This is one of a series of posts about local men named on the Keighley Union Workhouse roll of honour.
As a child, Edward Darcy had been under the care of the Keighley Union Guardians before he served in the Great War. Edward and his brother James Darcy were the sons of William Darcy, a notorious drinker who was well known at Keighley Magistrates Court, and one of the imprisoned ringleaders of the Keighley riots in September 1914.
Private, 9th Service Battalion, and 2/6 Battalion, Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment.
Early life and Workhouse.
Edward was born in Keighley on 8th July 1895, to parents William and Mary Ann Darcy.
In 1901 he was listed at Keighley Union Workhouse aged 6 years old with his two sisters, Catherine age 9 and Annie at 10 months, plus their younger brother James age 4. Their father William was nowhere to be found locally, even though he was registered as an elector at 95, Wellington Street. He may have absconded to avoid paying the Keighley Guardians for the care of his family.
Their mother Mary Ann Darcy was sent to gaol for a fortnight on 3rd September 1903 for absconding from the workhouse with the clothes she was wearing (which belonged to the workhouse) She had been allowed out to church but did not return. She was also given seven days in jail for prostitution on 24th April 1905 so the situation must have been desperate at the time although the record shows she was working as a factory hand when imprisoned.
William was jailed on the 21st December 1906 for desertion. He served for 3 months with hard labour at Leeds Prison. This offence is marked as 'Union' which suggests it was the Keighley Guardians who made the charge against him. The previous month's Keighley News Court Report stated that William had been in the town earlier but had absconded. Two children were in homes at Leeds and the other two in Children's homes in Keighley. At a cost to the Guardians of £1 per week, William Darcy's debt had risen to £111, a huge sum for the time and likely to be one he would have no hope of paying back, hence the severe sentence.
In the next few years William committed many further crimes, usually with drink involved and disorderly conduct and violence, but there are simply too many to list here. To give you an idea of the scale, the court heard that he'd had 51 offences heard against him by 1915.
By the time of the 1911 census. Edward was 15 and working as a setter (woollen yarns). He was living at 35, Back Burlington Street with his mother, brother James and sister Annie. Their father William was absent from the family home for the census as he was again serving two months in Leeds Prison, this time for assault.
War service
Shortly after war was declared in August 1914, Edward attested at Keighley on August 27th for the West Riding Regiment with the service number 13240. He was sent to Halifax for training. His Army conduct sheet gives some insight into his true character in that he served a total of 208 days. Of these, he spent 24 days confined to barracks and had several days pay deducted for being absent from parade, and general unruliness and refusing to obey orders. For breaking out of quarters when a defaulter and being found drunk, he was awarded 96 hours F.P. no 2 (field punishment no. 2) and fined for breaking a window in the prisoner's cell.
Less than a fortnight later he received 168 hours F.P. no 2 for a second offence of drunkenness and was forfeited three days pay and fined 2/6d. The next month he was absent from operations and confined, but broke out and was again absent from the Commanding officer's parade, which got him another 96 hours F.P. no. 2. When he had completed this the Army decided they'd had enough of him and discharged him for misconduct under King's Regulations. His character was unsurprisingly rated with one word: BAD.
Private Edward Darcy's character reference on discharge - Bad.
Within a fortnight he was in Keighley court in early April 1915, being fined nine shillings for disorderly conduct and refusing to quit the Burlington Arms on the night of Saturday March 28.
Less than a week later at the age of 19 years and 8 months he enlisted again, this time at Skipton with the 2/6th Battalion West Riding Regiment including signing for overseas service. The family address was 114, Oakworth Road, Keighley. He'd not served more than two months before receiving two weeks confinement for desertion along with Private Andrew Payton. These two men deserted again on June 3 and ending up in Keighley Borough Court the next week charged with assaulting Police Constable Mitchell and deserting the 3/6th West Riding Regiment. Payton received two months, and Darcy received two weeks in prison. Edward's father William was also fined 5/6d for obstructing the police during the assault.
On completion of his sentence Edward Darcy was discharged from the West Riding Regiment under King's regulations as a 'recruit within three months of enlistment considered unfit for service.' In his records he was also described as 'Not likely to become an efficient soldier.'
There is evidence that he was later conscripted and he served at the front with the 9th Battalion West Riding Regiment, as he wrote a poem about it, which was published in the regimental history and a copy is at Keighley Library. We have an image of the page so you can read it here:
Edward Darcy's poem, probably written after the war. He appears to have served with the 9th Battalion West Riding Regiment. Courtesy of Keighley Library Local Studies archive.
We have also transcribed it in full here:
History of the 9th Duke of Wellingtons.
I'd like to speak of the 9th Duke of Wellington's, who listed in August 1914,
We all went for the same purpose, to fight for our King and Queen.
We left Halifax on the seventh of September, to go down to Bovington Camp,
And the conditions we lived under was awful, it's a wonder we didn't all die with cramp.
Our N.C.O.'s and Officers were patient, to put up with such fellows as me,
And the way they knocked us into soldiers, they certainly earned the V.C.
Colonel Haydon was our Commanding Officer, then R.S.M. Bennett by gosh was a driller,
Captain Robertson and Captain Huntriss, not forgetting our Adjutant, Captain Miller,
There was Brothers Mooneys, Brothers McLarens, also Lieutenant Lowe.
We had the two smallest Officers in our brigade, they were Lieutenant McCawl and little Pinto.
Then we were sent down to Wimborne, and better people there I never met,
And if the war had been fought in Dorset, well I think I'd be soldiering yet.
Then back to Wool, Winchester and Southampton, the Government led us a dance.
They left England's shores on the 15th of July, to take their positions in France,
They wasn't at the Base many hours, for they knew how to point and parry.
They were sent in the trenches at Dische Bushe in a little place called Boi Carrie.
They were sent to Ypres Sector, which all the Old Boys will remember
The 17th Divisional first gas attack on the 19th of December.
We were then sent on the Somme up to the waist in mud,
And it will always live in history how they went through Delville Wood.
Interval.
The next time I joined them was at Sue St. Leger, they were out on a well earned rest,
And I looked around the Company for some of my mates, but the majority had gone west.
We were then sent over to Mouchie et Arras on the 25th of April, 1917,
But they butchered and cut us to pieces, it was the worst time the Battalion had seen.
We went over at 4 in the morning, my God! it was a terrible day,
We were put in charge of an Officer, his name was Lieutenant Selway,
400 yards was our objective, we all tried to look very fierce.
Our Officer was the first to be wounded, we were put in charge of Sergeant Pierce.
Me and Pierce shared the same shell hole all day, my best pal had been hit in the head.
We got back at 9 in the evening, stumbling and falling over our dead.
There was four of us left out of our platoon, the roll was getting called with Sergeant Major Green,
He said to me “Hello Darcy, where the bloody hell have you been?”
Now Green was a decent fellow, he'd put no-one in the mush.
But he got himself killed a few months after in the 1918 push.
The Company was mustered together, I don't think in all we had ten,
Captain Driver from Silsden, brought us out of the trenches, with hardly a handful of men.
Then we were brought out to be reinforced, they knew we had been working like Turks,
We were sent through Phampor and the single Archies, then we were dumped in the Chemical Works.
We were sent back on the Ypres Sector, which was enough to make a man cringe,
We went through St. Omer and St. Sixty, and we rested at Elverdingh,
Then through Bessingh B. track and Hausmark, the 9th Duke's faced all the slaughter,
We relieved the Manchesters of the 52nd Brigade, up to the waist in water.
Then they brought us out for a rest, we thought we were going home,
But the trouble had started at Cambrai, so we were sent up to Bapaume,
Through Bapaume, Pronne, Rocklingcourt and Ypres, we did it in record time,
Through Haplingcourt Bus, and Avringcourt, and right through the Hindenburg line,
I thought we were never going to stop, we looked like backing a winner,
We went through the Canal, Du Nord and Hermier, that's where we had our Christmas dinner.
I'll never forget the 21st of March, 1918, we thought we were left on the shelf,
Colonel Warnell was supposed to have sent word down the trenches “Everybody for themselves,”
But Captain Driver, afterwards Colonel, kept his headpiece, he wouldn't stir our Company a fraction,
He brought us down in an orderly manner, then made us fight a Rear Guard Action,
Then after hard fighting we chased them back to Germany, so now we don't give a care,
But Good Luck to the 9th Duke of Wellington's, for they certainly did their share.
Now God bless all those who got killed in action, also those who have died since the war,
I hope they are all happy in Heaven, for better lads I never saw.
Concluded.
Written and composed by PTE. Edward Darcy,
9th Duke of Wellington's West Riding Regiment.
Later life
In 1923 Edward appears on the electoral roll for 15, Adelaide Street, Keighley and he married Nora Narey at the end of 1924. For the next few years it's a bit vague but they were registered electors at 2, Moorhouse Street and at 4, Burlington Street in Keighley from 1926 until 1934. After that year they are registered at different houses, so they may have separated. As far as electoral registration is concerned, Edward was away from Keighley until 1948 and Norah was living with Ann and Mary Narey (Norah's unmarried name) at Burlington Street in Keighley until 1939, then alone until 1957 at 2, Russell, Street in Keighley.
We're not 100% sure where Edward was in the 1939 register but there is an Edward Darcy (born 8th July 1895) married and living at 73, Walpole Road in Huddersfield and working as a scaffolding erector (heavy work) along with Annie Darcy, (born 9th January 1905) also married and a 'Housewife unpaid'. There are also two redacted records for this address so we don't know who they were.
Edward Darcy died in 1973 at the age of 78. Nora died aged 77 in 1978. Both of these deaths were recorded for the Worth Valley area.
Source information:
England and Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910
1901 England Census
1911 England Census
British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920
UK, World War I Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920
Keighley News archives at Keighley Library
Keighley Union Workhouse roll of honour held at Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley.
Edward's poem transcribed by Men of Worth volunteer Gill Keeley
