Bishop Burton in World War 1

Bishop Burton and World War 1

Bryn Jones

Reverse of front cover

Bishop Burton and World War 1

Let those that come after see to it that their names be not forgotten

1914 – 1919

Bryn Jones

Acknowledgements I gratefully acknowledge the assistance and contributions received from: David Hawes, Peter Quest, Sheila Coy, Ben Byass, Jeremy Armitage, Mark Andrew, Jim Dunning.

I am also very happy to pay tribute to the invaluable assistance and encouragement received from John S Dunning, O.B.E; without him this booklet could not have been written. John’s contribution to village life and to the recording of its history in particular has been massive and still continues today.

© Bryn Jones 2008

Table of contents

Preface

Introduction

The casualties

The memorials

The old boys

The villagers

V.A.D. Nurses

Soldiers and their money

Individual profiles

William Theakstone Berridge Bernard Byass Albert and Harold Curtis Frank Dobby Frank Hall Ernest Richard Hawes Henry Evison Richard Hall Watt Richard and Herbert Hudson Henry Green Norris Clifford Quest Bertram Wales Edwin Williamson George Woodmancy

Reverse of table of contents

Preface This project began for me one unseasonably warm Sunday morning in November 2007. Not as you might think Remembrance Sunday itself but a week before. Small groups of volunteers were making light work of clearing the area around the Wayside Cross beside the pond in the village of Bishop Burton. It was the first time I had been into this area which for most of the year is under lock and key. Only when you go there can you see the list of names that the memorial is all about. They are on the face of the memorial that is hidden from the trail of traffic that passes the pond day and night. Looking at the list of seven names I started wondering who they were and how they were connected with the village.

The usual suspects were in attendance; you know, the ones who turn up for everything. Among them was John Dunning. I said “Hello” and he replied “Hello, who are you?” I introduced myself but could not understand why he didn’t remember me since we’d met many times on his walks down our lane. I now know there is nothing wrong with John’s memory. He has a twin brother, Jim, and it was him that I had met.

We soon finished our work to make the memorial ready for the remembrance service, received some of John’s welcome hospitality and repaired home. Later that week I contacted Ben Byass and asked him if he thought there would be merit in researching the personal history of the seven men whose names appear on the memorial and the plaque in the church. He said that others had been thinking of this too and I should talk to John Dunning. I did and here we are.

We started this project not knowing what we would find. Indeed what we have discovered is very uneven in quantity. Some of the individuals we know a deal about; others very little. However, our studies have enabled us to form a picture of what life would have been like for those individuals and to set this in a village context.

We started the project thinking it would be manageable because it only involved seven men. How wrong we were. We kept stumbling across other men associated with the village who had died during the Great War. Sometimes the connections were a little tenuous but we have ended up with another nine men who were either born in the village or whose parents lived here at the time of the war. Even now there may be more.

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Although this project is resulting in the publication of this booklet to coincide with the 90th anniversary of the end of the Great War, it is unlikely that the story can be closed. We will be publishing more of the detailed findings on the village web site. This will probably trigger, not necessarily straight away, a connexion, a memory, a discovery that will shed more light on one of our small army of servicemen or even add to its membership. Personal history that focuses on ordinary people will produce surprises in the timing and means of its revelation. There are still boxes of letters, photos, forms still waiting to be opened by a curious relative. Let’s hope they have the wisdom to see their value in helping us make sense of our lives through history.

Bryn Jones

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Introduction “Died of wounds”, “killed in action” – phrases that briefly summarise the passing of lives that were also so brief. Reduced still further to DoW, and KiA in official records, they are almost cruel in their brevity.

Our purpose in this book is to restore as best we can the memories of those who suffered on our behalf. Family historians have done this for their ancestors; usually great uncles or great-great uncles. But what of those whose family history stopped with the war or with their parents’ generation; who would try to remember them? That was our starting point.

We are now too late to talk to people who knew them, so we have to piece together fragments into stories. These stories are not complete but we have made a start.

In building these stories we have used the following main sources

 Census returns from 1841 to 1901  Service, medical and medal records for World War 1 held at the National Archives in Kew. Sadly many of the records were destroyed by German bombing raids in World War II so they are only available for a few of the individuals in whom we are interested.  Newspaper and military archives  Library archives relating to Bishop Burton and the Hall Watt family  The Bishop Burton School log. It covers the period from 1863 to 1986 and contains a weekly account of activities in the school. It merits transcription and publication in its own right.  Personal documents and photographs

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The casualties Seven men are recorded on the plaque on the wall of All Saints’ Church in Bishop Burton as having died in World War 1. They are:

Rank Name Regiment 2nd Lieutenant Richard Hall-Watt 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards Private William Berridge Northumberland Fusiliers Lance Corporal Albert Curtis Seaforth Highlanders Private Harold Curtis West Yorkshire Regiment Private Ernest Hawes Army Service Corps Driver Richard Hudson Royal Field Artillery Private Herbert Hudson Manchester Regiment

Albert and Harold Curtis were brothers as were Richard and Herbert Hudson.

In addition we came across the following men who died as a result of the war and were associated with the village directly or indirectly:

Rank Name Regiment Private Bernard Byass East Yorkshire Regiment Sergeant Frank Dobby Royal Field Artillery 1st/4th Battalion The Yorkshire Private Henry Evison Regiment 2nd/5th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s Private Frank Hall (West Riding Regiment) Henry Green Private Derbyshire Yeomanry Norris Private Clifford Quest 10th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment 14th Battalion Royal Warwickshire Lance Corporal Bertram Wales Regiment (1st Birmingham Battalion) Lance Corporal Edwin Williamson 5th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment George 2nd/4th Battalion The Loyal North Private Woodmancy Lincolnshire Regiment

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The memorials There are not one but two memorials to the men of Bishop Burton who died in World War 1. The first is a tablet on the rear wall of All Saints Church; the second is the wayside cross that stands on a small peninsula in the main pond or mere in the village. Both were created in 1923 by a public subscription that raised £641, the equivalent today of over £25,000. The subscription met much of the cost; the remainder was met by Mrs Eyre, the mother of Richard Hall Watt, the lord of the manor of Bishop Burton at the time of his death in the war.

Pictured below is the memorial cross after the completion of the works that strengthened the bank of the mere in 2008.

The tablet on the rear wall of All Saints’ church is a beautiful example of the work of Joseph Armitage, a carver of some note in the early part of the 20th century.

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The two flags beside the tablet are the Union Jack and the “White Ensign”, an ensign flown on British Naval ships and shore establishments.

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The panel on the tablet lists the names of the soldiers of the village who died as a result of the war and contains the following inscription:

They whom this panel commemorates were numbered among those who at the call of King and country left all that was dear to them endured hardness, faced danger and finally passed out of sight of men by the path of duty and self sacrifice giving up their own lives that others might live in freedom.

The panel ends with the rather stern admonition to us:

Let those that come after see to it that their names be not forgotten 1914 – 1919

There are two further crosses in the church that relate specifically to Richard Hall Watt and are pictured later in the booklet.

The subscribers Well over 150 individuals and families subscribed to the building of the two memorials. Their names are list below and are taken from the accounts of the subscription prepared by James W Young.

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Balance sheet Robert Pape of Beverley was paid £6 7s 10d for fixing the tablet in the church. Many of the graves in the church yard bear his mark too. S E Lythe built the foundation for the cross and J Peers & Son built the cross itself for a fee of £508.

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Joseph Armitage Joseph Armitage desgned and created the tablet in the church. He was the son of a painter and decorator from Harrogate. Born in 1880, he died shortly before the start of World War 2. He was a carver and sculptor who created many of the now familiar features of the building landscape of London. Joseph Armitage was responsible for the stone-carving, wood-carving, fibrous plaster and metalwork carried out for the architect, Sir Herbert Baker, on India House in the Aldwych. He also contributed carvings at the Tyne Cot Memorial where again the architect was Sir Herbert Baker and he was responsible for a number of memorials that were created in towns and villages across the country. He built up a successful design and craft practice in London employing at its peak over 100 people. His most enduring mark may turn out to be his design of the leaf adopted by the National Trust as its emblem that we still see everyday on our travels. The design was used by the National Trust after a national competition that Joseph won in 1935.

Joseph’s son, Edward, became an architect and wrote an article on his father’s life which was published in the Thirties magazine. Edward’s son is also an architect and has a practice in Glasgow.

The service of dedication The memorial and tablet were dedicated by a service that took place on the 16th October 1922 led by the Archbishop of York, Cosmo Gordon Lang. The service began with a procession of the Archbishop, the clergy and church wardens from the New Gate to the site of the cross. The hymn “O God Our help in Ages Past” was sung. The cross was then unveiled by the Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding, Charles Wilson, 2nd Baron of Nunburnholme, and the Archbishop performed the Dedication. Various groups then saluted the memorial or placed flowers as the programme on the following pages indicates before the group processed back to the church in order to perform the dedication of the tablet on the wall of the church.

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Back in the church the Vicar read the following verses from the bible

The congregation then spoke the 23rd Psalm followed the Lord’s Prayer.

The Vicar, the Reverend Pearman, read the names of the men who died and the Archbishop performed the dedication. This part of the service concluded with the playing of the “Last Post” by a lone bugler from beside the memorial tablet. The Archbishop then delivered an address from the pulpit at the end of which the congregation sang the hymn that begins “For all the Saints who from their labours rest..” The service ended with the lone bugler playing the Reveille from the altar steps.

We don’t have a photograph of the dedication ceremony itself but this is a photograph of the Armistice Day service of 1924.

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Friends of the Bishop Burton War Memorial Whatever the skill and art that goes into the construction of memorials in stone, they will deteriorate if left to the elements. The Friends of the Bishop Burton War Memorial is a committee chaired by Ben Byass that takes responsibility on behalf of the parish for maintaining the memorial and its immediate vicinity. The Friends also contributed in 2006 the plaque that is now on the memorial. The memorial benefited in 2008 from the remedial works undertaken by the Parish Council with County Council support to strengthen the bank of the Mere on which the cross stands.

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The old boys A plaque that is now on a side wall of All Saints Church lists the old boys of Bishop Burton Church School who served in World War I. The plaque was originally in the school itself, now a private residence beside the School Green in the village. The school opened in 1861 replacing an endowed school that had been funded by initially by the Gee family. It sadly closed in 1986.

List of names of old boys The names on the plaque are ordered by the year when the old boy enlisted in the armed services and then alphabetically by surname. The odd name is out of order probably because it was a late addition. They are transcribed here in the order they appear on the plaque.

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1914 Johnson, George 1916 Akester, Fred Quest, Clifford Duck, Simpson Akester, Addison Stanton, Harold Frear, Arthur Berridge, George Swann, Eric Ouston, Frank Berridge, Joseph Thompson, Joseph Stainforth, John Berridge, Tim Thompson, Harold Smart, Alfred Berridge, Harry Wilson, Fred Byass, Ernest Wilson, Fred Byass, Bernard 1915 Waslin, Fred Clubley, Arthur Akester, David Waslin, James Clubley, Harold Berridge, William Thompson, Stanley Curtis, Dixon Curtis, Albert Collingwood, Laurance Curtis, Fred 1917 Duck, Ebenezer Hayton, Mark Curtis, Harold Dunning, Edgar Hudson, Richard Farmery, William Hawes, George Johnson, William Smart, William Hawes, Ernest Newlove, Arthur Hawes, Albert Poole, William 1918 Hawes, Cornelius Poole, Frank Hudson, Herbert Hayton, Fred Ripley, John Leach, Harold Hayton, John Thompson, Thomas Lonsbrough, John Q Holmes, Harold Wilson, Thomas Thompson, George Hudson, Ernest Wilson, Frank Thompson, Leonard Jackson, Stanley Waslin, John W Waterworth, Stanley Dunning, Frank

Bishop Burton School One of the sources we have been able to refer to is the Bishop Burton school log which is a primary contemporaneous account of the weekly activities in the school from two years after its opening in 1861 through to its compulsory closure in 1986. The log was maintained by the school head to comply with statutory requirements.

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The schoolmaster for the first 46 years of its life was Benjamin Swann and his accounts in particular go beyond the minimum required. They provide fascinating account of life and behaviour in the village. Issues that figure strongly in the log include the curriculum, the role of religion, childhood illness and death including major epidemics that caused the temporary closure of the school, attitudes to schooling, the behaviour of the children, school funding, the development of pupil teachers, the battle to keep children at school, the pressure for children to enter employment or take part in casual activities such as shooting parties, the relationship with the village gentry, local events such as the rose show, the impact of the two world wars, the activities of school inspectors, and severe weather. We have been able to use the log to flesh out some of the detail of the lives of the men who took part in the war and the kind of support given by villagers to the war effort. Benjamin’s second wife became head of the school on his death and it is her accounts that cover the war period.

The school was a focal point for village war contributions. Children regularly made items of clothing that were sent directly to service men or were sent to the War Deport opened by Mrs Eyre. Money was collected also and Mrs Swann established a War Loan Savings Association in connection with the school. In its first year, this contributed £99 to the war effort. Rather more bizarrely, the schoolchildren also collected 2 stone 9lbs (about 15 kilos) of plum stones to be converted into charcoal for use in gas masks.

In the absence of a village hall, the school was used for events that involved wider village attendance, sometimes at the expense of school work. So there was a Recruitment meeting followed by a concert in early 1915 and a food economy demonstration in July 1917. The school was also used for distribution of food and meat ration cards.

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The villagers Although only seven men directly from the village died, we should not underestimate the effect on the village. Throughout the war there was a tension between the need for men to maintain agricultural production and the need to maintain the size of the army in the face of massive losses. These seven young men came from households where the head in the 1901 census was not a farmer. The population of Bishop Burton in 1901 was 415 persons; 216 of whom were males. Of the male population, some 97 would have been aged between 19 and 30 in 1914. 29 out of 89 households in the 1901 census had at least one member that enlisted; several households had 2, 3 or 4 members in the military. We know from the school plaque that 64 of the old boys of the school enlisted. This indicates that well over half of those eligible to serve did so.

The main impact of the war on the village was in the extent to which it took able-bodied men away from their families and their work in agriculture. This was then reflected in the pressure to use school-children in lighter agricultural work – “tenting” birds and singling turnips. Farmers regularly complained of the shortage of labour.

Reading the local newspapers of the time one is struck by the obsession with cigarettes. The Beverley Guardian had itself organised collections to fund the sending of cigarettes, and almost every week it reported lists of subscribers. A list was published on 20th February 1915 of subscribers provided by Mr W Walker of Home Farm, Bishop Burton. Mostly 6 pence was contributed but Mrs Eyre and Richard Hall Watt contributed 2/6 each enabling a total of £2 2s 6d to be reached.

Newspapers also contained letters from servicemen thanking individuals by name for their gifts. The Beverley Guardian published a letter from George Hawes, the brother of one of those from Bishop Burton who died in the war. It was addressed to W Walker and read: “After a hard day’s shelling from ‘Jack Johnsons’ the first thing we do is cigarette or pipe of tobacco. It is the one great consolation of our time. It seems to put new life in us and we can assure you that as the trenches are at this time nearly knee-deep in mud and water in some places. Thanking you for all your kindness”. ‘Jack Johnson’ was the nickname given to being hit by a black German artillery shell; Jack was world heavyweight boxing champion from 1908 to 1915.

The village schoolteacher Mrs Swann received and published a letter from Private Redshaw of the 1st East Yorkshire Regiment. It reads: “My dear friend, I thank you very much for the tobacco and cigarettes. They come in

- 18 - very nice in the trenches. The weather is still very bad here, also very cold. Yours sincerely…”

The school log of February 1915 reports on the preparations for a recruitment concert to be held in the school and at which the children were to sing patriotic songs. The recruiting concert was reported also in the Beverley Guardian. It was addressed by Mr H Billings of the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee. Only three men came forward as so many had already volunteered. The concert was organised by Mrs John Dunning and there were sketches, readings, performances and songs. Of particular note apparently were the Scenes from Cranford performed by Misses Pearman, Van Brugh,, Dunning, Storey, and Huzzard (3).

The urge to collect items for the military was very strong. Mr C H Ellerington of York Road farm, Bishop Burton started a collection of eggs which were passed to wounded soldiers and sailors. By November 1915 he had collected over 4,000 eggs.

The school log regularly reports the intense activity of children in knitting socks, gloves and scarves. These were generally given to Mrs Eyre. Mrs Eyre herself was instrumental in opening a war depot in North Bar Within in Beverley that was used as a collection point for all sorts of goods and also cash for the war effort. In December 1915, the Beverley Guardian reported that £167 had been collected for the war depot fund with Mrs Eyre topping the list of contributors at £25. The depot was officially opened by Lord Nunburnholme on 18th December, in the unfortunate absence though of Mrs Eyre who had sprained her ankle the previous night.

In July 1915, a group of volunteers marched from Walkington, via Northlands, Bishop Burton and Constitution Hill to Molescroft where they enjoyed hospitality in the grounds of Mr Hodgson’s house. Walking on the Westwood though would have been difficult as it was extensively used as a military encampment. Relations between the town and the soldiers were not always harmonious. Some Privates from the Kings’ Own Light Infantry wrote to the Beverley Guardian to complain that they were treated like “filthy swine” by town people. We don’t know if government action in ordering the closure of pubs between the hours of 9.00 pm and 9.00 am helped or hindered relations.

But some things carried on as normal. Disease and sickness were common among the school children. The summer of 1916 saw a bad outbreak of Mumps; at one point in June only 45 children out of 72 were at school. The

- 19 - infants’ class was closed for a month in early 1917 because of an outbreak of chicken pox; it re-opened in May but a week later was closed completely for another month because of measles. The following year there was another closure of the infants’ class, this time because of whooping cough. The teachers rather unsurprisingly were also rather prone to illness. The Holderness Hounds though continued to meet regularly but race-going was curtailed at the order of the Government producing a heated dispute in the County Council about the merits of the ban and in particular its effect on horse breeding.

People got married even though it created some concern in the War Office that 1 million out of 8 million service personnel were married and so would cost them dearly in separation allowances. Alice Thompson from the village married Driver Fred Stone in April 1917. He hailed from Bournemouth and was stationed at Hedon Racecourse with the Royal Garrison Artillery. The daughter of Charles Thompson, she was given away by her uncle Private Arthur Hall. Alice had six brothers all of whom enlisted in the forces and all of whom returned from the war alive.

Of the 16 men associated with the village who died only two were married, William Berridge and Frank Dobby. We know that William had a son before his death who died just last year after living in Beverley for many years.

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V.A.D. Nurses In 1914 there was no Ministry of Health or National Heath Service and no one had overall control of the hospitals. But the British Red Cross Society, founded in 1870 linked up with the order of St John of Jerusalem in 1909 and formed the organisation known as the Voluntary Aid Detachment or V.A.D. for short. Sometimes the nurses were qualified; sometimes they were not. The novelist Agatha Christie, famous as an author of detective stories, was once a V.A.D. Nurse.

Mrs Eyre of Bishop Burton Hall established a nursing station or V.A.D. at the Hall itself and a number of women of the village and from Walkington joined as volunteeers. They are pictured below outside the conservatory at the Hall where they would have tended wounded servicemen.

We have been able to identify some of the nurses; from left to right on each row they are:

Back row: Irene Wilson Gladys Wilson Muriel Ellerington Sarah Ouston

Middle row: Hilda Skingle Miss Barber ? Mrs Flint ? Miss Barber Miss Barrett Grace Waterworth Miss Hudson

Front row: Mrs Donald Dunning Mrs Pearman Mrs Swann Mrs Eyre Mrs R Sanderson Mrs John Dunning

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Soldiers and their money We are fortunate in that Albert Hawes, David Hawes’ grandfather and the brother of Ernest Hawes has left us his pay books and papers which record the pay that he received between 1915 and 1919. The first pay book we have is dated March 1915 and is for the Durham Light Infantry; it shows that he was to receive 1/- per day plus 2d for kit but he had a deduction of 6d so his net pay was 8d. The second pay book is for the Labour Corps but is not dated but seems to relate to 1918; by now his basic pay was 1/- but from 16th September 1916 he got a proficiency allowance of 6d. With a deduction of 6d his net pay was 1/- per day.

The pay book is an important document for any soldier since it contains identification information and statements of entitlements. It also contains records of non-standard payments made. Generally soldiers received their pay on a Friday each week but this was not always the case. On the page to the left, in May 1918 Albert received payments on the 4th, 11th, 20th and 25th. He received his pay in francs; in May he was getting about 15 francs per week. This was probably a living allowance rather than his full pay. One franc was worth about 10d.

From the pay book, we know that when he went on leave for three weeks in England in October 1918, he received £2 at Victoria Station, London and a few days later received £12 when he was in Nottingham which I believe was an administrative base for the Labour Corps. Pictured also is the leave form that doubles also as a third class railway return ticket to and from Durham.

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The pay book was probably used to record informal debts; so inside the back cover we find a couple of references to a “tab”; I wonder whether that recorded a loan of a cigarette? We also find an eye test conducted in May 1917. The results show that Albert had 6/60 vision in his left eye but 0/60 in his right. The initials A.O.N appear to the right; this may be an abbreviation for acute optic neuritis. The pay book contains a summary of army conduct regulations such as how to salute; it should also contain information about the soldier, his family and his will. Unfortunately Albert’s pay books are only scantily completed so we do not learn much more about him from the books other that he was 5 feet 5 inches tall and had a fair complexion .

We also have a Statement of Accounts for Albert. This document has two sets of columns – debits and credits. The debits columns show the sums that Albert received during the war, now converted back into sterling. The credits column show what he was entitled to.

The time of the Great War was a time of great inflation as this table shows:

Year Value of £1 in 2007 Inflation rate 1914 68.80 2.80% 1915 57.73 19.80% 1916 48.60 18.16% 1917 40.16 21.02% 1918 34.91 15.03% 1919 32.94 5.99% 1920 28.80 14.39%

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So between 1914 and 1920 the pound dropped in value by almost two thirds. This table also enables us to work out what a soldier’s pay would have been in “today’s money”. For those too young to remember pre- decimal currency, there were 20 shillings in one pound and 12 pence in one shilling. Between 1915 and 1919, Albert received the following:

Daily Number rate in 2007 2007 of days old equivalent annualised Year counted pence £ s d amount £ s d equivalent 1915 92 6.00 2 6 0 319 9 2 6 1,264 1916 366 8.33 12 14 0 1,481 12 13 3 1,477 1917 365 15.95 24 5 3 2,339 24 5 3 2,339 1918 365 25.25 38 8 1 3,218 38 8 1 3,218 1919 102 41.21 17 10 3 1,384 62 13 4 4,954

Total 1290 17.71 95 3 7 8,741

Even after accounting for inflation, Albert’s pay increased significantly during the war, but at the end it was still less than half today’s statutory minimum wage.

On demobilisation in April 1919, Albert received a further payment:

2007 equivalent Demobilization £ s d amount Balance of pay 8 18 8 706 28 days leave 5 0 4 397 28 days rations 2 18 4 231 War gratuity 26 0 0 2,055

Total 42 17 4 3,389

After de-mobilization Albert writes to the Army paymaster claiming for wear and tear on his civilian clothes. In June 1919, he receives a letter back from the Army telling him that there are no army regulations that mean he would be entitled to 15/- for this “wear and tear on his civilian clothes”.

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William Theakstone Berridge There were five members of the Berridge family who served in the forces during World War 1 and are listed on the roll of honour in All Saints’ Church, Bishop Burton. William was the only one not to survive the war.

Forename Year enlisted Year born George 1914 1894 Harry 1914 1886 Joseph 1914 1896 Tim (Tom?) 1914 ? William 1915 1888

George and Joseph Berridge were the sons of Tom Berridge and Fanny Jobson. Harry (or Henry), Joseph and William were the sons of George Berridge and Alice Theakston. We are not sure who Tim was; his name may well be Tom.

William Theakstone Berridge was born on 25th November 1888. William may have been named after his uncle, a leading competitor in the 1880’s of the East Riding ploughing matches held in the village annually. William’s mother, Alice, died in 1898 and his father then married Mary Maw of Aike.

William attended the school in Bishop Burton as did his brothers. The school log mentions their names several times, not always for the best of reasons. Fred particularly seems to have found his way to school a bit difficult. William and Tim both contracted diphtheria in 1896. Up to 20% of children who contracted this disease would die of it, but they survived. Vaccination was not available until the 1920’s.

William was already married to Ellen Scott when he signed up. They were married at North Dalton on 1st January 1913. Ellen, known as Nelly or Nellie, was the daughter of John and Alice Scott. John was a journeyman blacksmith. William and Nelly’s only child, William Albert, was born on 5th December 1915. The family home was 3 Egypt St, Marfleet, Hull, a house that still stands today.

William Berridge’s war record William did not die during active service and so, alone among the seven men from the village who died in World War I he has no entry for a war grave. What we do have is a record of his discharge from the army due to

- 26 - total incapacity. These documents have recently been published by the National Archives at Kew and record the detail of his discharge, his injuries and their treatment and his pension assessment.

William joined the army on 25th May 1915 at the age of 26 years and 6 months. He signed up just for the duration of the war. His record states in one place that he enlisted in York but elsewhere also states Hull as the place of enlistment.

He measured 5 feet 7 inches in height and had a chest girth of 42 inches. His general fitness was described as good and he had 6/6 vision in both eyes. The record shows he was distinctively marked by slight eczema on both wrists. He was also vaccinated during infancy and had three marks on his left arm, so presumably was right-handed.

Before enlisting, William worked on the railway as a shunter. Shunting usually meant moving goods trucks around a marshalling yard. There was one at the nearby King George and Queen Elizabeth docks in Hull, a few minutes walk from his house at Egypt St. The tracks are still in place but are much less extensive than they were in William’s time.

William was discharged from the army with effect from 27th September 1917. He was able to count a service record of 2 years and 130 days. This determined his pension entitlement.

His service record is only available in summary form:

Country Started Finished No. of days Home 25/5/1915 19/11/1915 183 France 20/11/1915 19/6/1916 212 Home 20/6/1916 19/8/1916 70 France 20/8/1916 27/7/1917 333 Home 28/7/1917 27/9/1917 62

William joined the 17th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers (17 NF). The battalion was raised by the North Eastern Railway at Hull in September 1914 and became a Pioneer battalion in January 1915. In June 1915 the battalion moved to Catterick where it joined 32nd Division as the divisional pioneer battalion. The division embarked for France in November 1915 and the next six months were spent in the Somme sector around Albert, Bouzincourt and Meaulte. The battalion took part in the opening battle of the Somme at Thiepval. In October 1916 it left the division and joined GHQ

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Railway Construction Troops until the end of August 1917. It then rejoined the division at Nieuport on the North Sea coast for a couple of months before again joining the Railway Troops.

William was injured twice during the war. The first time was on 12th June 1916, the second on 3rd July 1917. He returned to France in August 1916 having been briefly repatriated to recover from his injury. The second injury was more severe and resulted in his discharge from the army and presumably also led to his death.

William’s first injury was a gunshot wound to the left arm. He returned from France and was sent to the Military Hospital at Fulford in York. He stayed there for ten days between 20th and 30th June before transferring to the Military Convalescent Hospital at Alnwick in Northumberland. He stayed in Alnwick until 11th August 1916 before returning to France on 20th August 1916. Alnwick was one of those establishments that did not have the usual civilian meaning of convalescence; they were formed from March 1915 onward to keep recovering soldiers under military control. We do not know if he was allowed home to visit his wife and son.

William’s stay at Alnwick coincided with a visit by the famous Scottish comedian and singer, Harry Lauder reported enthusiastically in the The Alnwick and County Gazette of 12th August.

William was wounded a second time on 3rd July 1917 with injuries to his back, scalp and face from a shell explosion. The injury to his spine resulted in total incapacity. The report states “Patient met with an accident in France. He was blown out …camp by a … shell, fell into a trench injuring his spine in region of 1st lumbar causing complete paraplegia ….Does not show any fracture or dislocation of neck.” He was sent from France to the King George Hospital in Stamford St. London arriving on 28th July 1917.

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William was discharged from the army with effect from 27th September 1917 having had his case considered by a medical board. The calculated value of the weekly pension was 27 shillings and 6 pence (£1.37½ in today’s money). There was also an addition allowance of 5 shillings (£0.25), payable as a child’s allowance. The weekly pension would now be worth £66.45 and the child’s addition is £12.13 allowing for inflation since then. The basic retirement pension for a couple today is £139 per week.

There is a record of the death of a William T Berridge aged 29 in the first quarter of 1918 in Lambeth, London. This suggests that he probably never left the King George Hospital. The hospital was based in Cornwall House just opposite Waterloo Station.

At St Johns Church, Waterloo Road Lambeth SE1 a bronze plaque was erected by the Nursing Staff in honour of the patients who died in the King George Hospital. The names of those who died in the King George Hospital are inscribed on a parchment roll placed within the church records. The names of those who were parishioners of St John’s Church are inscribed on the 3 remaining panels of this memorial.

Ellen and Henry Berridge In 1923, Ellen Berridge (also known as Nellie), William’s widow, married his younger brother, Henry (known as Harry). Ellen died in 1968 and Henry in 1978. Both are buried in All Saints Church, Bishop Burton.

William Albert Berridge Ellen and William had a son in 1914, a year after their marriage. It is unlikely that William saw very much of his son as most of his time was spent on military service in France or in hospital. A week in August 1916 when he left the convalescent home in Alnwick looks as if it was probably the only time they would have spent together before he returned to England with the wound that incapacitated him.

William’s son served in the navy during World War 2 as had his uncle, George, and his step-father, Harry, in World War 1.

William Albert worked at the laundry in the Broadgates Hospital, the mental hospital that used to be located between Beverley and Walkington. The hospital was opened in 1871 and was in use until its closure and demolition in the late 1980’s when a new housing estate was built there. William married Audrey who also worked at Broadgates and they had a

- 29 - daughter, Jean who is married and lives in Peterborough. Known to many as Albert, William lived for many years in St Mary’s Terrace, Beverley until he died of a heart attack at his home in October 2007.

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Bernard Byass The Byass family is a large extended family spread throughout East Yorkshire. Although there are other family strands beginning in Hornsea and elsewhere, our strand begins with John Byass born in Yapham near Pocklington in 1800. He and his wife Jane of Huggate had a family of at least 10 children born between 1832 and 1854; we have found almost 30 grand-children and there are probably many more. John was a ropemaker but between 1841 and 1871 John farmed at Wold House Farm, Huggate. He may also have been the landlord of the Wolds Inn in Huggate before that. By 1901, the extended family were farming at least 10 farms in the East Riding and continue to farm extensively in the area today including two farms in Bishop Burton.

Two members of the Byass family are known to have died in World War 1: Bernard Byass and William Byass. Bernard and Ernest Byass were brothers; they attended Bishop Burton School and are mentioned on the memorial plaque in the church. Bernard died in the Palestine.

Bernard Byass was born in Warter in about 1894. He was the son of Thomas Byass and Jane E Barnitt. The family farmed at Welldale House, Ebberston in 1901 and Prospect Farm, Warter in 1891. Shortly afterwards the family moved to Bishop Burton to take on Ling’s Farm from Eliza who was farming there with her son William Ouston. William died at the age of 42 years in the following year. Another branch of the family is still there now that descends from William Byass, Thomas’ younger brother. Bernard is also a cousin of Ben Byass’ grandfather, John Byass of Cherry Burton.

Bernard and his brother Ernest volunteered for military service in 1914. At the time of his death, on 14th November 1917, Bernard was a Lance Corporal in the East Riding Yeomanry. He is commemorated at the Ramleh War Cemetery in what was then Palestine and is now Israel.

In 1915 the East Riding Yeomanry sailed for Macedonia, but the destination was altered and in November they landed in Egypt. They became part of the Western frontier force in Libya before being transferred to Palestine. From March until October 1917, they fought the 1st and 3rd battles of Gaza, and in November they advanced into the Judean Hills to cut off Jerusalem from the north.

The Battle of El Mughar Ridge on 13 November 1917 took place at Junction Station, where the Haifa-Jerusalem line branches to Beersheba. This was the day before Bernard died. The battle succeeded in causing the

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Ottoman Seventh and Eighth Armies to withdraw towards Jerusalem and Haifa respectively. This battle was also the site of the last British cavalry charge ever.

This is an extract from a book by the Marquis of Anglesey and describes action in Palestine the day before Bernard died:

'To the north (of Qatra), Brigadier-General Fryer's 22nd Mounted Brigade, the East Riding Yeomanry leading, with the Staffords behind, had been ordered to secure the extreme northern part of the ridge (north of El Mughar). They were just crossing the Wadi Jamus west of Yebna when they saw the Bucks and Berks attaining the crest. The sight which met them when they, in turn, topped the ridge was an astonishing one. The whole steep eastern slope was thick with the running figures of hundreds of Turks racing for the village of Old Aqir. Major JFM Robinson, who was in command of 'A' Squadron of the East Ridings, conferred urgently with the two other squadron leaders (one of them of the Staffords) and decided that he would try to seize the village, whilst the other two cut off the fleeing enemy to the north and north-east. At his immediate hand was only half of his squadron and he had to leave most of that to hold the position on the ridge as he had been ordered. With only 15 men, he raced for Old Aqir, sabreing a number of fugitives in the process, took the place, dismounted the far side of it and set up a heliograph, but could get no answer from the brigade'

From 'A History of the British Cavalry. Vol 5'

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Albert and Harold Curtis Albert and Harold Curtis were brothers, the sons of John and Mercy Curtis nee Renwick who lived in a cottage that backed on to where the war memorial now is. John and Mercy died in 1946 and 1947 and are buried in the churchyard in the village. John and Mercy had two other children, both daughters, Sarah and Edith.

Albert and Harold were both born in the village; Albert in 1891 and Harold in 1898. Both Albert and Harold died in Flanders; Albert in June 1916 and Harold in April 1918.

John Curtis was the father of Albert and Harold. In the 1891 and 1901 census returns, John is working as a shepherd. In 1881, John had worked for Daniel Dunning as an agricultural labourer. John married Mercy Renwick in late1889. They started a family in the following year.

Albert Curtis Albert Curtis became a Lance Corporal in the army and at his death on 22nd June 1916 was serving in the 8th battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders. He is remembered at the Vermelles British Cemetery. The date of his death suggests he was killed in the trench warfare that preceded the Battle of the Somme that ran from July to November of 1916. Page Barrow’s little notebook reports that he was killed by a sniper.

Harold Curtis Harold Curtis joined the West Yorkshire Regiment based in Leeds. He died in the Ypres area at the time of Germany’s Lys offensive, two years after his older brother on 16th April 1918.

Harold, along with George Woodmancy, is remembered at the Tyne Cot Memorial which now bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Joseph Armitage (who created the plaque in the village church) and F V Blundstone, was unveiled by Sir Gilbert Dyett in July 1927. The memorial forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, which was established around a captured German blockhouse or pill-box used as an advanced dressing station. The name originates with the phrase “Tyne Cottage” scrawled on one of the captured block-house. The original battlefield cemetery of 343 graves was greatly enlarged after the Armistice when remains were brought in from the battlefields of Passchendaele and Langemarck, and from a few small burial grounds. It is

- 33 - now the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the world in terms of burials. At the suggestion of King George V, who visited the cemetery in 1922, the Cross of Sacrifice was placed on the original large pill-box. There are three other pill-boxes in the cemetery. There are now 11,952 Commonwealth servicemen of the First World War buried or commemorated in Tyne Cot Cemetery. 8,365 of the burials are unidentified but there are special memorials to more than 80 casualties known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials commemorate 20 casualties whose graves were destroyed by shell fire.

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Frank Dobby Frank Dobby was born in 1890, not in Bishop Burton but in Leeming, North Yorkshire. He is not mentioned on the War Memorial and did not attend the village school. He was a Sergeant in “C” battery of 58th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery. He died at the age of 27 on 25th April 1918 and is commemorated at the Hersin Communal Cemetery Extension.

Frank is one of only two of our casualties that are known to have married. He married Mary Jane Girdley in 1915 in Bedale, North Yorkshire. Mary Jane was born in Bishop Burton in 1890, the eldest daughter of William and Emma Girdley.

William Girdley was born in Whitton in Lincolnshire in 1865. It’s the village that stands opposite Brough on the south bank of the Humber and was one of the earliest ferry crossing points for the river. William Girdley and Emma Frear of Bishop Burton were married in 1887 probably in the village. William worked first as a shepherd and then became a gardener’s labourer, probably on the estate. William Girdley was elected in 1915 to be Provincial Deputy Grandmaster of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows.

Frank’s father, Francis William Dobby, is described in 1901 as a publican and a tailor. Frank’s mother was Maria Jane Sanders. She and Francis William married in Stockton in 1889. Frank’s father died in 1906, his mother in 1917.

Further details of the Dobby family have been researched by Joan Clark and may be viewed at http://joanclarke.co.uk/b_d.htm

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Henry Evison Henry Evison was born in Bishop Burton in late 1878. He does not appear on the War Memorial nor is he on the school roll of honour. He was the oldest child of John and Charlotte Evison. John was born in Long Sutton, Lincolnshire in 1849 and Charlotte in Bishop Burton in 1855. Charlotte’s maiden name was Berridge and she was the grand-daughter of Richard and Charlotte Nelson. This makes her an aunt of William T Berridge who also died from an injury received in World War 1. In 1871, she and her younger brother Valentine worked as servants on Wood Hill farm, on the old road from Beverley to Cottingham.

Charlotte and John married in Pocklington in 1876 and went to live in Bishop Burton. Almost immediately after Henry’s birth the family moved to Wauldby where John worked as a farm foreman. The family moved several times after that in East and North Yorkshire. By 1901, John had acquired his own farm in Acklam, near Norton. Henry had moved away by then and was lodging at a house in Coatsworth Road, Gateshead where he worked as a policeman on the railway. Number 48 is now a pet shop.

Henry enlisted in the 1st/4th battalion of Alexandra, the Princess of Wales’ own Yorkshire Regiment in Stockton, county Durham. He died in the last major offensive by the Germans in the war in France. The offensive started on 15th July with the second Battle of the Marne. There was a counter- attack on the 18th July and the Germans were forced to retreat. Henry was killed on the 27th July 1918 and is buried at Valenciennes St Roch Communal Cemetery in northern France.

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Frank Hall Frank Hall was born in the village in 1898. He does not appear on the War Memorial nor is he on the school roll of honour. Frank was the son of Charles and Ellen Hall who lived in the village from their marriage on about 1882 to 1902. Frank had at least eight brothers and sisters. In 1901, his oldest brother William was working as a farm labourer at Cold Harbour Farm in the village.

Ellen was the daughter of Robert Barrow and his second wife Hannah Sanvidge whom he married in Bishop Burton in 1850. Robert was a gamekeeper and had previously married Hannah Lonsbrough in 1843. Robert had one child from his first marriage, Page Barrow, a well-known figure in the village; he was born in 1848 and died in 1927. Ellen Hall was the great-grandmother of Sheila Coy who has in her possession a small notebook kept by Page Barrow who was known as the village historian. In the booklet we find a number of references to the men who died in the war and a transcription of it has been published on the village web site.

It does not appear that Frank attended the village school and that the family must have moved away from the village to Riding Fields in Beverley in 1901 or 1902 before he became of school age.

The Riding Fields were the area of land that is now occupied by the social housing estate between Swinemoor and Cherry Tree Lane. The estate was built in the 1930’s but before then it had been fields. Near where the level crossing to the north of the station now is stood Riding Fields House. From the late 1850’s to the early 20th century it was occupied by Thomas Henry Sample, a retired farmer, county councillor and in 1902 chairman of the Beverley Union. The Union ran the Beverley workhouse. Thomas moved to Riding Fields with his sister Harriet from Grange Farm in Bishop Burton where he was born in 1832; his father had farmed there since the early 1820’s at least. Sample Avenue, the road that meets Cherry Tree Lane at the railway crossing, was probably named after him.

The Halls moved from Ridings Fields to the historic Friary in Chantry Lane, Beverley that was a dominican friary and is now a youth hostel. The Friary had been divided into a number of dwellings in the mid 19th century. It was still in use in the 1950’s as three houses but was scheduled for demolition in 1960 after being bought by the Armstrong company. Thankfully it survived and has now been restored. Beverley would have been a rather different place now had Gordon Armstrong always had his way because in May 1915 he wrote to the Beverley Guardian proposing that the North Bar be

- 37 - demolished because it was a “death trap” now that the traffic in the town had become “excessive”.

John Markham’s little book The Friary Families contains, as its title suggests, a history of the families that occupied the three houses. The Halls occupied number 11; the other two were 7 and 9. No. 11 was the furthest away from the Minster. The house, although old and somewhat dilapidated owing to the lack of care and attention applied to it by the landlord, Mr Richard Whiteing, is described as roomy and it had stables and some out- buildings. Reference is made in the book to its occupation by Robert and Lily Hall, Robert being the son of Charles and Ellen Hall and the older brother of Frank. It also mentions their daughter Gertie who married a Mr Stockwood and continued to live at the house until the mid 1950’s.

Frank joined the 2/5th Battalion of the West Riding Regiment. The Battalion was formed at Huddersfield in October 1914 as a home service ("second line") unit. It moved to Derbyshire on 1st March 1915 and was attached to the 186th Brigade, 62nd Division. It then moved to Thoresby Park (Ollerton) in May 1915. Later that year in October the battalion was moved to Retford, then in November 1915 to Newcastle, in January 1916 to Salisbury Plain, in June 1916 to Halesworth, and in October 1916 to Bedford. It landed in France in January 1917. On 30th January 1918 it was absorbed by the 1/5th Battalion. 3rd May 1917 was the date that Frank was killed. Many members of the battalion died that day in the battle in the area of Ecoust to the south east of Arras. Frank is commemorated in the Arras memorial.

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Richard Hall Watt Richard Hall Watt was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Guards Division of the 1st battalion of the Grenadier Guards. He died at the age of 19 on 13th October 1917. He is buried at Artillery Wood Cemetery in Belgium. Pictured below is John Dunning laying flowers on his grave during a visit by a group of villagers in 1993. The card on the flowers reads: “From the people of Bishop Burton the village in which he was born. WE REMEMBER”

Richard was actually born in Torquay in 1899 although Bishop Burton would have been the primary residence of the family. He was the son of Ernest Richard Bradley and Julia Hall Watt who married in 1891. At the time of the 1901 census, they were living in a substantial house – Park Hill House in Torquay where they were the guests of the Coulthurst family.

Maria Wainman was the mother of ERB Hall Watt, but his father, John Hall, died at a relatively young age and she then married John Coulthurst of Garforth near Leeds. John Hall came from a family that originated in Scorbrough, a village to the north of Beverley on the road to Driffield. John was a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge. John Hall’s mother was Sarah Watt, and it was this that created the family link that led to ERB Hall changing his name to ERB Hall Watt as a condition of him inheriting the Watt estate of which Bishop Burton High Hall and much of the surrounding land were part. He also became the sheriff and deputy lord lieutenant of Yorkshire in the late 1890’s.

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Much has been written about the Hall-Watt family and we do not need to repeat it here. Those wishing to pursue that that history should read “Bishop Burton and its History” edited and compiled by Margaret Borland and John Dunning OBE and published by Highgate Publications (Beverley) Ltd.

As well as Bishop Burton, the Hall Watt family also had property at Carr Head in Cowling near Keighley in West Yorkshire where Richard is also commemorated on the village War Memorial. His is the first name on the plaque in both villages. Richard’s name also appears on the War Memorial at All Saints’ Church in Speke near Liverpool. This is probably at the behest of Adelaide Watt, the owner of Speke Hall and a cousin (several times removed) of Richard Hall Watt.

Ernest and Julia Hall Watt were regular visitors to the village school in Bishop Burton and were generally recognised as generous benefactors in the village. Mrs Hall Watt took an active part in school business, checking on registers, taking needlework classes and handing out presents and prizes to the children. However, the sporadic nature of her visits to the school indicates that the family travelled often between Torquay, their estate near Keighley, probably France as well as our village.

Richard’s father Ernest Hall Watt was an early motoring enthusiast but unfortunately died in a motor accident on 4th July 1908 in France, probably one of the earliest victims of a motor car. At this point Richard would have become the Lord of the Manor of Bishop Burton. However, because of his youth John Coulthurst arranged to act as his guardian in respect of his manorial duties. Mrs Hall Watt was married again in 1913 to Gervais Eyre. She died in 1923 and this was followed shortly by the sale of the Cowling estate. The war memorial was the last of her permanent contributions to Bishop Burton. Although much it was funded by public subscription, she was the largest contributor on the list and also picked up other costs.

Richard did not go to school in the village although he did visit it. At the beginning of May 1909, the school log records “Master Richard Hall Watt visited the school this morning – brought two large bags of sweets for the

- 40 - children and begged that they might leave early this afternoon in honour of his birthday.” He would then have been 10 years old.

The school children did without their usual Christmas present from Mrs Eyre in 1914. Instead she gave £5 to provide a treat for Belgian refugees. She did though give the children a tea party at the hall in the following January and Richard was in attendance.

Richard was educated at Eton and Sandhurst. He enlisted in the Grenadier Guards in the early part of 1917 and went to France in August 1917. Richard would have attended Eton from the age of 13 to 18 years. 5,619 Old Etonians served in the Armed Forces (Royal Navy and Royal Marines 163; Army 5,320; Royal Air Force 136) during World War 1 - 1,157 of them died. In addition to the tablet, there are two other items that refer to Richard that are to be found again on the rear wall of the church. They are two wooden crosses that were believed to mark the grave in Flanders before the War Graves Commission erected their headstones. One may have been marking the first temporary grave where he fell at Artillery Wood. Legend has it that one was originally covered in Flanders mud until the church was given an over- enthusiastic spring clean.

On the cross on the left there is a label at the top that has the initials GRU which stands for Grave Registration Unit. Below the tag is a very faint inscription painted onto the wood that reads: “2nd Lieut R Hall Watt 1st Battry Grenadier Gds Killed in Action 13.10.17 RIP” At the bottom there is a hand-written note that reads “Bishop Burton War Grave Crosses from Artillery Wood Cemetary [sic] Belgium Requiescat in Pace”. The official record states that Richard died in November rather than October as this cross indicates but an entry in the school log confirms that he must have died in October not November.

The second cross is of a similar size to the first but has only metallic tags that contain the following words “GRU” “IX B 3” ( this a reference to the

- 41 - grave) “2/Lt R Hall Watt” “Gren Gds” “13-11-17”. This cross is probably the source of the incorrect date for his death which has also been inscribed on his permanent grave in Artillery Wood.

Richard served in the Grenadier Guards as an officer. Students at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, both of which closed on the outbreak of war in September 1939, were known as gentlemen cadets. Unlike modern Officer Cadets, who are technically private soldiers and are paid and clothed as such by the MoD, gentlemen cadets were not subject to military law. Their parents paid tuition and boarding fees, in the same way as at a public school or university, and also paid for uniforms, books, and mathematical instruments. Fees were reduced for the sons of serving or former officers, and there were also a number of cadetships (comparable to scholarships). Admission was by competitive written examination in a variety of academic subjects, and candidates passed in, in order of merit, according to the number of marks they achieved. There were no practical tests of aptitude for leadership such as were first introduced during the Second World War and which continue to form the basis of the present-day Army Officer Selection Board. This had the effect of confining entry to either the RMA and or the RMC to public schoolboys, often from families with a military connection.

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Ernest Richard Hawes Four members of the Hawes family served in the army during World War 1: George William, Albert, Cornelius and Ernest. Ernest was the only one who did not survive the war. The four men are recorded on the plaque in All Saints’ church as being old boys of Bishop Burton School who served in the forces. They were also featured in an article in the Beverley Guardian in September 1915 which included photographs of three of them. The eldest son of the family, John James Henry, did not join the services; he was at home minding the asylum! He became governor of a mental hospital in Northampton.

Ernest Hawes is the only casualty of the war with (we think) a surviving relative who still lives in the village. This is David Hawes, the grandson of Albert, and so Ernest’s great nephew.

Ernest Hawes was the youngest son of George (b. 1848) and Emma (b. 1856) Hawes who lived in Bishop Burton from the 1890’s until their deaths in 1940. Emma Clayton was George’s second wife. George worked on the estate at Bishop Burton Hall. Ernest is pictured below with his parents outside their home at 48 Bryan Mere in about 1907.

Ernest became a Driver for the Army Service Corps, No. 2 company East Lancashire Division Train. He died on 25th August 1915 aged 19. He is remembered at the Helles Memorial on the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula in Turkey having died at sea. His death with a photograph of him and his brothers was reported in the Beverley Guardian 18th September 1915.

All the brothers attended the village school in Bishop Burton. Ernest started school on 23rd April 1900 at the age of five years; the very week after his brother left school at the age of 12 or 13.

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Ernest was not a model pupil. On November 20th 1908 when he would have been 12 years old, the school log records “Ernest Hawes has given great trouble this week, smoking on school premises, using bad language in the play-ground, interfering with the girls and finally going home on Wednesday afternoon in the play-hour since when he has not appeared at school.” And in the following week “Ernest Hawes behaved rather better this week. The Managers were informed of his conduct last week and spoke to his father at the meeting on Wednesday evening.”

Ernest initially joined the East Yorkshire Regiment in April 1914. His regimental number was 10222 and he enlisted in Bishop Auckland. His medical record shows he was 5 feet 3½ inches tall, and weighed 119 pounds. Ernest was a private in the 1st battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, the same battalion as his older brother William joined.

In August 1914 the East Yorkshire Regiment consisted of two Regular battalions (1st and 2nd), a Special Reserve (3rd) and two Territorial battalions (4th and 5th Cyclist). After the outbreak of war eight Service (Kitchener) battalions were raised (6th to 13th) as well as two Reserve (14th and 15th) and two Garrison battalions (1st and 2nd). The 4th Battalion TF formed a second and third line battalion, 2/4th and 3/4th. A full history of the regiment in the 1st World War may be found in a book by Everard Wyrall entitled “East Yorkshire Regiment in the Great War 1914-1918”.

Ernest had an unhappy start to his military career. In August/September 1914, his battalion went to the front in France but being “insufficiently trained” he was left behind and was attached to the 3rd Battalion based in Hedon. He could not have been too happy with this as his older brother George William stayed with the battalion. Ernest went absent without leave (AWOL) on 26th September 1914. While absent he was accused and convicted of an assault on a young girl on the Westwood for which he was sent to prison for four months hard labour. The incident was reported in the Beverley Guardian of 17th October. This then resulted in Ernest being discharged from the Regiment at the end of the same month.

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However, Ernest did not give up and re-joined the army when he had served his punishment, this time going into the Army Service Corps.

Ernest was sent to the Dardanelles in Turkey. The BBC history web site contains an account of the campaign in 1915. He was now in the East Lancashire Division of the Army Service Corps. British and French forces landed on the Gallipoli peninsula, and French on the other side of the Dardanelles Straits, on 25 April 1915. The East Lancashire Division began to embark at Alexandria on 1 May 1915. The first transports left next day, and the last on 6 May. 14,224 men of the Division landed at Cape Helles.

Ernest died on 25th August 1915. Ernest’s body was not recovered for burial but he is commemorated at the Helles Memorial in Turkey. His death was reported in the local paper.

The Helles Memorial serves the dual function of Commonwealth battle memorial for the whole Gallipoli campaign and place of commemoration for many of those Commonwealth servicemen who died there and have no known grave. The United Kingdom and Indian forces named on the memorial died in operations throughout the peninsula, the Australians at Helles. There are also panels for those who died or were buried at sea in Gallipoli waters. The memorial bears more than 21,000 names. The main inscription on the memorial reads:

"The Helles Memorial is both the memorial to the Gallipoli Campaign and to the 20,763 men who fell in that campaign and whose graves are unknown or who were lost or buried at sea in Gallipoli waters. Inscribed on it are the names of all the ships that took part in the campaign and the titles of the army formations and units which served on the Peninsula together with the names of 18,985 sailors, soldiers and marines from the United Kingdom, 248 soldiers from Australia, and 1,530 soldiers of the Indian Army."

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Richard and Herbert Hudson Richard and Herbert Hudson were the sons of William and Martha Hudson who lived in the village. In the 1901 census there were three related Hudson families in the village and 14 individual Hudsons recorded. They had lived in the village for some years having come here from Walkington in the 1860’s. They subsequently moved to Beverley and the newspaper notice of the death of Herbert states their address as Cherry Tree Lane, Beverley, a terrace house at southern end of the lane. There are now no Hudsons in the village.

Richard and Herbert’s paternal great grandparents were born in 1797 and lived in Walkington. They had at least eight children. Their sixth child, Richard, was born in Walkington in 1838; he married Ellen Sanderson of Bishop Burton in 1863. They came to live in Bishop Burton where they spent the whole of their married life. Richard and Ellen had at least nine children; their third child, born in 1867 was William, Richard and Herbert’s father. At the time of her death, Ellen had nine grand-children in attendance at the village school – about 15% of the roll. This fact was significant enough to be mentioned in the school log on the occasion of her death.

William Hudson married Martha Gibson from across the river in North Lincolnshire, possibly Grimsby or Caistor. In the 1881 census, Martha was working as a domestic servant at Grange Farm in Aike for John Dunning from Bishop Burton and his sister Emma. By 1901, William and Martha had three children, all sons; the eldest was Ernest, born in 1891, then Herbert in 1894 and last was Richard born in 1899.

Both Richard and Herbert died in France at the end of the war.

Herbert Hudson Herbert Hudson died at the age of 19 on 21st October 1918, a month before his brother. At the time of his death he was a Private in the 2nd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment and is commemorated in the Vis-en-Artois memorial. Herbert enlisted in the last year of the war, presumably as early as he was allowed to having regard to his young age.

The 2nd Battalion is notable in that it was in this battalion that the famous war poet, Wilfred Owen, served as a lieutenant. He was also killed in action besides the canal at Ors in northern France, a few days after Herbert.

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Richard Hudson Richard Hudson was a Driver for D Battery of the 95th Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery. He died of pneumonia in a French Hospital on 20th November 1918, nine days after the armistice, at the age of 25 and is buried at the Caudry British Cemetery. He enlisted in 1915.

Richard Hudson visited the school on 21st February 1918 with five other old boys were home on leave from the war. The school log records “Arthur Messenger from Salonica, Tom Thompson from Italy, Dixon Curtis, Tom Thompson and Richard Hudson from France and George Berridge from HMS Barham. The children sang and recited for them.”

The school log for the week beginning 2nd December 1918, reports “News has arrived of the death in action in France of Herbert Hudson, an old scholar, and also of the death of his brother Richard from pneumonia in hospital in France.” The school had only just been re-opened after being closed for three weeks because of an epidemic of influenza. Nearly every child had caught influenza and one child Kathleen Duck had died of pneumonia following influenza. Maud Hayton aged 14 years also died. This was the local expression of what became known as the Influenza Pandemic of 1918.

In the spring of 1918 large numbers of soldiers in the trenches in France became ill. The soldiers complained of a sore throat, headaches and a loss of appetite. Although it appeared to be highly infectious, recovery was rapid and doctors gave it the name of 'three-day fever'. At first doctors were unable to identify the illness but eventually they decided it was a new strain of influenza. The soldiers gave it the name Spanish Flu but there is no evidence that it really did originate from that country. In fact, in Spain they called it French Flu. Others claimed that the disease started in the Middle Eastern battlefields, whereas others blamed it on China and India. A recent study argued that the disease was brought to the Western Front by a group of USA soldiers from Kansas.

For the next few months soldiers continued to be infected with the virus but there were very few fatalities. However, in the summer of 1918, symptoms became much more severe. About a fifth of the victims developed bronchial pneumonia or septicemic blood poisoning. A large percentage of these men died. Others developed heliotrope cyanosis. Doctors were able to identify this by the bluish condition of the sufferer. Over 95% of those with heliotrope cyanosis died within a few days. This second-wave of the epidemic spread quickly. In one sector of the Western Front over 70,000

- 47 -

American troops were hospitalised and nearly one third of these men died failed to recover.

By the end of the summer the virus had reached the German Army. The virus created serious problems for the German military leadership as they found it impossible to replace their sick and dying soldiers. The infection had already reached Germany and over 400,000 civilians died of the disease in 1918.

The first cases of the influenza epidemic in Britain appeared in Glasgow in May, 1918. It soon spread to other towns and cities and during the next few months the virus killed 228,000 people in Britain. This was the highest mortality rate for any epidemic since the outbreak of cholera in 1849.

In Britain desperate methods were used to prevent the spread of the disease. Streets were sprayed with chemicals and people started wearing anti-germ masks. Some factories changed their no-smoking rules under the mistaken impression that tobacco fumes could kill the virus. Others believed that eating plenty of porridge would protect you from this killer disease. However, despite valiant attempts, all treatments devised to cope with this new strain of influenza were completely ineffectual.

The USA was also very badly affected by the virus. By September a particularly virulent strain began to sweep through the country. By early December about 450,000 Americans had died of the disease.

The country that suffered most was India. The first cases appeared in Bombay in June 1918. The following month deaths were being reported in Karachi and Madras. With large numbers of India's doctors serving with the British Army the country was unable to cope with the epidemic. Some historians claim that between June 1918 and July 1919 over 16,000,000 people in India died of the virus.

It has been estimated that throughout the world over 70 million people died of the influenza pandemic. In India alone, more people died of influenza than were killed all over the world during the entire First World War.

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Henry Green Norris Henry Green Norris was born in 1888 in Bishop Burton. He was the son of Francis Green Norris born in 1855 in Aike and Sarah Jane Waslin born in Middleton in 1856. They married in Bishop Burton in 1886 and lived there until 1890. The first three of their children were born in the village including Henry. Francis was an agricultural labourer in 1891 but had become a gamekeeper by 1901 in the village of Cloughton which is to the north west of Scarborough.

Henry enlisted in the Derbyshire Yeomanry in Derby although his place of residence is still given as Cloughton. The regiment mobilised in August 1914, but remained in England until 1915, when they moved to Egypt with the 2nd Mounted Division. They then sailed for Gallipoli, where they saw action at the Battle of Scimitar Hill, serving as dismounted infantry, and took heavy losses. The battle began on 21st August 1915 and was one of the costliest of the campaign. Henry was killed on the second day. Ernest Hawes was also killed in this campaign, dying three days later. Henry is commemorated at the Helles Memorial.

Medal records exist at the National Archives, Kew, for most of our casualties. They can now be accessed on-line using packages such as Ancestry.co.uk. This shows the record for Henry Norris.

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Clifford Quest Clifford Quest was born in Bishop Burton in 1897. Clifford enlisted in the 10th Battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment in 1914 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. He became a private in the regiment and died on 6th April 1916 of wounds received in France. Clifford appears on the list of “old boys” but is not included on the war memorial list. He is commemorated at the Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension (Nord) in Northern France.

Clifford was the son of Thomas and Blanche Quest who until 1905 ran the Altisidora Inn in Bishop Burton. Blanche Quest died in 1905 and we know from the school log that in early March 1905, Clifford and his sister Constance were taken out of school and went to Beverley to live. This may have been connected to the sudden death of Blanche who died at the age of 37. It appears also that in 1904/1905 Tom Quest was experiencing financial difficulties and which involved the official receiver in Hull so this may also have been a reason for their leaving the village.

We believe that at some point Clifford and Constance went to live with their uncle Arthur Charles who lived in West Yorkshire and became in November 1918 the Acting Chief Constable of the West Riding Police.

Arthur Quest’s youngest son, Harold, was the same age as Clifford and became a captain but in the York and Lancaster Regiment. Harold also died in 1916. Harold is remembered on the QEGS memorial in Wakefield for old boys of the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School. Harold was promoted from 2nd lieutenant, to lieutenant and then to captain as the war progressed.

Harold was awarded the Military Cross, reported in the London Gazette on 27th July 1916. We also came across a letter from Arthur Quest to his cousin in London. Part of it reads:

“Thank you for your letter of sympathy on the death of our youngest[,] Harold[.] It has been such a blow to us as he was [sic] such a promising career if he had been spared and returned from this dreadful war. We have another son also a captain in the same regiment but he is in England at the moment suffering from shell-shock. I am pleased to say he is just about better again. The name you saw in the newspaper some time ago was that of our nephew Clifford who has been brought up by us from being quite a little boy[.] He was the son of my youngest brother Tom[.] He (the boy) was also killed in France so you will see what bad luck we have had.”

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Bertram William Wales Bertram Wales was not born in the village and may not have lived here at all but his parents and older sister, Hilda, came to live in the village in 1916. Bertram was born in York in 1887 the son of John Hodgson Wales and Sarah Ann Wales nee Bean who married in 1875. Both were born in York in about 1852. John was the youngest of at least seven children born to John and Ann Wales of York. John senior was a plane maker – wood-making planes not aeroplanes! John Hodgson Wales became a school teacher.

Bertram went on to become a manual instructor at the George Dixon Secondary School in Birmingham. The school is still in existence today as a secondary school. It is located on City Road, Edgbaston.

Bertram became a Lance Corporal in “D” Company of the 14th Battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Bertram’s battalion was formed in September 1914 by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham and was also known as the 1st Birmingham Battalion. Bertram died on 23rd July 1916 and is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial.

In 1881 and 1891, the Wales family lived at 53 East Parade in the Heworth area of York a terraced house now occupied by a hairdressing salon. This probably explains why Bertram’s death in the war is also commemorated on the memorial at Holy Trinity Church in Micklegate York.

The Wales family moved to the village of Bishop Burton from Withernsea when Miss Hilda Wales started work at the school as a supplementary teacher for the infants on December 4th 1916. They lived in the Red House near Johnson’s pond. Miss Wales appears in the school log until 1939 when she would have been 56 years old but there is no note of her leaving. By then the school log contains very little detail.

John Hodgson Wales contributed 10 shillings to the war memorial fund. He died in 1933 aged 81 years. He and his wife are both buried in the churchyard at All Saints’ Church in the village. Sarah Ann lived to the age of 99 years making her one of the oldest people to have lived in the village.

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Edwin Williamson Edwin Williamson was the oldest son of Robert Henry and Agnes Williamson (nee Wilson). In 1901 the family lived at 3 Railway Terrace in Beverley and Robert worked as a groom. By the time of the war the family had moved to number 44 Railway Terrace.

Edwin had a younger brother, Clifford, born in 1900. Clifford is pictured drawing water from the pond in Bishop Burton in 1941. Edwin also had an older sister, Florence, born in 1894. There is also a younger sister called Laura born in 1904. Laura, Clifford and Agnes were all contributors to the memorial fund.

Robert Henry married Agnes Wilson in 1890 in Beverley. He was born in Walkington in 1860 and I think he died in 1918. In 1881 he is recorded as working as a live-in agricultural servant at the Horsley’s York Road farm. Agnes Wilson was born in Bishop Burton in about 1869. Agnes’ parents were Matthew and Jane Wilson, part of a large Wilson “clan” who were born and lived in the village during the 19th century.

Edwin joined the Yorkshire Regiment; It was initially nicknamed and then became officially known in 1920 as the Green Howards. In the newspaper notice of Edwin’s death they refer to the 5th Battalion as the “Beverley Terriers”. The battalion was also nicknamed the Yorkshire Gurkhas. The Beverley Guardian of May 1915 contains a letter from a Private Radford reporting that the battalion had been so named by the Canadians. He doesn’t explain why.

Edwin is buried at the R.E. Farm Cemetery that is located 9.5 Kms south of Ieper (Ypres) town centre.

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George Woodmancy George Woodmancy does not appear on the list of casualties on the Bishop Burton War Memorial but he does appear on the Tickton War Memorial.

His full name is George Robinson Woodmancy born in late 1888 in Tickton. The surname is variously spelt Woodmancey and Woodmansey. He was the son of John and Jane Woodmancy who lived in Tickton before moving to Bishop Burton during the war. He was reported as missing on 26 October 1917.

We came across George because we found letters from him and his brother, Wilson, to their parents reported in the Beverley Guardian in November 1914. There it states quite clearly that George is of Bishop Burton.

John Dunning remembers that a Jack Woodmancy was a woodman on the estate. He had a son called John who had a hard time in World War II as a prisoner of war which led to his early death in 1952 at the age of 41.

George enlisted on 14th July 1914 in that early frenzy of voluntary recruitment. He joined at the same time as his friend Bill Bethell and William Hayton who may also have been a friend or a “pal” as they would have said at the time. He joined Sir Mark Sykes' Wagoners Reserve in 1914 before transferring to the North Lancashire Regiment.

His letter of November 14th 1914 reads:

“Just a few lines, hoping you are all well, as it leaves me in the best of health at present. I received your parcel all right and thank you very much for all that was in it. The pants will come in very useful as our trousers are not lined. I have received a parcel from Beswick, with one pair of socks, one pair of gloves, and a sweater and five ounces of tobacco from Mr Duggleby. The tobacco was subscribed for by my pals at Beswick so you will know they have not forgotten us out here. The papers will come in very useful as we cannot get any out here, so you know what a scrump I have,

- 53 - nearly all of the camp around me for a look at them. I have written to Mr Duggleby today. He said he was going to keep my place open for me when I come back, hoping it will be before long. We are having some severe frosts out here, but we are sleeping in houses now with a good fire to sit over when we go in on a night. We get finished about five o’clock on a night and don’t get up until half past six in the morning, so you will know we get a good night’s rest. I don’t expect I shall be home at Christmas, but I hope so. I don’t care if we have to stop out here for a few months yet, so long as we all get home safe and sound. We are having a good time of it just at present; we have been in this camp about one month so you will know we are not having much travelling about just now. I have not seen B Withell for a long time. He is about 15 miles from us. None of us are getting too much drink as we have had only 10 francs, that is eight shillings and four pence, so you will know that we have not had much money to drink with. I should not care if we did not get any at all, all I want is some soap as we can’t get any out here. I cannot tell you what the French people wash with, as we never see any soap out here. I hope to be with you at Christmas. I should like to tell you what I have seen but I am not allowed.”

We have further information about William Withell who survived the war but suffered several injuries. We believe the Mr Duggleby referred to in George’s letter was the farmer of Beswick Hall and Rush Farm which are located about ten miles north of Beverley.

Pictured below is the Tyne Cot memorial where George is commemorated.

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Inside rear cover – remember previous page must be even number

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Rear cover

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