2ND LIEUTENANT JOSEPH HENRY IDESON, ROYAL FLYING CORPS. KILLED IN A FLYING ACCIDENT,
2ND LIEUTENANT JOSEPH HENRY
IDESON, ROYAL FLYING CORPS. KILLED IN A FLYING ACCIDENT, 13TH MARCH 1917, AGED
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Harry Ideson was born in Ilkley on 16th April 1891 and baptised at All Saints Church. His father Henry owned a cab firm and operated the family home at Westwood Farm as a boarding house. Harry was a pupil at Ilkley Grammar School before training as a lithographer and just before the war was living in Nottingham.
At the beginning of the war Harry was amongst the first to enlist and was posted to the 3rd Battalion Sherwood Foresters. This was a Territorial Army battalion which offered a much faster route to the front than war service battalions. In February 1915 Harry was posted from his battalion’s base in Plymouth to the Western Front where he joined one of his regiments regular battalions. His unit was soon in action in the battle of Neuve Chapelle and in a detailed letter home he describes his experience during this particularly bloody battle as well as the privations of trench life.
Harry had come to the notice of his superiors and he was recommended for a commission. By the 26th March 1915 he found himself back in England where he was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 13th Sherwood Foresters.
In 1916 Harry returned to the front with the 10th battalion and was wounded and it whilst recovering that he decided to enlist into the Royal Flying Corps. Harry was sent to the flying school at Joyce Green near to Dartford in Kent and appears to have progressed from basic training aircraft and was engaged in the conversion to faster single seat machines. On 13th march 1917 he took off from the airfield in a De Haviland Scout bi-plane and climbed to a height of 1000 feet where he attempted to bank the plane. Whether it was because of inexperience or just bad luck, the plane went into a tail spin and plummeted into the ground killing Harry instantly.
The body of Harry Ideson was returned home to Ilkley and his funeral took place in St Margaret’s Church on Saturday 17th March 1917. A detachment from the York and Lancaster regiment then escorted the coffin through Ilkley and down to the town’s cemetery. The local newspapers reported that a large crowd gathered, many of whom had been bereaved by the war, to pay their respects along with 60 wounded soldiers from the Ilkley Convalescent Hospital. Harry was buried with full military honours and 3 volleys were fired as his coffin was lowered into his grave.
Today a Commonwealth War Graves headstone marks where Lieutenant Harry Ideson now rests and alongside a stone cross placed by his grieving parents remembering the names of both sons lost in such a short time. Harry is also remembered on our war memorial in Ilkley at St Margaret’s Church.
Joseph
Ideson, known as Harry, was the second of two sons born to Henry and Mary
Ideson of Westwood Farm on Parish Ghyll Drive. Their eldest son, Maurice, had
been killed the previous year whilst serving with the Australian Imperial Force
on the Somme and now came the dreadful news that Harry had also been killed
whilst in training as a pilot with the Royal Flying Corps.
Harry Ideson was born in Ilkley on 16th April 1891 and baptised at All Saints Church. His father Henry owned a cab firm and operated the family home at Westwood Farm as a boarding house. Harry was a pupil at Ilkley Grammar School before training as a lithographer and just before the war was living in Nottingham.
At the beginning of the war Harry was amongst the first to enlist and was posted to the 3rd Battalion Sherwood Foresters. This was a Territorial Army battalion which offered a much faster route to the front than war service battalions. In February 1915 Harry was posted from his battalion’s base in Plymouth to the Western Front where he joined one of his regiments regular battalions. His unit was soon in action in the battle of Neuve Chapelle and in a detailed letter home he describes his experience during this particularly bloody battle as well as the privations of trench life.
Harry had come to the notice of his superiors and he was recommended for a commission. By the 26th March 1915 he found himself back in England where he was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 13th Sherwood Foresters.
In 1916 Harry returned to the front with the 10th battalion and was wounded and it whilst recovering that he decided to enlist into the Royal Flying Corps. Harry was sent to the flying school at Joyce Green near to Dartford in Kent and appears to have progressed from basic training aircraft and was engaged in the conversion to faster single seat machines. On 13th march 1917 he took off from the airfield in a De Haviland Scout bi-plane and climbed to a height of 1000 feet where he attempted to bank the plane. Whether it was because of inexperience or just bad luck, the plane went into a tail spin and plummeted into the ground killing Harry instantly.
The body of Harry Ideson was returned home to Ilkley and his funeral took place in St Margaret’s Church on Saturday 17th March 1917. A detachment from the York and Lancaster regiment then escorted the coffin through Ilkley and down to the town’s cemetery. The local newspapers reported that a large crowd gathered, many of whom had been bereaved by the war, to pay their respects along with 60 wounded soldiers from the Ilkley Convalescent Hospital. Harry was buried with full military honours and 3 volleys were fired as his coffin was lowered into his grave.
Today a Commonwealth War Graves headstone marks where Lieutenant Harry Ideson now rests and alongside a stone cross placed by his grieving parents remembering the names of both sons lost in such a short time. Harry is also remembered on our war memorial in Ilkley at St Margaret’s Church.
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