2nd LIEUTENANT HORACE MONTAGUE DALTON, 8TH BATTALION EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT.


2nd LIEUTENANT HORACE MONTAGUE DALTON, 8TH BATTALION EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION, 3rd MAY 1917, AGED 32.

Plaque at St Georges Church Leeds

Before the outbreak of war, Horace Dalton, was living in the German city of Dresden where he was the organist at the American Episcopalian Church of St John. By chance as war was declared he was back home in Leeds visiting his parents, had he not been then he would have certainly been interned by the German authorities and spent the entire war in captivity. 



Born in the village of Garforth in 1884, his father, Claude, a draper moved the family to Leeds where they lived in Kingston Place in the Woodhouse area of the city. After school Horace was employed as a surveyor and later worked in insurance, however, playing the church organ was clearly his first love. He played at several churches across the West Riding most notably at St George's Church on Great George Street in Leeds, and before heading for Dresden, Horace, had become a member of the Royal Academy of Music as well as the Royal College of Organists. Unable to continue as the organist in Dresden, Horace came to Ilkley to practice his skills at St. Margaret's Church on Queens Road where he was appointed as both organist and choirmaster.


It seems likely that Horace was conscripted into the army in 1916 when he became a private in The Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards). However, he showed sufficient potential to undergo officer training and by 1917 had been gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 8th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment.


Horace was with the East Yorks on the 3rd May 1917 in the Arras Sector of the Western Front, when it took part in an attack against the German lines near to the village of Monchy. Late that evening the East Yorks went over the top in darkness against heavily defended enemy positions. Despite passing through the German wire and reaching their objective the battalion was hit by intense enemy machine gun fire was forced to abandon the attack. Over 200 men became casualties including Horace who was killed.


The body of 2nd Lieutenant Horace Dalton was never identified and he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial to the Missing. He is also remembered on the memorial in the Parish Church of St. George, Leeds (see below), St.Margaret’s Church and on the war memorial in Ilkley.



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