Evelyn and Gladys Haggas
Red Cross VAD Canteen workers
Evelyn and Gladys Haggas.
Early life:
Herbert Haggas was one of the well-known Haggas wool manufacturers. He and his wife Emily (nee Hattersley) had three daughters – Alice Gertrude, Edyth Gladys, and Evelyn Mary.
Edyth was the second daughter and used her middle name Gladys throughout her life. She was born 20th November 1888 and baptised 19th December at Ingrow St. John, Keighley. Evelyn was born 3rd December 1891 and baptised 3rd February 1892, also at Ingrow St. John. The family address was Bracken Bank.
In 1891 the census shows that Herbert, Emily, Alice and Gladys lived at Ingrow. Herbert was described as a worsted spinner and manufacturer. The family had one servant, a young lady from Monmouth.
By 1901 the older two girls were at boarding school in Nottingham – Alice was by now 14 and Gladys 12. Nine year old Evelyn was still with her parents at Bracken Bank with a visitor, Ada Ashton, a masseuse from Bristol, and three servants – a cook and two housemaids.
Alice, the older sister, married in 1910 to James Bairstow Bateman, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Gladys was with her at the time of the 1911 census at 9 Pier Mansions, South Parade, Portsmouth. I assume Lieutenant Bateman was at sea as he was not at home at the time, and the household consisted of Alice and Gladys, neither of whom had an occupation listed, with one servant. Evelyn was a visitor with two sisters at Bridge End, Warkworth, Northumberland. Alice would later divorce, and she remarried to Lieutenant Colonel George Weatherhead Kay Butcher of the Royal Field Artillery, and they had one child.
Evelyn, Alice and Gladys Haggas - taken from The Oakbank History Trail by Maurice Smith, published 1982
War service:
Gladys and Evelyn joined the Red Cross and were canteen workers – ‘Nurse Canteener d’Eclopes’. Both would receive the British War and Victory Medal, as well as the Crois de Guerre for their work with the French Red Cross Society. This was an award given to French and Allied personnel for bravery during war.
The Croix-De-Guerre
Later life:
Neither Gladys nor Evelyn ever married. They appear to have lived together for the rest of their lives and holidayed together – records show that they travelled to Puerto Rico in 1960. Their address at this time was Terraughtie, Dumfries in Scotland which is where their father had died several years before, so they appear to have owned a property there as well as Keighley.
Both ladies lived at 6 Hallcroft Drive, Addingham at the times of their deaths – Gladys on 17th March 1977 and Evelyn on 29th November 1983. They are buried at St. Peter’s Churchyard, Addingham.
Information sources:
England and Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1935
1891 England Census
1901 England Census
1911 England Census
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962
UK, British Army WW1 Medal Roll Index Cards, 1914-1920
UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960
England and Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
Keighley News archives at Keighley Library
England and Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995
Findagrave.com
Livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/4956010
Livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/4956009
England and Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935
Maurice Smith – The Oakbank History Trail, published 1982
