This man is a candidate for addition to Keighley's Supplementary Volume under the proposal to add further names in 2024, the centenary of the original roll of honour.
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Supported by the National Lottery's Heritage Fund, our project intends to submit about 120 names for peer review to add them to the book which is kept at Keighley Library. The unveiling of the book with it's new names is planned for November 2024, 100 years after the unveiling of the original war memorial.
Private. 2nd Battalion, Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire) Regiment. Service Number 52976.
Private Jack Gawthrop.
Early life:
Jack was born in Hendon, Middlesex and his birth was registered there in the first quarter of 1899.
In the 1901 census he was two years of age and living with his parents Benjamin and Emily Gawthrop at 7, Back Church Row at Woodford Bridge, Walthamstow. Also here was his older sister Margaret Alice aged four. Benjamin was a tunnel miner for a contractor.
In 1911 disaster hit the family when Emily died aged 36 in the first quarter of the year. Emily's name does not appear in the 1911 census which must have been taken shortly after she died. Her death was inferred to have taken place in London and it was registered at Stepney in London in March 1911.
In the 1911 census, Benjamin's employment was as 'pit sinker' for a colliery. He was a 40 year old widower, with his daughter Alice aged 14 and son Jack aged 12 and their address was given as 19, Lewis Street in Crumlin, near Newport in Monmouthshire.
The nearest colliery in the area was the 'Navigation Colliery' to the North of Crumlin and this first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1916 and is not visible on the 1902 map, so it was in the process of being dug at the time they were living there.
Perhaps these difficult circumstances for Benjamin led to the children being moved to Keighley to live with their aunt Margaret and uncle Watson Greenwood at 90, Hainworth Wood Road, Ingrow. Jack was certainly living here for a while and was apprenticed to Messrs. Hey & Co., at Ingrow Lane, where he ended up being an overlooker. He also lived in Coventry for a while, working as a miner, but he returned before war broke out and he enlisted in Keighley.
Watson Greenwood and his Aunt Margaret Alice Greenwood née Gawthrop at 90, Hainworth Road, Ingrow had five sons whom Jack would have known very well, including his cousin John Willie Greenwood, who was killed in the Great War whilst serving with the Coldstream Guards. The other sons were Sydney, Joseph Thomas, Ernest Pickles and Fred Greenwood, all of whom were too young to serve in the war.
War service:
Jack enlisted in January 1918 aged 18 and went out to France in 1918. No service record exists for his time in the Army.
WO-95/1741/3/01. War diary of the 2nd Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment.
(The battalion were in the region of Caix, about 18 miles East by South East of Amiens.)
28th March, 9.30 am:
Sudden orders received to withdraw to position East of CAIX. No enemy were in sight of the ROSIERES position and the withdrawal was carried out under fairly heavy barrage and casualties were numerous.
11.30 am: Had reached the CAIX position and were organising the companies when enemy was seen advancing about 1 mile away. The position was immediately manned.
2 pm: Flanks fell away about 2 pm and enemy lights were seen in MEZIERES.
3 pm. Enemy in great strength but not massed.
Our position was shelled and the wire was cut with trench mortar bombs.
About 5 pm the 2nd Middlesex withdrew and notification of this was not received until about 5.30 pm when two of the enemy were actually in our trenches.
The time to fight our withdrawal had come and defensive flanks were organised. C & A Companies were ordered to commence withdrawal at once as they were not actually being attacked, The enemy was advancing from the South East.
B Company, Headquarters and D Company fought well and some of the men were sent out in time to get clear. Many Germans were killed as they were engaged at close range and many of our men were captured and we had many casualties.
Battalion was reformed at COTTENCHY under 2nd Lieutenant Thackray.
29th March: Battalion sent up to the line to help the cavalry (2nd Cavalry Division - Gen. Seely) to establish a line in MORIEUL WOOD. The drummers were involved in this. The battalion was withdrawn that night and given a rest on 30th/31st.
31st: Battalion resting at HAILLES.
1st April: Battalion ordered up to support 2nd Devonshire Regiment, North end of MORIEUL WOOD.
2nd April: Relieved by French (133rd Division) about 4 am and withdrew to DOMMARTIN.
Casualties were very heavy in the latter part of the month of March: Officers: 6 killed, 8 wounded 2 missing. Other ranks: 31 killed, 178 wounded, 371 missing, 4 wounded and missing.
Jack seems to have been wounded in this period of fighting and was evacuated to hospital North West of Amiens, where he died of his wounds on 2nd April 1918.
He was 19 years of age. At the time of death he was being treated in an Australian Hospital in France.
He was buried in grave 28 of row B in plot II at Abbeville Communal Cemetery Extension which is in Northern France, about 30 miles to the North West of Amiens. His father and sister later requested a personal inscription on his Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone which said: "Ever Fondly Remembered by His Sorrowing Father and Sister."
Jack's death was reported in the Keighley News shortly afterwards and it's quite likely that it was Watson Greenwood who had to break the news, having previously had to report his own son John Willie's death in November 1917.
Keighley News, 27th April 1918, page 3:
Private Jack Gawthrop, West Yorkshire Regiment, has died of wounds in an Australian Hospital in France. He enlisted in January 1917 when 18, went to France in 1918, and previous to leaving Ingrow to become a miner at Coventry he was apprenticed as an overlooker with Messrs. Hey & Co., Ingrow. When at Ingrow he lived with his aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Watson Greenwood, 90, Hainworth Wood Road.
Post war:
Benjamin would have received his son Jack's war service medals which would have been the British War Medal and Victory Medal, plus a memorial plaque and scroll inscribed with his name. He would also have received any of Jack's personal effects.
On 26th Jun 1918, a payment of £5 9s 10d was made to Benjamin from Jack's Army pay account and a further war gratuity of £4 was paid to him on 21st November 1919.
Benjamin applied for a Dependant's Pension and he received 3 shillings and 6 pence weekly for a few months in 1918 which was increased in November of that year, to 5 shillings per week for life.
Subsequent applications for an increase were refused.
In 1920, worsted spinners Messrs. Hey & Co., as part of the Keighley Parish Feast, treated 60 of their employees to an all expenses paid trip to France to visit the wartime battlefields. Perhaps some of those who went on the trip knew Jack Gawthrop from his time working there.
Cardiff newspaper, 'Western Mail' 11th November 1927:
GAWTHROP. - In loving memory of Jack Gawthrop, Private 2nd West Yorks, died of wounds in France April 2nd, 1918 - aged 19 - Fondly remembered by Dad and Alice.
Jack's father Benjamin died at the age of 56 in 1928, at Bridgend in Glamorganshire.
In May 2002 the Keighley News told the story of the visit to the battlefields:
An outstanding example of firms’ generosity was shown at Keighley Parish Feast in 1920, when Messrs Hey and Co and John Wright (Ingrow) Ltd treated 60 of their employees to a nine-day trip to the recent battlefields of France and Belgium.
Their party followed an ambitious itinerary, taking special saloons to London, sailing from Newhaven to Dieppe, and sightseeing in Paris before a comprehensive tour which included Amiens, Albert, Poziers, Bapaume, Arras, Loos, Neuve Chapelle, Menin, Hooge and Ypres. Every employee was also given spending money.
“Heroic exploits were recalled by the sight of dug-outs, saps, listening posts, shell-holes, and other relics of the war,” said one of their number, “while the cemeteries with hundreds of white crosses remained to the memory of those who fell.”
Described by the Mayor of Keighley, who had visited the French fortresses of Verdun earlier in 1920: “No attempt has been made to do anything to this battlefield... not a tree is left standing, where once were forests. Today, the scene is an abomination of desolation.”
Information sources:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915
1901 England Census
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915
1911 Wales Census
1911 England Census
Keighley News archives at Keighley Library.
National Archives Great War regimental diaries
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919
Gro War Death Army Other Ranks (1914 To 1921)
Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929
British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
World War I Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923
British Newspaper Death & In Memoriam Notices, Western Mail.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
Keighley News archives (online)
National Library of Scotland mapping service - Trench maps
