August 25, 1917 page 3:
LOCAL WAR CASUALTIES. KILLED DURING A RAID.
Mr M. Carney, of 15, Burlington Street, Keighley, has received intimation of the death in action of his brother Private James Carney, of the West Riding Regiment. In a letter to Mr Carney the officer commanding the deceased soldier's company says: "It is with the deepest regret that I have to inform you of the death of Private J. Carney. He took part in a raid on the enemy trenches on the night of August 9 and was killed during the advance. His death was instantaneous. May I extend to you the deepest sympathy of the officers and men of his company in your grief? I looked upon him as one of the best soldiers that I have ever met both for his willingness and splendid work. I recommended him for excellent work during the raid." Private Carney was 28 years of age and single, was wounded at Hooge and gassed at Hill 60. He was a reservist and his time expiring during the war was extended.
[James had been in France since 11th September 1914 and had suffered a gunshot wound to the scalp in April 1915 and was gassed in May 1915. He was discharged 'Terms of service' but he rejoined in March 1916. Prior to the war he was employed as a glass blower at a sheet glassworks.]
Private Harry Hill, York and Lancaster Regiment, of Keighley, was killed on July 31. The Rev. W. _. Laithe (chaplain), in a letter to Private Hill's mother, who resides at 14, Parker Square, Keighley says: "May I express to you our deepest sympathy for the loss of your splendid soldier son? He fully earned the esteem in which he was held by the officers and men in his company, and is greatly missed as a comrade and friend. May God bless you and comfort you in your sore trial, helping you to remember that a life laid down for others is not a life lost, and also to look forward to meeting your son again in perfect strength and beauty on God's Resurrection Day." Mrs Hill has also received very sympathetic letters from Second-Lieutenant A. H. _ _ _ _ _ and Lance-Corporal Jones, of the same platoon as her son. Private Hill, who was only 19 years of age, enlisted in September, 1916, and had been in France since March last. In civil life he was a labourer at the works of Messrs. G. Hattersley and Son, North Brook Works, and was a regular member of the Sun Street Mission.
Other local men killed in July 31 were: Private Clifford Isherwood, York and Lancs Regt; Lance-Corporal Joseph Merry, Royal Fusiliers; Private William Waugh, Manchester Regiment; and Private Joseph Arthur Weller, Sherwood Foresters. All these are named on the Menin Gate memorial.
Mr William Pickles, J. P., of 106, Devonshire Street, Keighley, received news on Friday week that his eldest son, Private Edgar Pickles, Queen's Royal West Surreys, had been severely wounded on August 1? in the severe fighting which took place in _ _ _ _ _ _ Wood, near Ypres. In a letter just received, he says: "I am now down at the base hospital. I shall be sent to England as soon as I am able to travel. I am wounded in the right shoulder and arm. They have got the shrapnel out now and I seem to be going on nicely, but I have no use in my right arm yet." In private life Pte. Pickles was formerly employed by Mr Sims Mitchell, butcher(?) Low Street, but for some time back he worked for his grandfather, Mr Richard Collett, farmer, Braithwaite, as milkman, and also assisted on the farm.
The Gregson family grave at Utley, Keighley.
Bombardier Harold Gregson, Royal Field Artillery, son of Mr Walter Gregson, of Beeches Avenue, Keighley, has died from wounds received in action. He was 27 years of age, and joined the Army in August, 1916. In civil life he was articled with Messrs. Rhodes & Stringer, chartered accountants, Bradford, and for twelve months before joining up he was at the firm's Doncaster branch.
[Harold died on August 11 and is buried in Mendingham Military Cemetery, Belgium. He is remembered with great love by his family on their grave in Utley Cemetery in Keighley]
Sergeant G. H. Wagstaff, Royal Garrison Artillery, of 306(?), South Street, Keighley, has been admitted to a Southport(?) hospital suffering from wounds and gas poisoning. He was a confectioner's agent before joining the Army in November, 1916, and was well known in the town. He went to France in March last.
Private H. Bannister, West Riding Regiment, whose wife resides at 27, West Leeds Street, Keighley, has been "gassed" (on August 5) and is in hospital in Glasgow. He had been at the front since 1914. In civil life he was employed as a turner by Messrs. Nixon(?) & Son, East Parade.
[Harry also served with the Border Regiment, he survived the war and was discharged from the Army in May 1919]
Private D. Murgatroyd, of 9, Oat Street, Ingrow, has been wounded by shrapnel in the right arm, and is now in hospital at Colchester. In civil life he was employed by John Smith, Ltd., crane makers, Keighley, and was closely connected with the work of the Ingrow Mission.
[David Murgatroyd died on 25th April 1918. He is buried at Chocques Military Cemetery in France and remembered on the war memorial at St. John's Church, Ingrow, Keighley]
Private Leo Cawley, Seaforth Highlanders, second son of Mrs Cawley, of 18, Highfield Road, Frizinghall, and the late Mr. T. A. Cawley, formerly a language master at the Keighley Trade and Grammar School, has been wounded, and is now in a base hospital.
Private J. W. Joy, West Riding Regiment, whose home was at Chatsworth Street, Keighley, has been wounded and is now in a hospital abroad. Before enlistment he was employed as a moulder by Messrs. Prince Smith & Son, Burlington Shed.
[John William Joy married Mabel Tame in December 1923 and died aged just 33, early in 1924. Mabel never remarried]
Sapper Frank Shackleton, Royal Engineer, and of 18, Edensor Road, Keighley, is in hospital in Nottingham suffering from severe gas poisoning. [Frank survived the war]
Keighley News, September 1, 1917 page 3:
LOCAL WAR CASUALTIES
LIEUTENANT W. B. STIRK.
Mr and Mrs. F Stirk, Ashfield, Cross Hills, received a telegram on Sunday last from the War office informing them their youngest son, Second-Lieutenant Willie B. Stirk had been wounded in action and was in hospital. On Monday evening Mr. and Mrs. Stirk received a letter from their son in which he he said that he had received a slight flesh wound in the left thigh on Thursday last, but the wound was not very serious. He hoped to be back with his regiment before very long. The letter was written from a hospital at Boulogne. Lieutenant Stirk was formerly a bank clerk and joined the West Riding Regiment in the early days of the war, and went out to the front in April 1915. After twenty months' service in France he was granted a commission and came home for training as an officer. After training he was granted a commission in the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Regiment and went out to France just five weeks ago. He is one of three brothers serving with the forces. His eldest brother Private Harry Stirk, is with the East Kent Regiment "somewhere in France." where he has been for the last ten months. His other brother, Assistant Paymaster Percy Stirk, is in the Royal Naval Reserve, having joined this branch of the service over two years ago.
[William Stirk survived the war and married Jessie Knapp in 1923]
LIEUTENANT ALLAN GREEN.
Lieutenant Allan Green of Oakworth
Further particulars of the death of in action of Second-Lieutenant Allan Green have reached his parents. Lieutenant Green's commanding officer says: "He had marked out some new work to be done and was coming back to meet an infantry working party and put them to their tasks when he, and a corporal who was with him were killed by a shell. I regret your son's death greatly. He was in every way a good soldier, devoted to his duty, and most conscientious in its performance. I considered him one of the best of the young officers and one who always set a good example to others." Second-Lieutenant Green was a member of the Slack Lane Baptist Church, and up to the time of his entering the Army, he was intimately associated with the work of the church and Sunday school, and worked as secretary to the Oakworth Amalgamated Sunday schools committee. He was 20 years of age, and joined the Artists Rifles Officers' Training Corps in December, 1915. and after serving in France about a year was gazetted second-lieutenant in March of that year and attached to the West Yorkshire Regiment (Pioneers). The young officer was formerly a Keighley Trade and Grammar School boy. He was Articled with Messrs. Moore & Crabtree architects, Bradford and Keighley and had passed the preliminary examination for the A.R.I.B.A.
[Allan died on 19th August and is buried in grave 14 of row B, in plot II of St. Nicolas British Cemetery in France and he is remembered locally on the Oakworth War Memorial]
SECOND LIEUTENANT HAROLD PEARSON.
Second Lieutenant Harold Pearson
Second-Lieutenant Harold Pearson D.C.M., "Tank" Corps, has been wounded and is in hospital in France. He had occasion to go outside his "Tank" and while examining it he was shot by a sniper in the chest. Second-Lieutenant Pearson who originally was in the West Riding Regiment and was awarded the D.C.M. in December 1915, for rescuing a wounded Halifax soldier (Lance-Corporal Lakey) under fire, resides in Marlborough Street, Keighley, and previous to enlistment was a member of the Holy Trinity choir and a playing member of the Holy Trinity and the Keighlians Football Club. His winning the D.C.M. was made the occasion of a presentation to him by his workshop associates in the Worth Valley Toolworks, Keighley.
[Harold survived the war, married Sarah Chadwick in 1923, and died in Keighley in 1957]
KEIGHLEY. - SOLDIER'S DEATH FROM FEVER.
Private Alfred Hargreaves
Private Alfred Hargreaves, West Yorkshire Regiment, and son of Mr. and Mrs. James Hargreaves, Drake Villa, Keighley, died in hospital in France on Sunday last from fever. Early in June the parents received news that their son was dangerously ill, and for three weeks was unconscious. When he regained consciousness he improved slightly, but has had a relapse and passed away in the presence of his mother. Twenty three years of age, Private Hargreaves enlisted close upon two years ago, but he had only been in France about three weeks when he was taken ill. Prior to joining the colours he was employed in the office of his father, who carries out business as a coal merchant at Keighley. Deceased was formerly connected with the Cavendish Street United Methodist Church, being a member of the choir and was also associated with the Keighley Orchestral Society and the Young Men's Christian Association. Another son, Private John Arthur Hargreaves, Army Service Corps is also serving and is at present at home on leave prior to going to the front. The bereaved parents have the consolation of knowing that everything possible was done for their son, and they pay a very high tribute to the attention given by the medical staff at the hospital.
[Alfred died on August 26 of Meningitis and was interred at Wimereux, Boulogne. He was 26 years old. He is remembered on the Keighley Roll of Honour in the library and in 'The Keighlian' Magazine]
KILLED IN HIS TENT.
Information has been received that Driver J. W. Smith, Royal Field Artillery of 63, Lawkholme Lane, Keighley, was killed in action on August 7. Driver Smith joined the Army on December 31, 1914 and went on active service in September, 1915. He was a cabinetmaker by trade, and before his enlistment was connected with the Worth Wesleyan Church. The officer commanding the brigade to which he was attached writes testifying to Driver Smith's ability. He had done very well on several occasions during the recent heavy fighting in bringing ammunition up to the guns under fire, he says, and adds that a shell burst alongside Private Smith's tent.
[He is buried in Brandhoek New Military Cemetery in Belgium. He left all his money to Edith Schofield of Keighley]
HONOUR FOR A WOUNDED SOLDIER.
Corporal C. Crook, West Riding Regiment, son of Mr Crook, 22 Plover Street, Keighley, has been wounded for the fourth time, and is now in hospital in Chichester. He distinguished himself on August 8 last and has been awarded the Military Medal. While in hospital he received a letter from Lieutenant B. Godfrey Burton heartily congratulating him upon his well-deserved distinction. Corporal Crook joined the Army on August 4, 1914.
[Clarence Crook had married Ada Feather at Holy Trinity Church in December 1914. He was reported wounded in the Keighley News of October 1915 and again in April 1917. He survived the war and died aged 75 in 1969]
Sergeant Arthur Grainger, West Riding Regiment, of 18, George Street, Keighley, is reported missing and wounded. His wife has received a very sympathetic letter from his captain, who says "Your husband was wounded in both legs and temporarily blinded. Owing to his wounds it was impossible to move him and he was left in the enemy's lines." Sergeant Grainger who has been on active service two years, was home last October suffering from gas poisoning.
[Arthur Granger was later presumed to have died on August 7. His wife Elizabeth was living at 18, George Street, Keighley]
Signaller B. Caulfield of Ann Street, Keighley, is in hospital at Stockport suffering from a wound in his left forearm. He enlisted in February, 1915, and after being in France thirteen months was sent back to England because he was under age. He returned to France last June and was wounded on August 17. Before enlisting he was employed as an apprentice in the Co-operative Society's grocery department and was a member of the 7th St. Anne's scouts.
Private Charlie Stubbs
Private Charles Edwin Stubbs was the son of house painter Leonard, and Ann Stubbs. On enlistment with the 6th Battalion West Riding Regiment on October 6, 1916, Charles was living at 11, Damems, Oakworth with his wife Clara and eighteen month old daughter Irene. He was a journeyman tailor-maker.
[He arrived in France on January 2, 1917 and joined the 8th battalion West Riding Regiment on January 25, serving with them until September when he was posted missing. His body was later found and buried but the grave was lost and he is remembered on the Menin Gate. He is also remembered locally in Keighley's Great War roll of honour and on the St Barnabas Church War Memorial at Long Lee, close to the home of Clara and Irene after the war.]
Lance-Corporal Timothy Green of no. 4 platoon had been previously wounded by shrapnel on July 1 during the battle of the Somme, but recovered in hospital in England and rejoined his battalion in October 1916. He was killed in action on 27th August when a bullet struck him during the advance. He was at the side of his commanding officer Lieutenant Sharp when this happened.
[Timothy is remembered on the Tyne Cot memorial panels for the 8th Battalion and in Keighley's Great war roll of honour book in the library and on Sun Street Methodist Church war memorial. He is listed in 'Keighley's Gallant Sons', of men who volunteered early in the war.]
Corporal Tom Haggarty was also killed in action during the same advance (detailed above) on the German positions in Pheasant Trench. Tom had served in the Balkan theatre since January 20, 1915 and came to Marseille, France with the West Riding Regiment in July 1916.
[He is also remembered on the Tyne Cot war memorial panels, in Keighley's Great war roll of honour book in the library, and on St. Anne's Catholic Church war memorial on North Street, Keighley. His family lived at King Street and he is also listed in 'Keighley's Gallant Sons', men who volunteered in the early part of the war.]
Sergeant Atkinson Rhodes, the well known Keighley Northern Union football player has been wounded by shrapnel and gunshot in the back and is now in the Norfolk War Hospital, Thorpe, Norwich. Sergeant Rhodes who has seen service in the Dardanelles, Egypt and France, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. E. Rhodes, of Corn Street, Ingrow, and is one of two brothers who were awarded the Military Medal simultaneously. [Atkinson Rhodes was an early volunteer, attesting for the Army on August 25, 1914. He was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps at the end of March 1916. He won the Military Medal in 1916. He served in Egypt, becoming a first class instructor on both the Vickers and Maxim machine guns in that year.
He earned the Distinguished Conduct Medal on August 10, 1917 when he received the serious gunshot wound in his left shoulder. He was initially treated at no. 64, Casualty Clearing Station, then Wimereux General Hospital, before going to Norwich. He survived the war, being discharged on February 1, 1919. He is believed to have died in 1960, aged 70]
Private Fred Varley, attached to the Royal Garrison Artillery, whose home is at Keighley, has been wounded in the leg and is in hospital in France. When the war broke out he was in the Yorkshire Hussars, and subsequently he transferred to the Royal Garrison Artillery.
Private. A. Lambert, West Yorkshire Regiment, of 219, Bradford Road, Keighley, is in hospital abroad suffering from the effects of gas poisoning. Aged 25 years, he enlisted in February, 1916, and was formerly employed at the Stockbridge Dyeworks.
Private Wilfred Brown, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, of Park Lane, Keighley, has been slightly gassed and is now in hospital at Whalley. Before enlisting he was employed as a moulder by Prince Smith & Son, Burlington Shed.
Private Ellis. T. Butterfield, Yorkshire Regiment, son of Mr. J. K. Butterfield, of Honey Hole, Oakworth, has been wounded. Before enlistment, he was employed by Messrs, William Sellers & Sons, sewing machine makers, Keighley.
[Ellis Taylor Butterfield was later presumed dead as a prisoner of war on June 19, 1918 and is buried at Plaine French National Cemetery. He was 20 years old and is remembered on the Oakworth War Memorial and named in a memorial inscription on the Butterfield family grave in Oakworth Cemetery]
The Butterfield family grave in Oakworth cemetery.
Corporal Clifford Wakeling (West Riding Regiment) of Keighley, is in hospital in this country, suffering from trench fever.
Lance-Corporal Wilfred Coates of the 42nd Company, Machine Gun Corps, was killed in action on September 7. He was 29 and the husband of Alice Maude Coates of 37, Staveley Road, Ingrow, Keighley. He is remembered on the Tyne Cot war memorial.
HAWORTH
Private H. J. Clarke, of 16 Duke Street, Haworth, is in the auxiliary hospital at Nuneaton, suffering from gas poisoning at Nieuport. He is progressing favourably. Private Clarke joined the old Haworth Volunteers fifteen years ago as a bugler boy, and went to France in April, 1915, attached to the West Riding Regiment. Before the war, he was employed by Messrs Hall & Stell, textile machinery makers, Keighley. [Henry James Clarke had married Florence Magee in 1909. He survived the war, dying in Haworth in 1964 at the age of seventy seven years]
OXENHOPE - TRIBUTE TO A FALLEN SOLDIER.
Mrs Barwick of 1, Farra street, Oxenhope, has received official news that her husband, Private G. Barwick, of the West Riding Regiment, has been killed in action. Before joining the Army about a year ago Private Barwick, who was 34 years of age, was a quarryman, and he had been in France about eight months. In a letter to Mrs. Barwick, Captain Manders says: " I can measure your loss to some extent by my own, so can add my sympathy to your great grief at the loss of such a conscientious and consistent man as Private. G. Barwick. He could always be relied on to do his work thoroughly and well and is missed by his officers and comrades. You will have the consolation knowing he was killed in the execution of his duty. Death was instantaneous." Letters paying high tribute to the deceased soldier and expressing regret at his death have also been received from Second-Lieutenant H. S. Wilkinson, the Rev. A. W. Wath (chaplain), deceased's sergeant-major, and Sergeant H. Gidley. [George is buried in grave 13, of row F, in plot II of Coxyde Military Cemetery in Belgium. He is remembered locally on the war memorial in St Mary's Parish Church at Oxenhope]
Private Norman Walbank of Oakworth
Private Norman Walbank was born in 1886 and lived at 32, Mount Street, Oakworth. He worked as an errand boy at a local worsted mill and eventually as a weaving overlooker. His wife Mary (née Hollings) from Stanbury was a weaver. He joined the Seaforth Highlanders in 1916 and went out to France with them. His eldest son Angus had 'Seaforth' as his middle name, presumably after his father's regiment. He was wounded at Vimy Ridge in June 1916 and again in April 1917 when he suffered a bullet wound in the shoulder and was treated at the Middlesex Hospital. He was killed in action on September 20, 1917 – detailed above in the war diary extract. He left a wife and two children.
[In the weeks leading up to Norman's death the Seaforth Highlanders were involved in the Third Battle of Ypres.
After the initial success of beating the Germans at the Messines Ridge a more prolonged campaign moved North East, with deteriorating weather and hard conditions against a determined German opposition, culminating in with the capture of Passchendale in November 1917. During this time, Norman was killed in action on the 20th September 1917 in the Ypres Salient and his body was never found.
Eighteen other men from his battalion died on the same day and 114 of the 4th battalion were killed in that month alone and 414 Seaforth Highlanders
died in the period from June to November 1917, with just 28 ending up with a grave and 386 men being lost forever in the mud.
The battlefield conditions were so harsh that not one member of this battalion killed in September of 1917 has a known grave, all the men who were lost disappeared without trace.
Norman is remembered with 385 other members of his battalion on their memorial panels (132 to 135 and 162A) at Tyne Cot Cemetery, Belgium.
Locally he is remembered at Oakworth War Memorial in Holden Park, Oakworth and on the Oakworth Wesleyan Roll of Honour in Oakworth Methodist Church.]
LEES AND CROSS ROADS
Private Lewis Kay, West Riding Regiment, son of Mrs George Wane, 97, Hebden Road, Lees, Keighley, has been wounded by a gas shell and is in hospital at St. Omer, France. He was a Territorial at the outbreak of war, and went out to France early in 1915. He was wounded in the head in September, 1915, and in hospital in at Southampton he underwent three operations to the skull. Before the war Private Kay was an apprentice fitter in the employment of Messrs Prince Smith & Son, machine makers, Keighley. [Lewis Kay survived the war, and is remembered on the Lees, Cross Roads and Bocking War Memorial as one of the local men who served and returned]
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