Henry Groark

Name: Henry Groark
Rank: Private
Unit/Regiment: 8th (Service) Battalion, The King’s Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry)
Service Number: 18810
Date of Death: 19 September 1917
Cemetery: Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium

Henry Groark is one of three brothers on the St Mary’s War Memorial. The family name is interchangeable between Rourke and Groark (and variants). The early surname version tended to be Rourke, the name under which Henry’s birth is registered. However, by the turn of the century it seems to shift to Groark, the name under which he is recorded on the St Mary’s and Batley War Memorials. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, however, record him as Groak (as is seen on his headstone above). I will use the Groark version of his name.

Henry was born in Batley in 1892,¹ the son of Patrick and Bridget Groark (née Mullany).² Both Bridget and Patrick came from Ireland, with the 1911 and 1921 censuses giving Patrick’s birthplace as Swinford. This is in contrast to the 1891 census, which indicates both husband and wife came from County Sligo. The couple married at St Paulinus, Dewsbury, in November 1876,³ and their eldest child – Michael – was born the following year. He was the first of their eleven children.⁴

In addition to Michael, Henry’s siblings included Mary Ann (born in 1879, and who died in March 1904); James Henry (born in 1881 and died the following year); Maggie (whose birth was registered in the first quarter of 1883); Catherine (born in 1885 and died the following year); Lizzie (born in 1887); James (born in 1889); Francis (born in 1894); Nellie (born in 1896); and Agnes (born in 1900).

Patrick was described as a cart driver in the 1881 census, when the family lived at Ingham Road, Dewsbury. They later moved to Batley, living first at North Street in 1891, followed by Wooller Houses, Carlinghow in 1901. By 1911 they were back in North Street, Cross Bank. 

During this period Patrick worked in the agricultural sector as a farm labourer, and the 1911 census gave more detail specifying that he was a cowman. It is possible he worked at the nearby farm of John Williams, described as a farmer and cattle dealer. This farm was located only a stone’s throw away from the Groark family home, at 56 Cross Bank Road. 

Bridget worked in the woollen industry in 1881 as a weaver and in the following census as a rag sorter. She died in 1911, her burial taking place in Batley cemetery on 2 March, a month before the 1911 census.

In this census Henry was employed as a mill hand in a woollen mill, undertaking piecener work. Basically this was joining together broken threads during the spinning process, keeping the spinning mule clear of waste and generally assisting the spinner. More information can be found here.

By 1915 Patrick and his family had moved to Fleming Square, Commercial Street in Batley. But by now Henry had attested as a Private in the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI). This was the same regiment as his youngest brother, Francis. His brother James was with the York and Lancaster Regiment, whilst eldest brother Michael – a former Regular soldier – had rejoined his old regiment, the Royal Scots Fusiliers.

Although his service papers have not survived, Henry’s service number puts his enlistment date around the 20/21 October 1914. He initially served with the 10th KOYLI.

Formed in Pontefract in September 1914, the battalion was made up of men who had answered Kitchener’s call for volunteers, with recruitment drives locally. Perhaps Henry was also persuaded by a letter in the local paper, from a bunch of named Batley men, praising conditions at Pontefract after rumours ran rife about the poor food and dirty condition. It read:

Having heard that there have been many rumours that the Pontefract camp is in a fit holy condition and that there is not enough to eat for the soldiers, we … wish to contradict those rumours. We are all Batley chaps who have been at Pontefract for three weeks, and we are all in the pink of condition and ready for anything. The camp is cleared up and disinfected every day, and as for eating, we have enough and to spare. For breakfast we have bread and butter – not margarine – and jam or cheese; to dinner we have boiled beef, fresh every day, along with cabbage and carrots; and for tea we get bread and butter, tinned salmon and tinned herrings, or potted beef: so you will see whether we are pined or not.⁵

Moving from Pontefract, the battalion undertook training at Berkhamsted, Halton Park (Tring), Maidenhead, back to Halton Park in April 1915, before going to Witley in August 1915 in preparation for deployment overseas. They left Witley Camp for Southampton in the early hours of 11 September 1915, setting sail later that morning and arriving at Le Havre the following day. Part of the 64th Brigade in the 21st Division, it proved to be a baptism of fire. Days later they would be involved in the Battle of Loos.

Along with the 9th KOYLI, on the night of the 20 September, they began a series of marches setting off from billets at Zutkerque. They arrived at trenches north east of Loos in the early hours of 26 September – a distance of about 50 miles.

The KOYLI official history records the report by the Brig-Gen commanding the 64th Infantry Brigade. He describes the march of his brigade as having been:

…carried out over heavy plough in necessarily irksome formation by compass-bearing. The absence of all transport necessitated the man-handling of machine-guns with their ammunition, also 1,000 bombs per battalion, and 50 additional rounds per man. After two nights and a day under arms on the march, it is not too much to say that the men arrived on the battlefield in an exhausted state.⁶

The Unit War Diary’s description of the events of 26 September is brief:

Sept
LOOS 26 – The B[attalio]n arrived first before day break and occupied a line of old German trenches about ³/₄ mile N.W. of LOOS, with the 9 KOYLI in LEFT and D[urham] L[ight] I[nfantry] B[attalio]ns dug in on left Front. TRENCHE were under shell fire all day and at 1PM, other attacks having failed, the 10 B[attalio]n were ordered to advance to road at bottom of Valley facing German Redoubt and to take up a position there in readiness to support the 9 B[attalio]n KOYLI who were assaulting the Redoubt. Assault unsuccessful and at four PM B[attalio]n retired under very heavy shell fire to a line of old German Trenches a mile in rear of the original line taken up the night before at 1AM. The Batt[alio]n was relived by units of GUARDS DIV….⁷

The brevity of this entry hides the reality of that day. The multiple attacks by the 14th and 15th Durham Light Infantry, and the total confusion when the 9th KOYLI independently launched a failed counter attack, hastily followed by the 10th KOYLI, then the retreat to the original line “all the time under a destructive bombardment which caused many further casualties.”⁸

In their first engagement with the enemy the 10th KOYLI lost three officers wounded, two others gassed, five other ranks killed, 113 wounded, and 28 missing and unaccounted for.⁹

It appears Henry was not amongst the wounded, but the other Groark brothers had not been so lucky in the war to date. The family featured in the Batley News on 9 October 1915. In the piece much sympathy was expressed for Henry’s father who had received notification that one son, Michael, was wounded and missing, whilst two others, James and Francis, had been hospitalised with wounds. James was in a Cambridge hospital as a result of injuries received on 26 September, likely at Loos; Francis had been in a Hull hospital for some time, although he had just been passed fit for service.

Henry was wounded in the autumn of 1916, appearing in the weekly War Office casualty list published in the Batley News on 4 November 1916. It is not clear with whom he served at this point. Records which do survive show in addition to the 10th KOYLI, he also had service with the 7th and 8th KOYLI. It was whilst with the latter he received what proved to be fatal injuries.

His death is recorded as taking place on 19 September 1917, and he is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Belgium.

During the First World War, the village of Lijssenthoek was situated on the main communication line between the Allied military bases in the rear and the Ypres battlefields. Close to the Front, but out of the extreme range of most German field artillery, it became a natural place to establish Casualty Clearing Stations (CCS). Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery was first used by the French 15th Hôpital D’Evacuation and in June 1915, it began to be used by casualty clearing stations of the Commonwealth forces. At its height there were over 4,000 hospital beds in four CCS on the site. Presumably Henry died in one of these CCS, though there are no details about which one.

Neither is there any indication as to when he received his fatal wounds. The CWGC website indicates between 7 and 19 September 1917 he was one of five men from the battalion to die. Three have no known graves and are commemorated on Tyne Cot Memorial, and of these one died on 16 September and two on 18 September. The other man died on 17 September and is buried at Railway Dugouts Burial Ground (Transport Farm).¹⁰

Turning to the 8th KOYLI War Diary, on 15 and 16 September the battalion were moved up to the trenches at Railway Dugouts, becoming the brigade’s reserve battalion. From this position on 16 September they supplied working parties. On 17 September they left Railway Dugouts, with two companies going to Bedford House, one company moving to the Front Line trenches, and another to Torr Top Tunnels. They were relieved on 18 September. In this period only two wounded officers on 16 September are referred to.¹¹ But the supposition is it is during this spell in the trenches that Henry received his injuries.

Henry was awarded the 1914-15 Star, Victory Medal and British War Medal. In addition to St Mary’s, he is also remembered on the Batley War Memorial.

Of the four Groark brothers, only Francis survived the war. Michael’s biography is here, and James’ is here.

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Footnotes:
1. His birth was registered in Dewsbury Registration District in the June quarter of 1892, although his age in the 1901 census is recorded as 8, and in 1911 it is 18.
2. The Mullany variants include, amongst others, Mullan, Mullanay, Mulhaney, Malany and Mulvaney.
3. Bridget’s name is recorded as Bessy/Beesey depending on source.
3. Despite the 1911 Census indicating 10 children born alive, three of whom had died, I believe the actual number was 11 born alive.
4. Batley Reporter , 25 September 1914.
5. Bond, Reginald C. History of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in the Great War, 1914-1918. London: P. Lund, Humphries, 1929.
6. Unit War Diary, 10th KOYLI, The National Archives (TNA) Ref: WO95/2162/2.
7. Bond, Reginald C., Ibid.
8. Ibid.
9. CWGC website.
10. Unit War Diary, 8th KOYLI, TNA Ref: WO95/2187/2.

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Other Sources (not directly referenced):
• 1881 to 1921 England and Wales Censuses.
• Batley Cemetery burial registers.
• British Army Service Records.
• Clayton, Derek. From Pontefract to Picardy: the 9th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in the First World War. Tempus, 2004;
• GRO Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes;
• The Long, Long Trail website.
• Medal Index Card.
• Medal Award Rolls.
• Newspapers, various.
• Parish Registers.
• Pension Index Cards and Ledgers.
• Soldiers Died in the Great War.
• Soldiers’ Effects Registers.

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