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.
Gunner. 42, Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery. Service number 135142.
Gunner Thomas Alda Friend.
Early life:
Thomas was born early in 1891 at Cross Hills near Sutton and his birth was registered at Keighley in the first quarter of the year. His parents were Arthur William Friend (aged 21) and Martha Ann Friend née Holgate (aged 20) and they were living at Lothersdale Road in Glusburn. They had been married at Skipton in 1890 and Arthur was a joiner by trade.
In the 1891 census, they were living here with Thomas who was just 1 month old at the time of the census which was taken on 5th April, meaning that Thomas was born close the the start of March that year.
By the time of the 1901 census they had moved to 4, James Street at Glusburn, Arthur was a joiner/carpenter and Thomas was now 10 years old and at school.
In the 1911 census they were living at Ryland Street, Cross Hills, Arthur was still a joiner and Thomas was 20 years of age and working as a warp twister for a cloth manufacturer.
Prior to enlisting, Thomas was employed as loomer and twister by Messrs. George T. Mason and Sons at North Beck Mills, Keighley. Since this is the same occupation as indicated in the 1911 census, it's likely he had been working for them for at least five years.
War service:
Thomas hated the idea of war, although this seemed to be for sociological reasons and not a conscientious objection, as he does not appear to have made any statement in those terms. He applied for an exemption to the Military Tribunal at Keighley and appealed their first decision. After the exchange of various pieces of correspondence his employer withdrew their support for his claim.
Keighley Town Clerk's letters, bound copies in Keighley Library archives:
Reference: BMT/KE 4/3/25. Page 237.
Dear Sir, Military Service Act 1916, 22 March 1916.
Local tribunal.
Appeal by Thomas Alda Friend.
I enclose notice of appeal herein dated 15th instance, together with other papers relating to this man viz:
1916.
No. 20. 18th February: Man's application as exemption.
4th March: Military Representative's observation thereon.
No. 77. 29th February: Employer's application as to exemption.
3rd March: Military Representative's observation thereon.
You will observe that the employers have withdrawn from the application.
Yours, Smith Terry, Town Clerk.
The Secretary, Appeal Tribunal, Town Hall, Bradford.
The Bradford Daily Telegraph of 13th April 1916, page 4.
This issue ran a short article about him and several others who had dealings with the Military Tribunal:
ROUND AND ABOUT.
Four men - Harold Whitfield, Thomas Alda Friend, Abraham Butterfield Fortune, and Allan Fortune - who appealed against the decision of the Keighley Tribunal have had their applications refused. The brothers Fortune were conscientious objectors.
[this implies that Thomas was not, indeed he appears to have been just objecting to war itself and eventually accepted that it was his duty to serve his country despite this.]
In April 1916, Thomas joined the Royal Artillery at Keighley with the service number 135142. After training he went abroad and served with the 42nd Siege Gun Battery which had moved from serving in Egypt to the Western front. Unfortunately no war diary exists for that period.
No Army service record exists for Thomas but the newspaper gives hints to his service, stating he went out to his regiment in March, 1917. He was badly affected by a poison gas attack whilst in action and would have been transported along the casualty evacuation chain, when he died of his wounds on 8th October 1917 at number 1 Casualty Clearing Station, which was located at Chocques between January 1915 and April 1918.
He was buried at Choques Military Cemetery at Pas de Calais in France and his grave is in plot I, row M, grave 21. The family inscription on his headstone reads: 'Faithful Unto Death.'
The Keighley News, Saturday 20th October, 1917, page 3:
Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Friend, Ryeland Street, Cross Hills, on Saturday received a letter from an Army chaplain informing them that their only son, Gunner Alder Friend, of the Royal Field Artillery, had died at a casualty clearing station in France on October 9, from the effects of German poison gas.
He joined the Royal Field Artillery in April, 1916, and went out to France in March last.
At the time of enlistment he was a loomer and twister at Messrs. George T. Mason and Son's, North Beck Mills, Keighley. He was 26 years of age, and lived with his parents in Ryland Street, Cross Hills. He was of a very cheerful disposition, and was held in high esteem.
The Keighley News, Saturday 20th October, 1917, page 3:
CROSSHILLS. MEMORIAL SERVICE.
On Sunday evening last a largely attended service in memory of Gunner Alder Friend, of Cross Hills, was held in the Cross Hills Ebenezer Church. The Rev. F. H. J. Thornton said their hearts were sore for the loss of their friend, who had laid down his life for his country. He remembered the last conversation he had with him, when he stated definitely that he hated war, and yet held it to be his duty to defend his home and homeland. He was courteous, kindly, a great over of home, and one felt in coming into his presence that he wished to make this world a better and sweeter place. He was a straight, strong upright character, and ever ready in a manly way to fight the good fight, and to look forward hopefully. But he had not to return home. Gallant, joyful, hopeful he had fallen, and they felt great sorrow for his relatives. Mrs. J. H. Greenwood sang a solo, and special hymns of intercession were sung, including one to a tune composed by Mr. Amos Driver, a well-known local composer and a member of the church. Mr Ernest Clough was organist.
Post war:
In the 1921 census Arthur and Martha were living at 54, Ryeland Street in Cross Hills. They were still then when they returned the next of kin documentation after the war. The census records that Arthur was 51 and a joiner working for J. Laycock and Sons, Joiners and Motor body builders of Cononley. Martha was aged 50 and on home duties.
The soldiers effects record shows that Arthur received £2 19s 4d on 14th May 1918 which would have been any outstanding pay for Thomas, and he also received a war gratuity payment of £6 on 14th November 1919. He would have received any personal effects belonging to Thomas, plus his medals and a bronze Great War memorial plaque and a paper scroll inscribed with Thomas' name.
The war service medals awarded to Thomas were the British War Medal and Victory Medal and these usually arrived with the next of kin in 1920 or 1921.
Martha received a dependants pension of six shillings and three pence per week starting from 16th April 1918.
Arthur died at the age of 67 in 1937 and his death was registered at Skipton in the first quarter of the year.
In the 1939 register Martha was a patient at The West Riding Mental Hospital in Aireborough (this was High Royds Hospital at Menston.)
She died in 1958 aged 88 and her death was registered at Wharfedale in the second quarter of the year.
In her 1959 Probate record, she left £943 5s. 8d., to her sister Florence Rebecca Holgate.
Information sources:
England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915
1891 England Census
1901 England Census
1911 England Census
Soldiers Died in the Great War
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923
British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
Town Clerk's letters, bound copies in Keighley Library archives. Page 237. BMT/KE 4/3/25.
Bradford Daily Telegraph, British Newspaper Archive.
The Keighley News archives at Keighley Library.
Craven Herald information, courtesy of Craven's Part in the Great War.
1921 Census
1939 Register
England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007
