Tag Archives: family history

Festive Adverts and Shopping in Batley: A 1915 Christmas – Part 1: “The Home Beautiful”

Posted on November 19, 2015 | 8 comments

In the run up to Christmas I’m writing a series of seasonal blog posts with a family and local history theme. In the opening three posts I look at shopping in Batley in 1915, as described in the local press.

Adverts and shopping articles were a feature in all local newspapers up and down the country in the weeks leading to Christmas.

These kinds of newspaper pieces and adverts – giving shop descriptions, detailed location information, and the wares on sale – provide a picture of the area in which ancestors lived, add colour to research and complement the information from other sources such as Directories and maps. They also provide a unique insight into the period for a family historian. And it is all the more useful if your ancestor worked in one of the featured shops!

Although the shops I describe are based in my home-town, the type of retail outlet and products sold would be seen in most towns in the country in this period.

By way of context, Batley and the surrounding Heavy Woollen District had prospered in the early part of the war. Its fabrics were much in demand by the military and business boomed. So, even if prices in shops were higher, the employment opportunities, wages and bonuses paid to mill workers went some way to offset this. Also, notably in these early war years, many shops made a virtue of not including wartime additions to the cost of stock bought in at old prices. So the implication given by the press was Batley residents were still relatively well-placed to put on a good show at Christmas.

Batley folk were exhorted to celebrate Christmas 1915 with cheerfulness and a generous spirit. It was claimed this would contribute to national optimism. So, as families suffered the anxiety of separation and news of dead and injured servicemen reached home, shops were decked out in patriotic emblems, usually centred on the Union Jack or flags of Allies, and these Christmas adverts began to fill the newspapers.

The first ones appeared in the “Batley News” towards the end of November 1915, and by the beginning of December they increased to a steady flow. So a much later start than today’s Christmas retail push.

As for items designed to make a 1915 Christmas celebration, unsurprisingly alongside those traditional food and household goods, many products had a military theme or were directly aimed at our “gallant lads” and “plucky nurses”.

Like today, updating the house for Christmas played a part in preparations, the season being described as an ideal time to adorn the home with new goods. Mr Preston Jenkinson’s shop, located by the Batley Tram Terminus, was hailed as probably the largest vendor or linoleum and flooring products for miles around. Products included linoleum, oil-cloth, rugs, fringe, mackintoshes and bedsteads. Its plain pricing, courteous staff, range of stock and the fact that “the huge store is one of those rare places where the stranger may have a really good look round before being pressed to buy” were virtues for those “bent on buying well for Christmas”.

Hanover Street’s Messrs W North and Sons was another store for those with an eye for “The Home Beautiful” to frequent. This shop also sold oil-cloth, linoleum, dainty rugs and the “latest creations of carpet factories”. Beyond this they stocked enamelled curbs and hearths and inlaid furniture, “the choicest products of the cabinet-maker”.

Messrs Brett and North’s furnishing emporium on Bradford Road had “everything calculated to make home life bright and beautiful”. Its products ranged from pictures, mirrors, ornaments, cutlery and electro-ware to rugs, suites, desks, cabinets and easy chairs. “The metal artwork, vases, dinner and tea-set’s, exquisite designs in chairs, bedroom suites etc afford a pretty display”.

Flowers also played a part in the festivities. Messrs J Hick and Sons at Wheatcroft was described as “a joy to the eye and a refresher to the soul” whose flowers could “be bought and transferred to the home, to give radiance and fragrance throughout the holidays”. Besides flowers, seasonal evergreens such as mistletoe and holly decorated homes. And, as a time to remember departed loved ones, shops promoted wreaths and crosses to lay at last resting places. Ironic given the number of families who would never know final resting places as the war progressed.

Mr Arthur Kemp’s greenhouses and gardens in Wellington Street, facing the baths, was a Batley institution. Residents were urged to walk around the greenhouses to select tea-table and school party blooms; Christmas decorations for home, church and grave; bridal wreaths and buttonholes for the winter wedding; and the central piece at Christmas – the tree.

Music was important in Christmas celebrations and family gatherings. Mr W S Beaumont’s Henrietta Street music store stocked gramophones and thousands of records so “no home need to be without mirth and music at the festive season” with “such seasonable strains as ‘The Hallelujah Chorus,’ and good old carols like ‘Good King Wenceslas,’ followed by sprightly jigs and reels, or by patriotic spirit-raisers like ‘Britannia’ and the ‘Marseillaise”.

Player-pianos and rolls were available, promoted as a way to play music without undertaking years of study. And for those already proficient pianos, violins and wind instruments were on sale. The shop had repair facilities and Mr Beaumont would consider weekly payment in approved cases. Santa Claus could supply children’s bugles and drums from the shop too!

In my next post I will cover Christmas toys and gifts, including those aimed at soldiers and sailors on active service abroad or in training at home. It can be found at: https://pasttopresentgenealogy.wordpress.com/2015/11/25/festive-adverts-and-shopping-in-batley-a-1915-christmas-part-2-gifts-galore-for-man-woman-and-child
Sources:
“Batley News” – various November-December editions.

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Posted in Batley, Christmas, Shopping, Uncategorized, WW1

Tagged Batley, Christmas, family history, Shopping, WW1

WW1 Remembrance in Verse: “In Memoriam” and “Roll of Honour” Newspaper Columns

Posted on November 8, 2015 | 1 comment

This is the last of my three blog posts in this period of Remembrance. It focuses on the WW1 period.

Batley War Memorial

As the Great War progressed and the anniversaries of the Fallen came and went, the local newspaper “In Memoriam” and, later, dedicated “Roll of Honour” columns were increasingly filled with moving tributes to lost husbands, sons, fathers, brothers and fiancées. Although less frequent in late 1915 and throughout 1916, this phenomenon became particularly notable from 1917 onwards and endured in the years beyond the end of the conflict.

Many were recurrent standard verses, or variations on standard themes: grief; absence; young lives cut short; a mother’s pain; religious sentiments; Remembrance; doing one’s duty; sacrifice; wooden crosses; graves overseas far from home, or no known grave; not being present in their loved one’s dying moments; occasionally the difficulty of seeing others return; and even reproach for those who caused the war.

Although not war poetry, they are powerful representations of family grief and loss which echo across the ages.

My mother’s brother died in Aden whilst on National Service in 1955. These family tributes from another era are the ones which, in all my St Mary’s War Memorial research, left the greatest impression on her, resonating with her emotions 60 years later.

These “In Memoriam” and “Roll of Honour” notices provide an accessible window into this aspect of the War, the emotions of those left behind. They are also a continuing legacy for family historians. They can provide service details, place and even circumstances of death, names and addresses of family members (including married sisters) and details of fiancées all of which can aid research.

Here is a selection from the local Batley newspapers[1].

Sources:

Batley News – various dates
Batley War Memorial photo by Jane Roberts

[1] These are not confined to those servicemen on the St Mary’s War Memorial

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Posted in Ancestry, Batley, Birstall, Dewsbury, Family History, Genealogy, In Memoriam, Newspapers, Remembrance, Roll of Honour, WW1

Tagged 11/11, Ancestry, Armistice Day, Batley, Birstall, Dewsbury, family history, genealogy, In Memoriam, Newspapers, November, Poppy Appeal, Remembrance, Roll of Honour, WW1

Shrapnel and Shelletta: Baby Names and their Links to War, Remembrance and Commemoration

Posted on November 4, 2015 | 6 comments

In these weeks leading up to Remembrance Sunday, my thoughts turned to some research I first undertook in 2011 around baby names. In particular the commemoration aspect behind some name choices, especially in times of conflict. Name choices which went beyond bestowing a “conventional” Christian name on a baby in honour of, or affection for, a relative or friend, living or dead.

Unusually this train of thought was prompted by the 16 December 1914 German naval bombardment of Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby. This had an unexpected impact on my West Yorkshire family history. In the course of researching this event I discovered a snippet in the “Batley News” of 9 January 1915 which captured my attention. It recorded the birth of a baby girl in Hartlepool. Her unusual name commemorated the momentous events occurring locally and wider afield at the time of her birth: Shelletta Louvain.

Shelletta is clearly a reference to the events in Hartlepool; Louvain is presumably a mark of respect and signifying a shared experience with Belgian city of Louvain destroyed by the German Army in August 1914. GRO records show the birth of a “Shelletta L Liddle” in the Hartlepool Registration District in Q1 of 1915.

Commenting on the child’s name, the “Wells Journal” asked its readers to “…. think of the poor fate of the poor Hartlepool girl …born to the accompaniment of shell fire, who has been condemned by her parents to go through live bearing the burden of the name Shelletta Louvain!”

The same paper recorded a Whitby child born during the bombardment of that town, named George Shrapnel Griffin. Other papers quipped if the child had been a girl they could have christened her Shrapnelly. George was, according to the “Whitby Gazette” born at the precise moment the first shell burst over the town! His birth elicited a letter to the family containing the King’s best wishes.

Baby George Shrapnel Griffin with his proud parents Mr and Mrs Edward Griffin

This chance find of a couple of event/place associated names prompted a search into similarly World War One associated Christian names in England and Wales. Using FreeBMD[1], this resulted in the following:

Notes:
¹ = I have taken the total from FreeBMD, unadjusted for duplicates.
² = Includes an Arrasy and Arrasina
³ = Some of the children named Delville had middle names starting with the initial “W” which may possibly have been for “Wood”, one child in 1918 had the Christian name “Delvillewood”.
⁴ = Includes Joffrena, Joffrene, Joffreen, Joffrench, Joffree, Joffrein and Joffrey.
⁵ = Battle was called Neuve-Chapelle. Four out of the six children had middle names starting with the letter C.
⁶ = Includes a Sommeria
⁷ = Includes an Armisticia

I discovered a sprinkling of children named Belgium and France and even a Poperinghe if I widened my search dates to 1920.

So there is a mixture of battle, personality and event associated names. Verdun, more usually linked with French losses, is surprisingly an overwhelmingly popular choice for both male and female babies. Dorrien, in honour of General Smith-Dorrien and a name I did not analyse in detail, proved popular in the early part of the war.

There will be far more examples. And my search does not include middle names, such as the one given to baby George Griffin. Incidentally no child was given the Christian name of Shrapnel, in my FreeBMD search.

No major surprise, but the registration quarters for these war-linked names mainly coincide with the dates of the various battles/events. For example the children named Antwerp were registered in Q4 1914, and Q1 and Q2 of 1915. This is consistent with the early October 1914 timing of the Defence of Antwerp by the British Royal Naval Division and Rawlinson’s IV Corps. And Q2 1915 was the peak quarter for the registration of children named Luisitania, coinciding with the sinking of that ship on 7 May 1915.

It would be interesting to investigate if the Registration Districts in which these events were recorded correspond with the areas where the various battalions fought, especially pre-1917 when they had a more “local” affinity. Also to know why parents chose these names for their children: Was it patriotism? Defiance? Or was it to commemorate a significant event at the time of the child’s birth, as in the case of Shelletta and George Shrapnel? Was it in honour and remembrance of the battle in which a husband or family member lost their life? Or more generally in recognition of where a husband fought? And did these names prove, as suggested in the “Wells Journal“, a burden in later life?

Incidentally the explanation for George’s name, as indicated in the “Whitby Gazette“, was: “George, after that of the King, in whose glorious reign England is rendering her greatest of many services to humanity by crushing Prussian militarism, and Shrapnel, as commemorating the German attack on our undefended town, so dear to all Yorkshire folk, and so famous in its history“. Sadly George never survived infancy to find out whether his name was to prove a burden or otherwise. According to the same newspaper he died on 23 May 1915.

The naming of children after battles and events associated with war is not peculiar to the First World War. Looking at names given to babies during the period of the 2^nd Boer War, October 1899-May 1902, I identified the following:

Notes:
¹ = I have taken the total from FreeBMD, unadjusted for duplicates
² = Includes a Kimberley Mafeking
³ = Magersfontein Paardeberg

Going back even further to the Crimean War, Inkerman first made an appearance in 1855 and also in subsequent years, proving extremely popular. Crimea, Balaclava and even a Sevastopol occur in the GRO indexes.

So baby names can provide a link to historical events at the time of birth, and another research angle.

If anyone has any of these names, or names of similar war-related origins, I would love to know!

Sources:

FreeBMD: http://www.freebmd.org.uk/
“Batley News” – 9 January 1915
“Wells Journal” – 8 January 1915
“Whitby Gazette” – 8 January 1915 and 28 May 1915

[1] Research originally conducted in July 2011 and updated in January-February 2015

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Posted in Ancestry, Baby Names, Family History, Hartlepool, Whitby, WW1

Tagged Ancestry, Baby Names, family history, Hartlepool, Whitby, WW1, Yorkshire

Remembered by Families in Batley Cemetery; Remembered by the CWGC Elsewhere

Posted on October 29, 2015 | 3 comments

This is the first of my posts in the run up to Remembrance Sunday.

The work of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is familiar to many. They care for cemeteries and memorials in 23,000 locations across 154 countries, ensuring the 1.7 million people from Commonwealth forces who lost their lives as a result of the two world wars are never forgotten.

Batley cemetery contains CWGC 66 burials. Predominantly these plots have standard CWGC headstones, but there are also some Private Memorials where families chose to erect their own headstone on a war grave. All are listed on the CWGC website.[1]

Unsurprisingly some families who had loved ones commemorated elsewhere by the CWGC, chose also to include their names on family headstones in home cemeteries. This is not exclusively confined to those military personnel with no known graves. These are not classed as war graves. The service person is not buried there. So they are entirely distinct from CWGC recognised Private Memorials.

These inscriptions would provide a focal point close to home for families of service personnel with no known grave, or buried far from home. They are a visible sign of love, acknowledgement and family remembrance.

These headstones can prove invaluable for researchers in terms of family and service details. But, as they are not war graves, they are not recorded by the CWGC. So it is a case of seeking them out.

Here are four I spotted in Batley cemetery.

Able Seaman Farrar Hill, killed on 31 January 1918[2] when his submarine, HMS E/50, was lost in the North Sea. It is believed to have struck a mine near the South Dogger Light Vessel. He is commemorated on the Plymouth Naval Memorial. But he is remembered on the Hill family headstone.

Farrar Hill – family headstone

Pte Robert Hirst, 6^th Bn King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was killed in action on 24 September 1915 and has no known grave. His name appears on The Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial. His family have included his name on a relatively new headstone in Batley cemetery.

Robert Hirst’s relatively new headstone

Rifleman Edward Leonard, 1^st/8^th Bn West Yorkshire Regiment, killed in action on 2 July 1916 and commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. His sister Annie, a munitions worker at the Barnbow factory at Garforth, Leeds, died on 21 July 1916 from picric acid poisoning – the same day as the Leonard family received news Edward was missing. His and Annie’s name appear on the headstone.

The Leonard family headstone

Pte Albert Smith of the 2^nd/5^th Bn Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment died of wounds on 27 May 1918. He is buried in Bagneux British Cemetery, Gezaincourt, France but he is also included on his family headstone.

The Smith family headstone – including Albert Smith

So, even for those service men and women commemorated on CWGC memorials and in cemeteries elsewhere, do not discount information provided on family headstones closer to home.

The Royal British Legion launched its 2015 Poppy Appeal on 22 October. This is their link: http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/

Sources:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission website – http://www.cwgc.org/
“St Mary of the Angels War Memorial” – Jane Roberts
Photos – Jane Roberts
Royal British Legion – http://www.britishlegion.org.uk/

[1] http://www.cwgc.org/
[2] Some sources indicate the submarine was lost “on or around 1 February 1918”, but 31 January is the CWGC date

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Posted in Ancestry, Batley, CWGC, Family History, Poppy Appeal, Remembrance, Remembrance Sunday, Royal British Legion, WW1

Tagged Ancestry, Batley, CWGC, family history, Poppy Appeal, Remembrance, Remembrance Sunday, Royal British Legion, WW1

Robert and the Resurrectionists, a tale of Yorkshire body snatchers – Part 2

Posted on October 21, 2015 | 5 comments

I left my last post with four men in custody on 10 November 1831, pending investigations into the discovery of an unidentified body on its way to Edinburgh via the Newcastle-bound Leeds coach. The suspicion was the youth had been murdered as part of the underground trade to supply medical schools with dead bodies for dissection. On display in Leeds Court House, the body remained unidentified despite extensive publicity and being viewed by thousands.

The tale took a new twist on Saturday 12 November. A friend recognised the body as that of Robert Hudson, a collier from East Ardsley. Other friends and family were summoned to corroborate the identification. Brothers Joseph and John[1] confirmed it, even explaining that the damaged missing fourth fingernail on the right hand resulted from him trapping his finger a fortnight before. John’s wife Permelia[2] also identified her brother-in-law.

Immediately after this identification a party was despatched to open Robert’s grave at East Ardsley. They found holes born into the coffin to allow the use of a saw. The lid was sawn open from head to breast. The coffin contained only a glove and an iron bludgeon which had been left behind by the body snatching gang. The body had gone.

Robert Hudson was born in around 1814 and baptised on 31 July 1814 at St Michaels, East Ardsley. He was the youngest child of miner Matthew Hudson and his wife Grace. At the time of his baptism the family lived at Outwood, just over two miles from East Ardsley. When Matthew died in December 1827 the family address was given as near-by Lawns, in the Township of Stanley-cum-Wrenthorpe in Wakefield Parish.

On Sunday 30 October 1831, 17-year-old Robert left his widowed mother’s home in Lawns at around 11am. His body was discovered between 3-4pm that day. He had hung himself by a his neck handkerchief from a spar in a coal pit cabin belonging to his employers, Messrs Charlesworth. The inquest on 31 October recorded a verdict “that the deceased hung himself when in a state of unsound mind”.

Robert’s burial took place at St Michael’s East Ardsley on 1 November. The burial register notes he “hung himself in the coal pit cabin”. Burial in a churchyard of someone who had committed suicide had been legalised by the 1823 Burial of Suicide Act. However the burial of the body of a suicide was conducted without Church rites and at nighttime between the hours of 9pm and 12pm. If the inquest verdict was that the suicide had been committed whilst the individual was of unsound mind, then a churchyard burial was permissible.

St Michael’s, East Ardsley

In the light of this new information the Leeds inquest jury, suspended the previous Thursday, was reconvened first thing on Monday morning, 14 November. It found that the body was indeed that of Robert Hudson, who had hanged himself on 30 October, and afterwards was brought to Leeds and discovered in a box on the Courier coach.

This at least removed any potential murder charges against those rounded up in connection with the case.

Within an hour of the inquest jury reaching its decision, the Magistrates examined the case against those charged: in addition to Hodgson, Pickering, Norman and Wood four other men were now in custody. William Germain, packer; William Henry Bradley, joiner; Thomas Pearson, cloth weaver; and Henry Teale, gentleman’s servant. All were from the Leeds area. The latter broke ranks, providing full details of events.

The lengthy examination involving statements from Teale and numerous witnesses lasted from around 10.30am on 14 November until 2.30pm on 16 November.

It revealed Hodgson as the ringleader. Obviously undeterred by his previous sentence, less than three months ago, he recruited his gang over a period of several weeks. For instance he made initial contact with Teale on 22 September.

On 2 November Hodgson gave Teale a list of graveyards to check for recent burials: Hanging Heaton, Dewsbury and East Ardsley. There was also a list for Bradley. His too included the East Ardsley one. So, that afternoon, the pair went there together and discovered two fresh graves, one large and one small.

Robert’s was the large grave. The small one belonged to four-year-old Joseph Longley Fielding of Churwell, who died on 31 October and was buried on the day Teale and Bradley visited the churchyard.

After reporting their finds to Hodgson, arrangements were made for Hodgson, Bradley, Germain & Teal to set off for East Ardsley in two hired gigs late that night, between 9-10pm. Hodgson was armed with two pistols which he produced upon hearing a noise when at the church yard, an indication as to the high stakes at play. All four took it in turns to stand watch or dig.

Once the coffins were reached and entries made, the bodies were drawn out of by means of a rope around the neck. The corpses were stripped, and all linen thrown back – the gang did not wish to run the risk of more serious theft charges. The graves were re-filled. The bodies were put in separate sacks, placed on the gigs and driven back into town, arriving back in Leeds in the pre-dawn hours.

The bodies were stored in an out-building belonging to Norman’s father. Early on the morning of 3 November, at around 5.30am, a failed attempt was made by Germain, Bradley and Teale to dispatch Robert’s body on the Times coach. Too late, they missed it and were forced to return the package to Norman’s garden-house.

As a result of a comment made by Norman’s father, on Saturday 5 November the gang were forced into making hasty, new arrangements. The child’s body was successfully dispatched to Edinburgh via the Rose and Crown evening Courier coach[3]. Robert’s was taken to the White House being rented by Pickering on Tobacco-Mill-Lane.

A second early-morning attempt, on 7 November, was made to send Robert’s body on its way via the Times coach[4]. The coach would not take the package. Back it went to Tobacco-Mill-Lane, where it was locked in the closet due to the scheduled house viewing.

On the evening of 7 November the foiled Rose and Crown Courier coach attempt occurred, resulting in the discovery of the body and subsequent arrests.

After hearing the evidence the Magistrates found no case against Pearson and Wood on this particular charge and discharged them, although they remained in custody. The other six, (Hodgson, Pickering, Germain, Bradley, Norman and Teale), were ordered to appear before the next Yorkshire Assizes.

At the Yorkshire Lent Assizes 1832, held in York, they were indicted with “severally, wickedly, willingly, and unlawfully conspire, combine, confederate and agree together to disinter a dead body, and afterwards, to wit, in the night of the 2^nd of November aforesaid, in pursuance of such conspiracy and agreement, severally enter a church yard, situate at East Ardsley, in the West Riding, and did then and there unlawfully dig up, and disinter from and out of a grave the body of one Robert Hudson”[5] and Joseph Longley Fielding, with intent to sell and dispose of the same.

After hearing the evidence and consulting for a full two minutes the jury found Hodgson, Germain, Norman and Bradley guilty. Pickering was acquitted, as no proof existed that he was connected with the body prior to its exhumation. Hodgson was jailed for one year; Bradley, Germain and Norman received three month sentences; Teale, who turned King’s evidence, was discharged.

Those convicted were sent to Wakefield House of Correction to serve their sentences, much to the annoyance of Hodgson who wished to remain in York Castle which was more conducive to the pursuit of his studies.

I mentioned the sympathy with which body snatching could be viewed by the judiciary, given the acknowledged need to further medical science. This, accompanied by petitioning from anatomists and medical schools and the public revulsion at the work of body snatchers, led to the 1832 Anatomy Act, effectively ending the trade in stolen corpses. The Act allowed licensed anatomists and medical schools to use for dissection unclaimed bodies from institutions such as workhouses and prisons.

At around the time the Act was passed, in July-August 1832 Hodgson launched an unsuccessful petition for clemency. The National Archives Discovery summary describes his crime as:

“Disinterring the dead body of a male pauper for the purposes of dissection in churchyard near Leeds, together with four others, anatomy students from Edinburgh”.

The grounds for the petition were that the:

“…officers of the township who bore the expense of the burial refused to prosecute; the prisoner’s health is impaired by six months confinement and cholera is prevalent in the prison; he is willing to leave the country”.

Interestingly Hodgson focused on the pauper element at this time.

In 2015 York Dungeons featured John Hodgson in its Halloween show. It describes it as follows:

“The popular attraction’s new hair-raising show will see one of the most intimidating, darkest, characters ever introduced. John Hodgson, the local body snatcher is morbid, cruel and gruesome has no remorse for digging up the dead!”

Sources:

Ancestry UK: Criminal Registers, Reference HO 27; Piece: 44; Page: 434
Find My Past: HO 13 Home Office Criminal Entry Books of out-letter, warrants and pardons; and HO 19 Home Office Registers of Criminal Petitions
Find My Past Newspapers: “Leeds Intelligencer” – 10 & 17 November 1831 and 5 April 1832; “Leeds Mercury” – 12 & 19 November 1831; “Leeds Patriot & Yorkshire Advertiser” – 9 July 1831, 12 & 19 November 1831 and 7 April 1832; “Yorkshire Gazette” – 7 April 1832
Pharos Tutors Course: Victorian Crime and Punishment, Courts, Police and Prisons http://www.pharostutors.com/
Photographs – taken by me
St Michael’s East Ardsley Parish Registers (also available via West Yorkshire Archives on Ancestry UK)
The National Archives Criminal Petitions Series I, Reference HO 17/36/159
York Dungeons: http://www.thedungeons.com/york/en/plan-your-visit/halloween.aspx

[1] Robert had brothers named both Joseph and John. Some reports named Joseph, others John. So they could both have played a part in identification and the law process. Or it could be a name confusion in reports.
[2] In reports she is named as Pamela.
[3] The 7 April 1832 “Yorkshire Gazette” trial report is at odds with other reports, indicating the child’s body was sent via the Golden Lion coach office.
[4] Some reports indicate this attempt was made on Sunday morning (6 November)
[5] “Leeds Intelligencer” – 5 April 1832.

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Posted in Ancestry, Body Snatchers, East Ardsley, Family History, Leeds, Resurrectionists, Yorkshire

Tagged Ancestry, Body Snatchers, East Ardsley, family history, Leeds, Resurrectionists, Yorkshire

Robert and the Resurrectionists, a tale of Yorkshire body snatchers – Part 1

Posted on October 17, 2015 | 2 comments

“A Young Man, about 18 Years of Age, Five Feet Six Inches high[1], Face slightly round, Brown Hair, cut short behind, and long before, slightly calf licked on the right side of the Head, very short down Beard, with scarcely any Whiskers; the left Incisor Tooth stands backward, and the left Canine Tooth forwards; Blue Eyes, of which the left is somewhat injected with Blood; rather fair Complexion, well made and somewhat muscular; the Nail of the ring Finger of the right Hand has been destroyed, and a new Nail partially formed; a slight graze on the right shin nearly healed; there is dirt on the Legs set into the Skin, and the Body exhibits no appearance of illness”.

So read the description of Robert Hudson, my 4x great grandad’s youngest brother, in the “Leeds Patriot and Yorkshire Advertiser” of 12 November 1831. Great to have such an early description. More noteworthy perhaps is the fact it is post-mortem of an, at this point, unidentified body. The press circulated the description and the corpse was placed on public display in Leeds Court House in the hope of putting a name to it.

The discovery of the body in Leeds on 7 November 1831 was triggered by something as innocuous as the prospective sale of a house on Tobacco-Mill-Lane in the Sheepscar area.

In late October the house-owner, Mr William Peniston rented the property to school master James Crabtree Pickering. However at the beginning of November a permanent buyer came forward via a friend of Peniston, Mr William Myers. Viewing though proved problematical. Pickering, who was not occupying the property, procrastinated. He claimed not to have the keys. When they did finally materialise on 7 November Mrs Evans, the buyer’s wife, was available, but not her husband. A locked upstairs closet also proved a minor inconvenience.[2].

Arrangements were made for Pickering to show the house again at 7pm that evening. Peniston and Myers arrived first.[3] Yet again Pickering proved elusive. But Peniston and Myers became aware people were in the property. Suddenly, as they watched, three men left the residence wheeling a box in the direction of Leeds. The pair followed all the way to the Rose and Crown Coaching Inn on Briggate.

Blue Plaque at Queens Arcade, Briggate, Leeds – the site of the Rose and Crown Coaching Inn

The package was in the process of being placed onto the Courier coach heading north, when Peniston drew its suspicious nature to the attention of William Halton, the constable. He seized butcher James Norman, one of the men helping to load the package. The others involved melted away into the crowd. The package was addressed at one end to “Hon. Ben Thompson, Mail-Office, Edinbro’. To be kept until called for. Per Courier, Nov 7th 1831” and at the other “Hon Benjamin Thompson, Mail Office, Carlisle”. Opening it revealed the body of a young man.

July 1831 advert for the Courier Coach from the Rose and Crown Inn, Briggate

Pickering was tentatively identified by some as one of the individuals who had brought the box to the Coach Office and paid for its transportation. So Halton went round to his Bond-Street rooms. Pickering was there with John Craig Hodgson and the pair were brought in to the Chief Constable. The room was also found to contain paraphernalia associated with body snatchers including wet, muddy clothing (obviously used), rope, spades, a saw, a gimlet and an implement that could be used for breaking coffin lids.

And Hodgson, an attorney’s clerk, did have history in this area. As recently as July 1831 he appeared before Leeds Borough Sessions, receiving a six week jail sentence for stealing a dead body.[4] At his trial he argued he too would be involved in its dissection to further his anatomical knowledge, which would be useful in his law employment; he had no intention of selling the body on. The leniency of his sentence owed something to the persuasiveness of the defence put forward, including that by Leeds surgeons, about the need for dead bodies for anatomical purposes to advance medicine. Solicitors also testified on his behalf.[5]

The increase in medical schools in this period combined with the reduction in supply of cadavers with the decrease in capital punishment sentencing[6] resulted in a growing shortfall of bodies for anatomical dissection. This in turn led to a criminal black-market trade in freshly-buried corpses. Providing only the body and no other grave contents were taken, including the burial garments, the crime was treated as a misdemeanour so would entail a lesser sentence.

Some did take it a step further and resorted to murder in order to supply the need. Burke and Hare are the most famous exponents of this. And in November 1831 the so-called “Italian Boy” case was hitting the headlines nationally. A teenage boy was murdered in London and an attempt was made to sell his body to an Anatomical School. On 8 November, a coroners’ jury found a verdict of “wilful murder against some person or persons unknown“.[7] This then was the backdrop to the Leeds find and, as such, it added to the feverish excitement of the town’s populace.

The fascination only increased in the following days. Speculation mounted that foul means also accounted for the demise of the Leeds body, which was put on public display for identification purposes. Despite being seen by thousands this proved fruitless and on 10 November, as the suspicion of murder increased, an inquest was held. By this stage four individuals were in custody: Hodgson, Pickering, Norman and shoemaker John Wood.

The body was moved to Leeds Infirmary for a post-mortem prior to the inquest at the Griffin Inn. Leeds surgeon Thomas Chorley found that there was no sign of illness or disease in the body; the cause of death was strangulation; he also said that, due to its unwashed state, it did not appear the body had been buried. Suddenly things were getting very serious indeed for those suspected of involvement in the crime. Body snatching was one thing; murder took it to a whole new level…..

With his legal background Hodgson’s almost two-hour long questioning of Chorley, in an effort to prove there was no certainty about cause of death, demonstrated he was fully aware of the stakes.

The inquest was suspended until the following Wednesday and the body returned to the Court House for public viewing in the hope that identification would shed more light on the case.

To be continued…….

Sources:

Ancestry UK: Criminal Registers, HO 27 series
Find My Past Newspapers: “Leeds Intelligencer” – 10 & 17 November 1831 and 5 April 1832; “Leeds Mercury” – 12 & 19 November 1831; “Leeds Patriot & Yorkshire Advertiser” – 9 July 1831, 12 & 19 November 1831 and 7 April 1832; “Yorkshire Gazette” – 7 April 1832.
Pharos Tutors Course: Victorian Crime and Punishment, Courts, Police and Prisons http://www.pharostutors.com/

[1] Other reports suggest 5’3”
[2] Later that week when the cupboard was accessible, blood stains were visible on the floor.
[3] Some reports indicate the purchaser was due to view.
[4] Ancestry UK Criminal Registers: HO 27; Piece: 42; Page: 438
[5] “Leeds Patriot and Yorkshire Advertiser” 9 July 1831
[6] The bodies of those executed were given over for anatomical dissection.
[7] In December 1831 John Bishop and Thomas Williams were hung for the offence

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Posted in Ancestry, Body Snatchers, East Ardsley, Family History, Leeds, Resurrectionists, Yorkshire

Tagged Ancestry, Body Snatchers, East Ardsley, family history, Leeds, Resurrectionists, Yorkshire

Oliver Rhodes and the Morley Car Accident of 1910

Posted on October 8, 2015 | 3 comments

My last blog post covered a family connection to the Dewsbury tram disaster of 1912. However two years earlier the same branch of the family suffered as the result of another transport accident: but this one had fatal consequences. It involved Oliver Rhodes, the eight-year-old son of my great grandparents Jonathan Rhodes[1] and Edith Aveyard.

Jonathan and Edith married at Woodkirk Parish Church on 14 August 1897 and soon after settled at Healey Croft Terrace, East Ardsley. Jonathan was diabetic in an age before insulin. But despite his poor health he worked as a coal miner. They had five children. Alice was born in 1897; Ethel in 1899; Oliver in 1902; William Henry Bastow in 1903 and Pauline (my nana) in 1905. William died of meningitis in June 1907 and was buried in St Michael’s Churchyard, East Ardsley. It was the church in which their youngest children were baptised[2]. Shortly afterwards the family moved to Morley and in 1910 lived on Garnett Street[3].

Oliver too had health problems. Despite being generally fit and strong, he had extremely poor eyesight, a condition which in his short life necessitated five operations at Leeds Infirmary. Despite these issues he was able to attend school.

According to oral family history, on Saturday 8 October 1910 Edith struggled with a severe headache and eventually sent Oliver on an errand to get some medication. The “Morley Observer” report of the inquest makes no mention of this. Instead their coverage states Oliver went out to play just after 5pm. Local children were in the habit of playing in an area of land known as America Moor, across from where the family lived.

However witness statements from Annie Newsome, who watched events unfold from the end of Co-operative Row[4] and William Dean North, standing with a cart at the end of Garnett Street, all place Oliver, alone, on the opposite side of Britannia Road[5], from America Moor. The 1908 OS map[6] below includes all the relevant locations. This was not the children’s normal play area so would perhaps indicate the possibility of an errand. And this is supported by the report in the “Batley Reporter”.

Map of Morley showing Britannia Road (scene of the accident) and other key locations such as America Moor, Garnett Street, Co-operative Road

According to these witnesses, between 5.30-5.45pm[7] Oliver was walking along Britannia Road, on the causeway opposite his home. Some boys were on the other side of the road, which would be the America Moor side. Oliver began to cross towards the Garnett Street side, but halted to let three cyclists pass. They were heading in the Wakefield direction. Then he started to run to the other side, seemingly unaware that a motor car was almost upon him.

The chauffeur-driven vehicle belonged to Mr West, a Keighley chemist. He invited a Mr Arthur Emmett and two friends[8] to take a run in the car to watch Wakefield Trinity play Keighley in a game of rugby at Belle Vue. They were returning home in the Bradford direction after watching the match and stopping off post-game at the Alexandra Hotel, Belle Vue.

The chauffeur employed by Mr West, Willie Sugden, had held a licence for six years without incident. When he got to the stretch of Britannia Road in the vicinity of the Stump Cross Inn where the accident occurred[9], the three cyclists passed him. He noticed a cart on one side of the road and some boys playing at the other. Other than these distractions the road was quiet.

Photo taken at 6pm 8 October 2015 of the stretch of road where the accident happened looking towards The Stump Cross Inn

Willie sounded his horn fearing the children might run out. But he failed to see young Oliver on the other side from them, in the process of crossing in front of the car. Front-seat passenger, Arthur Emmett, had though. He urged Willie to brake. Although the car was estimated to be travelling at no more than 12 miles per hour, just faster than a horse-trot, it could not stop in time and knocked Oliver down. Two of the wheels passed over his head.

Whether Oliver’s weak eyesight meant he failed to see the car or caused him to misjudge the distance will never be known. One theory was in avoiding the cyclists Oliver ran in the way of the car.

At 5.45pm the family were told of the accident by a boy the Morley newspaper mistakenly describe as Oliver’s brother. It was more than likely his cousin Arnold Rhodes. Jonathan went out and met the occupants of the car carrying his unconscious son home. They gave Jonathan £1 in order to procure anything necessary.

Police Constable Newsome and Mr Davey, one of the car occupants, immediately drove to summon Dr Firth at Cross Hall. They returned with Dr Stevens[10], a locum. Inside he found Oliver lying unconscious on the couch. But it was a hopeless case. Oliver died shortly before 8pm as a result of a fracture at the base of his skull.

The inquest, which was held at Morley Town Hall on 10 October, returned a verdict of “Accidentally killed by being knocked down by a motor car whilst trying to cross the road”.
Willie Sugden was exonerated of all blame and his licence returned. After the inquest the car occupants once again went to Oliver’s home to offer the family financial assistance.

On 11 October Oliver was buried alongside his brother William at St Michael’s, East Ardsley. The grave is unmarked. Below is the receipt for Oliver’s burial – £1 3s. It is to be hoped that the financial assistance proffered by the Keighley men at least covered the medical and funeral costs.

The thing which comes across above all else in the otherwise factual inquest reports is Jonathan’s utter grief, shock, bewilderment and raw emotion. This is clear from just one phrase at the inquest, held less than two days after his son’s death, when he said he “was too much troubled to remember whether anything was said by the man who carried him [Oliver] home”.

The other point is the discrepancies in the newspaper reports, the need to analyse them carefully and, if at all possible, compare a number of sources (including as many newspapers as available).

Sources:

Batley Reporter – 14 October 1910
Death Certificate – Oliver Rhodes
Marriage Certificate – Jonathan Rhodes & Edith Aveyard
Morley Observer – 14 October 1910
Ordnance Survey Map of Morley (published 1908) – re-published by Alan Godfrey. Also on the National Library of Scotland website http://maps.nls.uk/
St Michael’s Parish Church, East Ardsley – baptism and burial registers. Available now on Ancestry UK http://home.ancestry.co.uk/
St Michael’s Parish Church, East Ardsley – burial receipt

[1] Jonathan was the son of Elizabeth Hallas, sister of Violet Jennings. Elizabeth was born a few months before Ann Hallas and Herod Jennings married.
[2] Eldest child Alice was baptised at Woodkirk Parish Church. Pauline’s baptism took place at St Michael’s in July 1907 when she was two. An event presumably prompted by the death of her brother the month before.
[3] The Morley Observer is less precise giving the home address as Britannia Road.
[4] It is possible that this location should be Co-operative Road.
[5] A portion of the Bradford and Wakefield main road.
[6] Surveyed in 1889-92, revised in 1906, published 1908.
[7] Witness estimates generally put the time of the accident as 5.40pm.
[8] The combined newspaper reports identified the three passengers as master plasterer Arthur Emmett and his brother; and landlord of the Stocksbridge Hotel, Keighley, Mr W Davey.
[9] From maps and eyewitness accounts I estimate the accident happened in the area between the Stump Cross Inn and the Cross Keys.
[10] Another report has an alternative spelling, Dr Stephen.

GRO Picture Credit:

Extract from GRO death register entry for Oliver Rhodes: Image © Crown Copyright and posted in compliance with General Register Office copyright guidance.

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Posted in Ancestry, East Ardsley, Family History, Morley

Tagged Ancestry, East Ardsley, family history, Morley

A Family Casualty: 12 October 1915 Dewsbury Tram Disaster – “It’s just like Ypres”

Posted on October 6, 2015 | 3 comments

Tuesday 12 October 1915: the day when the runaway 4.10 afternoon tram from Earlsheaton wreaked havoc in Dewsbury town centre, eliciting comparisons to war-torn Belgium. One soldier witnessing the aftermath exclaimed “It’s just like Ypres”, whilst other sightseers observed it was “A bit of Belgium” or likened it to a Zeppelin raid.

Losing control on the steep incline of Wakefield Road, the tram shot past the Dewsbury terminus, careered past the end of the lines and over the setts, before finally crashing into buildings on Market Square. Here it demolished Messrs Hiltons Boot Shop, several upper rooms of the popular Scarborough Hotel hostelry and badly damaged the neighbouring Messrs Lidbetter, Sons and Co., provision merchants. In the course of its destructive path the tram also collided with two horse-drawn vehicles near the Town Hall.

One early theory for the accident was the slight drizzle on Tuesday afternoon caused the Number 3 tram to skid – greasy tracks had caused an incident in the same spot previously. But this was discounted by an eye-witness account from one of the injured. Mrs Oldroyd said that the trolley pole had left the overhead wire higher up the hill leaving the driver with no means of braking.

A notoriously treacherous location, it was counted fortunate that the latest mishap occurred in the late afternoon of what was half-day closing in the usually busy town. At 4.20pm the shops were shut and only a few people were around. As a result only seven people were injured. These were listed in the newspapers as:

John James Callaghan (21), living in Ossett. The tramcar driver gallantly stuck to his post until the very last before he was either violently thrown, or jumped, from his platform into the road. He suffered head cuts and concussion. Born in Falls of Schuylkill, Philadelphia he moved to Ossett with his family when about six months old. He worked for the tram company from the age of 13, becoming a driver less than a year prior to the accident;
Maggie Saddler (28), living in Ossett. The tramcar conductress also incurred head wounds and concussion. She too stuck to her post as the vehicle hurtled out of control. She had been in the role for under three months, a change brought about by the war. Prior to that she worked as a domestic in Bridlington. But the downturn in trade in the seaside resort as a result of the war, combined with job opportunities afforded by it with men serving with the military, led to this change ;
Ethel Oldroyd and her daughters Edith (7) and Phyllis (3) from Earlsheaton were the only three tramcar passengers. Ethel sustained cuts on her right leg, hand and shoulder, a sprained ankle and bruises. Edith received head and knee cuts. Whilst Phyllis incurred cuts and abrasions. Fortunately these injuries were only minor. Her husband, away in Uxbridge with the 5^th West Yorkshires, was granted permission to return home as soon as news reached him that evening;
Mrs Violet Pinder (49) of Purwell Lane, Batley fractured her leg in the incident;
Mrs Ethel Noble (25) of Wakefield Road, Dewsbury, the daughter of Violet Pinder, suffered bruising and shock.

It is the latter two passengers who link to my family history. Violet Pinder was the youngest daughter of my 3x great grandmother Ann Hallas and her husband, the wonderfully named Herod Jennings. A large family of 12 children Violet was born in Heckmondwike in 1866. Along with her siblings William, Eliza and Rose she was baptised at Staincliffe Chirst Church on 5 November 1868. The family seemed to go for mass baptisms or none at all![1]

Staincliffe Church (with Halloween guest)

Violet worked as a cloth weaver prior to her marriage, and this continued intermittently afterwards. She married coal miner Samuel Pinder on 4 August 1886 at Batley Parish Church. Subsequently Samuel worked as a fish salesman. Ethel, the daughter caught up in the runaway tram incident, was the second of their six children.

At 4pm that Tuesday afternoon Violet and her recently married daughter decided to go for a walk. Some discussion ensued as to the route to take before, arm-in-arm, the pair decided to look at shop windows in town. They had not gone very far, just above the Town Hall, when they heard the noise of the approaching tram and screaming. Before they could take any action the tram smashed into the back of the pony and cart of general carrier, Mr Benjamin Buckley. He had tried, but failed to avoid the collision by turning into Rishworth Street, at the corner of the Town Hall. It was too late. His cart, carrying a load of rags, was sent flying and knocked down the mother and daughter.

Ethel came round to find herself lying in Wakefield Road near to the pony. There was some suggestion her injuries were caused by the pounding of the horse’s hooves as she lay unconscious in the initial aftermath. Violet lay prostrate some distance away in Rishworth Street, her left boot badly cut and torn with the heels of both taken clean off by the force of the accident. Ethel summoned up enough strength to run over to her mother where she promptly collapsed, unable to move any further.

As luck would have it in the motor vehicle behind the tram was trained nurse, Miss Maude Kaye. She rendered first aid to the victims until medical assistance arrived. Ethel and Violet were conveyed initially to the Town Hall before a horse-drawn ambulance took them, the conductor and conductress to Dewsbury Infirmary. The Oldroyd family were less seriously injured and returned home after receiving treatment at the scene of the accident.

Ethel was able to leave hospital the following day, and the newspapers reported early in November that John James and Maggie had also left hospital to recuperate at home. Violet was less fortunate though spending several weeks in hospital recovering from her injury.

She did recover and died in 1938, aged 71.

The enquiry into why Tram No.3 ran away was held in Dewsbury Town Hall on 11 November 1915. By this stage all the victims had ‘practically recovered.’

John James Callaghan, in giving evidence, explained he became a conductor for Dewsbury and Ossett Tramways Company in 1912, began training as a motor-man the previous Christmas and took up duty as a motor-man on the Ossett and Earlsheaton routes on 20 August – less than two months before the accident.

On the afternoon of the accident, when he began his shift for the day, he had made five journeys between Dewsbury and Earlsheaton on No.3 car without mishap. He started the fateful journey from Earlsheaton at 4.10pm, and made the usual stop at the junction before turning into Wakefield Road. With the car in check and power applied to the brakes he continued at not more than four miles per hour. The rails were in bad condition, greasy after a rain shower, and he repeatedly applied sand to the rails to keep the car under control. However, on testing the hand-brake, the car gained speed and shot away. John James applied the hand-brake again, but the car continued at pace, it reached the points and went out of control. In order to try and avert a disaster John James continuously sanded the rails and used the emergency brake, to no avail. The brakes failed.

Other witnesses from the Tramway Company were called including Fred Dale, the motor-man who John James Callaghan had taken over from on the tram earlier that day. He said the vehicle was in working order, as did Albert Davis, the car-shed foreman who had thoroughly overhauled and examined No.3 car the previous day. He had re-examined the car after the accident and, but for the damage it the collision caused, it was still in good order. In his opinion defective brakes were not the reason for the crash. He believed the driver had under-estimated the state of the rails and simply applied the hand-brake. Then he sanded the rails and applied the brake too sharply and was unable to recover control as the wheels were skidding. Once control was lost Davis admitted there was no infallible mechanism for regaining control.

Another driver, who was in the tram behind, said the rails were bad because of the rain, he could tell by the rising dust John James was sanding the tracks, and – before the tram went round the bend and out of sight – it was already skidding. He also said a car had never got out of control whilst he was descending that hill.

It seems that the accident was a combination of poor weather conditions affecting a difficult stretch of track, and an inexperienced driver.

A century on all the locations are very familiar to me. I walk past Staincliffe Church regularly. I occasionally drive down the very steep incline of Wakefield Road from Earlsheaton to Dewsbury. I am regularly in Dewsbury in the area around the Town Hall. There are no signs of the accident which caused such a stir in the area, and had a direct impact on my family history.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk – Staincliffe Chirst Church baptism register http://home.ancestry.co.uk/
Batley News 16 October 1915 and 13 November 1915
Dewsbury District News 15 October 1915
Hartshead St Peter’s Parish Register – baptisms
Batley All Saints Parish Register – marriages
FindMyPast – Censuses http://www.findmypast.co.uk/

[1] 16 June 1857 marked the baptisms at Hartshead of children Henry, Ellen and Louisa. Henry was 13 at the time, and not the son of Herod. My 2x gt grandmother, Elizabeth, was not baptised until 1901. Other children do not appear to have been baptised. I’ve not traced any non conformist records either, so perhaps an indication of religious ambivalence.

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Posted in Ancestry, Dewsbury, Family History, trams, WW1

Tagged Ancestry, Dewsbury, family history, trams, WW1

Pro Patria, Pro Rege, Pro Familia: WW1 Centenary Visit

Posted on September 27, 2015 | Leave a comment

Last weekend I returned to Ypres. A visit I felt compelled to make. 19 September marked the centenary of the death of my great grand uncle, Jesse Hill.[1] So it seemed appropriate to visit his grave in Ypres Reservoir Cemetery.

Ypres Reservoir Cemetery

It was a weekend full of coincidences. And an unforgettable one. The events of 100 years ago still resonate emotionally with many today.

I visited Jesse’s grave on Friday evening, the eve of the anniversary. The headstone is beneath trees and as a result every time I’ve visited it’s rather mud-splattered. Friday was no different. However when I returned first thing on Saturday morning, the anniversary of his death, the headstone had been cleaned!

There was only one other person in the cemetery at 9.30 that morning – and it was someone I know from home! He was visiting the graves of Dewsbury men from 6th Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI), comrades of Jesse, who died at around the same time. So a huge coincidence that we’d both travelled 350 miles and turned up in that cemetery at the exact same time.

Ypres Reservoir Cemetery

Before I left I placed a poppy cross, brought all the way from Batley, on Jesse’s grave.

From Unit War Diary maps, I’d located the area occupied by the 6th KOYLI the morning Jesse died. So on Saturday afternoon I walked around Railway Wood and what was the vicinity of the ‘H’ Sector trenches. Walking the ground brought home the frighteningly close proximity of the British Front Line to the German trenches in a way maps cannot. And it made the concept of “friendly fire” incidents far more understandable.

RE Grave, Railway Wood

On that walk my husband found two pieces of shrapnel. It’s not unusual, but then again in all my many visits it’s only happened to us on two previous occasions – so it did feel incredible that this find occurred on the 100th anniversary and in that very location.

On Sunday morning I returned to Ypres Reservoir Cemetery. Unbelievably a second poppy cross lay on Jesse’s grave. A look I the visitor register confirmed that another Hill descendent also had the urge to pay an anniversary visit Jesse’s grave.

Jesse Hill’s headstone

Later that morning I attended a Rededication Service at Birr Cross Roads cemetery. Thanks to the patience, perseverance and unstinting efforts of Australian volunteer researchers, three soldiers’ headstones previously carrying the “unknown” epitaph now have identities; and the families of these three Australian soldiers, Pte Huntsman, Pte Eacott and Pte Neilson, now have named graves to visit. It speaks volumes of the emotional pull of the events so long ago that families of all three soldiers travelled halfway across the world to be at the service. It was a privilege to be there too.

Birr Cross Roads Rededication Service

Other visits that day included Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial. The sheer size of the cemetery even after many visits is difficult to take in with 11,956 First World War servicemen buried or commemorated here, of which in excess of 8,000 are unidentified. The list of almost 35,000 names on the memorial is equally staggering.

Tyne Cot Cemetery and Memorial

I returned home on Monday. On the way back to Calais I stopped off at the first CWGC site I ever visited: the majestic, lion-flanked Ploegsteert Memorial. Although I’m a Rugby League fan, as it’s the Rugby Union World Cup it seemed appropriate to pop across the road to call by the grave of England Rugby Union captain Ronald Poulton Palmer at Hyde Park Corner (Royal Berks) Cemetery.

Ploegsteert Memorial

Ronald Poulton Palmer’s Grave

Final stop was Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery. I wanted to visit the graves of three men whose lives I researched and who have connections to my home Parish of Batley St Mary’s: John Collins, Henry Groa(r)k and Patrick Lyons. The cemetery has an excellent visitor centre with information about the soldiers buried there. I’ve supplied information about the St Mary’s men, and there is a webpage if others wish to do the same.[2] There is also a wall containing some of their images. The first one I noticed was remarkably familiar – the photo of Patrick Lyons. It seemed a fitting end to my latest visit to Belgium.

Lijssenthoek Visitor Centre

[1] See blog post https://t.co/JcKGrZVh7t

[2] http://www.lijssenthoek.be/en/page/160/visitor-centre.html

Pte Jesse Hill, 6th (Service) Battalion, The King’s Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry): 13 November 1895 to 19 September 1915. Never Forgotten

Posted on September 17, 2015 | 1 comment

I’m hoping to travel to Ypres Reservoir Cemetery again soon. I’ve been several times over the past few years. But this will be a particularly poignant visit. It will mark 100 years since the death of my great grandad’s youngest brother Jesse Hill, killed in action in WW1.

Jesse was the son of Joseph Hill and his second wife Mary Ann Simpson. He was born on 13 November 1895 at Rouse Mill Lane, Soothill and grew up in the family’s home on Spurr Street, just across the road from Batley railway station and all the grand cloth selling houses which lined Station Road.

An extremely popular boy, he attended Mill Lane Council School where he was a prominent member of both the school cricket and football team.

After leaving school he joined the finishing department at Messrs Wrigley and Parker’s Greenhill Mills minutes down the road from his home. This was one of the many mills upon which Batley’s fortunes were built upon.

Whilst Jesse was in the early stages of his working life older brother Charlie enlisted in the Army. Jesse therefore had direct contact with a serving soldier and first-hand accounts of military life.

When war was declared on 4 August 1914 the persuasiveness of the recruiting sergeant’s triple-pronged seduction techniques of a general appeal to patriotism, the more specific exhortation of defence of your country and women-folk from the barbaric Germans and the desperate desire to avoid accusations of shirking duty and the accompanying dreaded white feather of cowardice kindled a response in Jesse.

Swept along with a tide of emotion and the fear of missing out on adventure because, after all, it would be over quickly, Jesse was one of those young men who in their thousands gathered in the Dewsbury recruiting office and recruiting offices the length and breadth of the Kingdom to take the King’s Shilling. Jesse even added a year to his age in order to ensure he would be accepted. And with a cursory medical and a few swift pen strokes on 7 August 1914 Jesse was in the Army for the duration, duly assigned to the newly formed 6^th (Service) Battalion, The King’s Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry), (KOYLI).

Pte Jesse Hill, 11598, 6th Bn The King's Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry)

From Pontefract the Battalion moved initially to Woking and then in November 1914 to Witley Camp, Surrey one of the many temporary army training camps flung up in those early months of the war. In February 1915 they moved to Aldershot for their final preparations prior to deployment overseas.

It was whilst at Aldershot and with embarkation for France and the Front Line looming that Jesse wrote his will. He used the standard Army Form designed specifically for the purpose. The harsh reality that he may never return may have struck home by filling in this one basic form. His will, dated 17 March 1915, was witnessed by two Birstall men, Thomas Kelly and John W Learoyd. He named his now married half-sister Nellie Armstrong, daughter of Mary Ann Simpson, as Executor.

The will stated that in the event of his death and following discharge of debts and funeral expenses, everything was to go to his sister Martha, a testimony to the closeness of Jesse and his youngest sister.

On 20 May 1915 an advance party from the Battalion were sent from Aldershot to Southampton in preparation for departure to France. On 21 May 1915 the main body of men split into two groups and, accompanied by music played by the band of the 8^th Devon Regiment, marched to the railway station at Aldershot ready for departure to Folkestone. By 11pm that night they arrived in Folkestone where they embarked on a cross channel steamer and, after a calm crossing, arrived in Boulogne in the early hours of 22 May. From there they marched the two miles to Ostrohove Camp where they remained for just one night before moving up the line and into Belgium by the end of the month.

Belgium was the sector which was the focus of sustained fighting at this point of the war. Only a month earlier the first gas attack on the Western Front, perpetrated by the Germans, took place initiating the 2^nd Battle of Ypres. 2^nd Ypres ended on 25 May pushing the Allies back, compressing the Salient and bringing the Front Line closer to Allied held Ypres. Reinforcements were urgently needed, and it was to this “hot spot” that the 6^th KOYLI and Jesse Hill were sent.

This is where they remained for the next few months, undergoing the rotational routine of trench warfare. Typically most men spent five days in the frontline, five in reserve, five back at the frontline and finally five in reserve. However, this was not fixed because, if circumstances demanded it, they could spend anything between four and eight days in the frontline trenches. While some men were in the front fire trenches, others would occupy the support lines, ready to provide reinforcement when hard-pressed in an attack or a raid. Finally the battalion was removed from the frontline trenches and taken to the rear areas, a process known as relief and carried out at the dead of night via the communication trenches. But even when in reserve trenches they were kept busy and still at risk, undertaking sentry duty and providing digging, wiring and ration parties.

This became Jesse’s daily routine in the areas around Ypres, Vlamertinghe, Hooge, Sanctuary Wood areas, frequently negotiating the Menin Road and Hellfire Corner to get from Ypres to the frontline trenches.

During these months he had a couple of narrow escapes. On one occasion he and four others were buried by shell wreckage; on another time a “motor char-a-banc” in which he was travelling overturned and Jesse sustained what were described as comparatively slight injuries.

On the evening of 15 September 1915 it was the 6^th KOYLI’s turn to have another spell in the trenches leaving Ypres through the Menin Gate, up the Menin Road and into the frontline. It appears that Jesse was in “A” Company in H16, H17, S17, H16A and H15A trenches.

It was all fairly standard stuff. During the relief, always a dangerous time, the Battalion lost a Machine Gun Sergeant and four men just after arrival in H14 to a large shell. On the 16 September 1915 the diary notes continuous shelling from their own guns behind the lines, as they were trying an experimental shell. The German reply was not vigorous. All in all the 16 September was a fairly quiet night, with 60 more men coming up from base as the Battalion had been allocated far too much work and were having to carry their own rations. 17 September followed a similar pattern. Shelling increased from both sides on 18 September and six men from “B” Company were killed as a result, but overall once again the night was described as “peaceful comparatively”.

Friday 19 September dawned with heavy bombardment from the Allied guns at 4.50am. These rounds fell short of the German Lines and gradually became shorter and shorter until they were raining rapidly on the British held trenches, mainly around H18 and H19. However, because the telephone was out and the Forward Observation Officer had been killed, the Officer Commanding in the trenches could not report back to the guns. Shells were now hitting H18, H17A, the bombing post at H18A and H19 and casualties sustained – both dead and wounded.

19 September is the day that official records, both CWGC and his Army Death Certificate, state Jesse died. If so, he was killed by this so-called friendly fire.

However, there is a small question mark. On the first anniversary of his death in September 1916 an “In Memoriam” notice appeared in the local newspapers. This indicates that the family believed his death occurred on 20 September.

The Unit War Diary for 20 September notes that at 4.55am High Explosives from Hill 60 landed at Charing Cross killing six men.

Pte Healey wrote to Jesse’s family and the details appeared in the local papers in mid-October. The newspaper article puts it bluntly as follows:

“A companion named Private Healey wrote to the relatives a few days ago informing them that Private Hill met his death suddenly, both legs and part of his body being blown off, and an official intimation confirms the sad news”.

So, although official records state Jesse’s death took place on 19 September, it may conceivably have been 20 September.

CWGC records show that after the war Jesse’s body was recovered in June 1919. The trench map reference appears to relate to the Ypres area. I initially believed he may have been buried in what was known Ypres Reservoir Middle Cemetery, (also called “Prison Cemetery No.2” and “Middle Prison Cemetery”), which was located near the prison and reservoir. It was used in August and September 1915, and rarely afterwards. It contained the graves of 107 soldiers from the United Kingdom, 41 of which were from the 6^th KOYLI. However a further analysis of CWGC records appears to discount this theory. After the War the graves from Middle Prison Cemetery, other small burial grounds around Ypres and graves from the Salient battlefields were brought together in one cemetery, Ypres Reservoir. This is Jesse’s final resting place.

Jesse Hill's Headstone - Ypres Reservoir Cemetery

Jesse was awarded the awarded the 1914-15 Star, Victory Medal and British War Medal. He is remembered on the Batley War Memorial and the Soothill Upper War Memorial at St Paul’s, Hanging Heaton. The UK, Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects show following his death that the Army owed his sister, Martha, as next of kin, £1 13s 3d and a £3 10s war gratuity.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk – British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920 Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929: http://home.ancestry.co.uk/
“Batley News” – 9 October 1915
Birth Certificate
CWGC: http://www.cwgc.org/
Death Certificate
“Dewsbury District News” – 16 October 1915 and 30 September 1916
FindMyPast – Census information, Soldiers Died in the Great War: http://www.cwgc.org/
Gov.UK Website – Find a Soldier’s Will: https://www.gov.uk/probate-search
The National Archives – Unit War Diary, 43 Infantry Brigade: 6 Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. WO 95/1906/1: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/
“War Register and Records of War Service 1914-1920 Urban District of Soothill Upper” – Rev W E Cleworth MA
Photos of Jesse Hill, “H” sector trenches, headstone and Batley War Memorial inscription – my own

© Jane Roberts and PastToPresentGenealogy, 2015. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jane Roberts and PastToPresentGenealogy with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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Posted in Ancestry, Batley, Family History, Genealogy, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, KOYLI, WW1, Ypres

Tagged Ancestry, Batley, family history, genealogy, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, KOYLI, WW1, Ypres

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