrick’s, it may also be worth checking the table below.

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This first post will cover Batley’s North Ward, Polling Districts A and B. Other Wards and Polling Districts will be covered in subsequent posts.

The reason for this split is because to cover the whole of Batley in one post is time-consuming. It would also potentially create a list of such magnitude it would be difficult to navigate. Even limiting this initial post to only two Polling Districts results in a sizeable list, which illustrates how many parishioners were now serving in the military as a result of conscription.

The full list of streets in these Polling Districts (though not all these will have these St Mary’s residents) are:

North Ward, Polling District A (note as this is predominantly Birstall there are few entries).

• Bradford Road West
• Brookroyd Lane
• Brownhill Road
• Ealand Road
• Farrar’s Buildings (Upper Lane)
• Howden Clough
• Intake Lane
• Law Street
• Leeds Road
• Loxley Street
• Quarry Lane
• Railway Terrace
• Smithies Moor Lane
• Station Lane
• Upper Batley Low Lane
• Upper Lane
• Wensleydale Parade
• Wooler’s Place, Upper Lane

North Ward, Polling District B

• Amber Street
• Ambler Street
• Anne Street
• Balk Street
• Batley Field Hill
• Beck Lane
• Birch Street
• Blakeridge Lane
• Borough Road
• Bond Street
• Bradford Road Central
• Bradford Road West
• Carlinghow Hill
• Carlinghow Lane
• Carlinghow Lane (White Lea)
• Cemetery Road
• Copley Street
• Cross Bank Road
• Denham Street
• Ealand Street
• Emerald Street
• Hampton Street
• Healey Place (Thomas Street)
• Hopewell Street
• Ings Road
• Melton Street
• Pearl Street
• Ruby Street
• Sandyfield Terrace
• St. John’s Avenue
• St. John’s View
• Smithies Moor Lane
• Stocks Lane
• Thomas Street
• Tillotson Street
• Timothy Lane
• Upper Batley
• Victoria Street
• Villier Street
• Westbrook Terrace, Bradford Road
• White Lea
• White Lea Road

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So here is the list of St Mary’s Naval and Military parishioners, Division II voters, and other voters who I can identify as being in their household, from the North Ward, Polling District A and B. I am aware there may be omissions, but I will update the list as more information emerges.

If you cannot see the full width of the Table on your screen, scroll across.

The St Mary’s parishioners are in bold. I have also put in bold Naval and Military voters/Division II men generally who married Catholics. Those not in bold are ones where I am uncertain about their parishioner status, or who are not Catholics but who are included because they are living in the same household as a parishioner.

NAME	RESIDENCE	DIVISION	QUAL PARL	QUAL LOCAL	ABSENT VOTER
	NORTH WARD POLLING DISTRICT (A)
	BROOKROYD LANE
Judge, Catherine	92	I	O	O
Judge, James	92	II	NM		✔️
Judge, John	92	II	NM		✔️
Judge, Joseph	92	II	NM		✔️
Judge, Martin	92	II	R
	BROWNHILL ROAD
Murphy, Thomas	25a	I	NM	O	✔️
McManus, Michael	31	I	NM	O	✔️
McManus, Rose Annie	31	I	HO	HO
Walsh, Margaret	55	I	HO	HO
Walsh, Michael	55	I	R	O
Walsh, Stephen	55	II	NM		✔️
	NORTH WARD POLLING DISTRICT (B)
	AMBLER STREET
Lynch, Joseph	2	II	NM		✔️
Lynch, Patrick	2	I	R	O
Moran, Michael	4	II	R
Moran, Thomas	4	I	R	O
Gavaghan, Catherine	10	I	HO	HO
Gavaghan, John	10	II	NM		✔️
Gavaghan, Peter	10	II	NM		✔️
Lynch, Annie	12	I	HO	HO
Lynch, John	12	II	NM		✔️
Lynch, Michael	12	II	NM		✔️
Lynch, Patrick	12	I	R	O
Owens, James	20	II	R
Owens, Mary	20	I	O	O
Owens, Michael	20	II	NM		✔️
McIntyre, James	22	II	R
McIntyre, Mary	22	I	HO	HO
McIntyre, Patrick	22	I	R	O
Kelly, Celia	24	I	HO	HO
Kelly, James	24	I	R	O
Kelly, James	24	II	NM		✔️
Kelly, John	24	II	R
Kelly, Robert	24	II	NM		✔️
Kelly, Robert	24	II	R
Flatley, John	26	II	R
Flatley, Mary Ann	26	I	HO	HO
Flatley, Michael	26	II	NM		✔️
Flatley, William	26	I	NM	O	✔️
Merriman, Marie	28	I	HO	HO
Merriman Thomas	28	I	R	O
Merriman, William	28	II	NM		✔️
Edwards, Catherine	37	I	O	O
Edwards, James	37	II	NM		✔️
Whitley, Joseph	37	II	R
Bowker, Mary	35	I	O	O
Cunningham, John	35	II	NM		✔️
Cunningham, Michael	35	II	NM		✔️
Cafferty, Thomas	27	I	NM	O	✔️
Cafferty, Catherine	27	I	HO	HO
Cooney, Bridget	25	I	HO	HO
Cooney, Michael	25	I	R	O
Flatley, John	25	I	NM	O	✔️
Merriman, Michael	25	II	R
McQuinn, Agnes	19	I	HO	HO
McQuinn, Sims	19	I	NM	O	✔️
Farrar, Bridget	17	I	O	O
Farrar, James	17	II	R
Farrar, John	17	II	NM		✔️
Farrar, Thomas	17	II	NM		✔️
MacNamara, Thomas	13	II	R
Mulligan, Michael	13	I	R	O
Firth, John Edward	3	I	NM	O	✔️
Morley, Mary	3	I	HO	HO
Thomas Morley	3	I	R	O
	BALK STREET
Ellis Hargreaves	19	I	NM	O	✔️
Margaret Hargreaves	19	I	HO	HO
McQuinn, John James	25	I	NM	O	✔️
Mary McQuinn	25	I	HO	HO
Doyle, Emma	41	I	O	O
Doyle, John James	41	II	NM		✔️
Doyle, Phillip	41	I	R	O
Nolan, Thomas	–	II	NM		✔️
	BECK LANE
Waite, Lois	11	I	HO	HO
Waite, Richard	11	I	R	O
Waite, Walter, Edmund	11	II	NM		✔️
Balmforth, Mary Louisa	3	I	HO	HO
Balmforth, William	3	I	R	O
McDonald, John [possibly a Catholic?]	3	II	NM		✔️
Scott, Francis	6 Yard 2	I	NM	O	✔️
Scott, Catherine	6 Yard 2	I	HO	HO	✔️
	BIRCH STREET
Farrar, John	18	II	NM		✔️
Farrar, Mary Ann	18	I	HO	HO
Farrar, Thomas	18	I	R	O
Rowe, James	6	II	NM		✔️
Stubley, Albert	6	I	R	O
Elsworth, Abraham	4	I	NM		✔️
Halloran, Patrick	4	II	NM		✔️
	BOROUGH ROAD
Cooney, James	5	I	NM	O	✔️
Cooney, Mary	5	I	HO	HO
	BRADFORD ROAD W.
Berry, Catherine	37	I	HO	HO
Berry, Edward	37	I	R	O
Berry, Leo	37	II	R
Berry, William James	37	II	R
Manning, Clement	39	II	NM		✔️
Manning, Cecil Tynan	39	II	NM		✔️
Manning, John Tynan	39	II	NM		✔️
Manning, Mary Eliza	39	I	O	O
Manning, Michael Wilfred	39	II	NM		✔️
	MELTON STREET
Gannan, Mary	8	I	O	O
Owens, Patrick	8	II	R
	PEARL STREET
Higgins, Joseph	28	I	R	O
Higgins, Margaret	28	I	HO
Murphy, John	28	II	NM		✔️
	TILLOTSON STREET
Enwright, Carrie	3	I	HO	HO
Enwright, John William	3	I	NM	O	✔️
	VICTORIA STREET
Guider, Joseph	39	II	NM		✔️
Guider, Michael	39	I	R	O
Leach, Bridget	44	I	HO	HO
Leach, John	44	II	NM		✔️
Leach, Michael	44	I	R	O
Durkin, John	40	I	NM	O	✔️
Durkin, Elizabeth	40	I	HO	HO
Kelly, Elizabeth	32	I	O	O
Kelly, James	32	II	NM		✔️
Kelly, Joseph	32	II	NM		✔️
Kelly, Richard	32	II	R
	VILLIER STREET
Maloney, Thomas	4	I	NM	O	✔️
Maloney, Catherine	4	I	HO	HO
Kelly, John	16	I	R	O
Kelly, Thomas	16	II	R
Maloney, Catherine	24	I	O	O
Maloney, Michael	24	II	NM		✔️
Mulligan, John	26	II	NM		✔️
Vasey, Ann	26	I	HO	HO
Vasey, Michael	26	I	R	O
Evans, Mary	28	I	O	O
Evans, John	28	II	R
Evans, Joseph Leo	28	II	R
Curley, Arthur (should be Anthony)	25	I	R	O
Curley, John	25	II	NM		✔️
Curley, Mary	25	I	HO	HO
Byrne, Fred	23	I	NM	O	✔️
Byrne, Annie	23	I	HO	HO
Kennedy, Ellen	21	I	HO	HO
Kennedy, John	21	I	NM	O	✔️
Maloney, Willie	21	II	R
Hodgins, James	17	I	R	O
Hodgins, Mary	17	I	HO	HO
Hodgins, Michael	17	II	R
Henry, John	15	II	R
Henry, Martin	15	I	R	O
Henry, Sarah Jane	15	I	HO	HO	✔️
Brannan, Michael	11	I	HO	HO
Brannan, Patrick	11	II	NM		✔️
Morris, Catherine	1	I	HO	HO
Morris, Richard (the elder)	1	1	R	O
Morris, Richard (the younger)	1	II	NM		✔️
Morris, Thomas	1	II	R
Morris, Willie	1	II	NM		✔️

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I may need to update this list as more parishioners are identified. I may at some point also expand to include all St Mary’s voters.

And as I said earlier, the other Wards and Polling Districts will follow in due course.

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