On 25 May 1918 coal-miner John Daley1 stood before the Dewsbury Borough Court magistrates, in the imposing surroundings of the Dewsbury Town Hall courthouse. From where he stood, he would have been aware of the cast-iron staircase leading down from the dock to the cells below. He was facing a charge of refusing to work. A guilty verdict would have serious consequences.
Born in Batley on 17 November 1871, John was baptised at St Mary’s that December, days before the official opening of the magnificent newly-built church. Batley St Mary’s through-and-through, he married Elizabeth Callaghan in his home parish church on 24 February 1900. The couple had six children, all baptised at St Mary’s, with two dying in infancy. James, born in 1902, survived for 11 weeks. Theresa, born in 1903 lived for 13 months.
By the time of the 2 April 1911 census John and Elizabeth were renting a house in Batley town centre, on Back Henrietta Street. Here John and Elizabeth were recorded as living with daughters Ellen (6) and Mary (5).2 Their son, Joseph, born in 1908 was living in Birstall, described as the adopted son of Michael and Annie Crayton. He was, in fact, their nephew – Annie being the sister of Elizabeth.3 Their other son, Michael, only 11 months old, was similarly described as adopted. He was living in Batley with his aunt and uncle, Patrick and Mary Callaghan – with the immediate relationship actually being through Mary, who was John’s sister.4
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Perhaps the reason for this arrangement, with the two younger Daly children being looked after by relatives, owed something to Elizabeth’s health. For a month after the census, on 15 May 1911, the 34-year-old mother died.
Fast-forward seven years to 5 March 1918, when John’s fall from a ladder led to his admission to Dewsbury Union Workhouse Infirmary.5 The workhouse, was a shameful place to be avoided if at all possible, but for many poor the infirmary was a source of medical care.
Located off Healds Road, the workhouse for Dewsbury Union was built in around 1854 to designs by Henry Francis Lockwood and William Mawson. It comprised of a range of one and two-storey entrance blocks to the east, with a central archway, behind which stood the three-storey main block. This main block contained the master and matron’s accommodation, as well as dining halls and kitchens to the rear. Male inmates were accommodated in the northern part of the building, and females to the south. There was a school block to the north and an infirmary. The complex grew. In 1893, a row of cottage homes were built to the south of the workhouse. Each home accommodated 12 children and a foster mother. In around 1900 a chapel was built to the north of the Heald’s Road lodge. Between 1890 and 1895 a new infirmary was built to the south of the workhouse complex. It was extended in 1907 and a nurse’s home built in 1909, with the architect behind these later designs being Arthur Walter Hanstock, son of Walter Hanstock, from the Batley firm Hanstock and Sons. In 1912 additions included a new lodge and receiving ward at the north-east of the workhouse, and a new entrance driveway providing an alternative access route to the site from Halifax Road. During the First World War, the period of John Daly’s admission, the site was used as a military base hospital, and three temporary hutted ward blocks were erected to the west of the infirmary.
The scale of the Staincliffe Institution site in this period can be seen from the map below, drawn up in 1915, but published in 1922.
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Some of the site will be familiar even today. It became Staincliffe General Hospital under the NHS in 1948, and now forms the part of Mid-Yorkshire NHS Trust’s Dewsbury District Hospital site.
As he recuperated from his injuries, John was transferred to the workhouse itself. Dr. Herbert Fitton, the medical officer at the institution under whose care he had been, was responsible for assessing him and judging what he could do in terms of work. Because work was what was expected – part of the many deterrents from entering the workhouse to reduce the financial burden on local ratepayers.
Dr. Fitton was a well-known local figure. Living at Eightlands, Dewsbury, he had given up his private medical practice in town in 1908 – something he had undertaken for 20 years – to become the vaccinator for the Dewsbury Board of Guardians. This brought him into contact with many families across the district. He combined this with the role of honorary radiologist in the X-Ray Department at Dewsbury Infirmary. A possibly less-wanted contact with Dr. Fitton was in his role as the medical officer for the treatment of venereal disease in the County Borough of Dewsbury.
When the Staincliffe military base hospital was established, he was appointed administrator there, alongside being one of the civilian doctors looking after the sick and wounded soldiers. In July 1917 he also commenced his role as medical officer for the Staincliffe Institution, an appointment which the Dewsbury Board of Guardians confirmed for a further 12 months on the day of the incident which brought John Daley to court.6 Although Dr. Fitton’s tenure in this role was cut short by his death in August 1918 “after a life of noble sacrifice.“7
It was the assessment of Dr. Fitton that John was now capable of work. On 24 May 1918 he was duly assigned to the laundry to undertake duties there. He refused, and it was for this refusal John was now facing the full weight of justice from the Dewsbury Borough Court magistrates.
In his defence John told the magistrates he felt he was still not bodily capable of undertaking work. However, attendant C. F. Threadgold, and workhouse/infirmary Master Isaac Law Lonsdale disagreed, the latter saying that the authorities had previous trouble with him. Their evidence, the trouble previously alluded to, combined with Dr. Fitton’s work capability assessment – plus doubtless their positions of authority and standing – meant the magistrates believed the prosecution evidence over that of the injured coal miner. They sentenced John to 14 days in prison. As yet I’ve to ascertain which jail. The usual penitentiary – Wakefield – was closed to domestic criminal court sentenced prisoners, being taken over at the start of the war to house military prisoners and, later, conscientious objectors.
So what became of John? Well, it was not a happy ending.
On 1 February 1919 he was due to marry Emma Clayton who until recently worked as a foster mother at one of the 12 Staincliffe Institution Cottage Homes, but was now living with her sister at Wormald Street, Liversedge. No longer a coal miner and now living on Coalpit Lane, Carlinghow, on 2 January 1919 John severed an artery in his left hand on the machinery whilst working as a willeyer at Messrs. Brigg and Son’s Dock Ing Mills, Carlinghow. Unable to work once more, he was an out-patient at Batley hospital for several days.
On 28 January he went to meet his 8-year-old son, Michael. As he walked along a very slippery Ings Road – children had made a slide on the ice – he suffered what he describe as a “nasty fall“8 landing in a sitting position. He told Clara Scott, who witnessed the fall and helped him to his feet, that he had hurt his back. As he walked away she saw him pressing his hands to it, as if to relieve the pain. At tea-time he complained to Emma of pain in his back and side. His condition deteriorated, and after tea he constantly held his head in his hands and became overcome with nausea. A neighbour was called and helped Emma get him to bed. She remained at the house all night to attend to him. The following day, with no improvement, she called in Dr. Russell. It was in vain. John died on the morning of Thursday 30 January.
Dr. Campbell in his post-mortem examination found John had died from a brain hemorrhage. In the subsequent inquest at Batley Town Hall on 3 February, Mr. Norris, the Acting Coroner, stated that John might have been weakened by blood loss from his hand injury, but that was not the direct cause of death. Dr. Campbell’s view was that the heavy fall and landing in a sitting position had transmitted shock waves through his spine which caused the brain injury. The Coroner concurred, and recorded a verdict of “death from hemorrhage into the brain caused by accidentally falling in the street.“9
John was laid to rest in Batley cemetery alongside his wife Elizabeth on 4 February 1919.
Note: I did wonder if the name of John Daley in the newspaper court case reports was correct. They give the John Daley’s age as 47, and he was 46. He had a brother, James, also a coal miner. He was 48, so again not a match for the newspaper details. However James died on 1 July 1918 in the Dewsbury Union infirmary, which seems a coincidence. Was it James, rather than John, who was the man in Court? Had two separate newspapers reported incorrectly?
Unfortunately the Dewsbury Borough Court registers containing the 25 May 1918 court case have not survived to double check the name of the man before the magistrates. Prisoner registers are another alternative option to check the name. Unfortunately Wakefield prison was out of use for domestic court convictions, and the prison being used has not been identified to check the relevant prison register. So the newspaper accounts that it was John before the magistrates are the only record, and have to be accepted …unless further evidence comes to light.
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Footnotes:
1. His surname spelling also included the variant Daly.
2. 1911 Census, England and Wales, The National Archives (TNA), Ref: RG14/27242/64.
3. Ibid, Ref: RG14/27255/52.
4. Ibid, Ref: RG14/27242/126.
5. Batley Reporter, 31 May 1918.
6. Batley News, 1 June 1918.
7. Batley Reporter, 23 August 1918.
8. Batley News, 8 February 1919.
9. Batley Reporter, 9 February 1919.
Other Sources:
• Burial Registers – Batley cemetery
• Censuses, England & Wales – 1871 to 1921.
• GRO Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes.
• Historic Hospitals Website: https://historic-hospitals.com/english-hospitals-rchme-survey/yorkshire-west-yorkshire/
• Newspapers, various, including Batley Reporter 31 May 1918 and 7 February 1919, and Batley News 1 June 1918, 6 July 1918, and 8 February 1919.
• Parish Registers (baptism, marriage and burial), St Mary of the Angels.
• The Workhouse website: https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Dewsbury/
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