Ilkley in The First World War

CAPTAIN GEOFFREY SKIRROW 2/4 th BATTALION KINGS OWN YORKSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY (Attached). KILLED IN ACTION 27 th AUGUST 1918, AGED 22. During the Summer of 1918 as the war on the Western Front progressed towards its conclusion there was no let up in the intensity of the fighting as the Allied armies drove against a faltering but still dangerous enemy. After the successes achieved by the Germans during their Spring Offensive the British slowly and steadily regained the ground that they had lost earlier in the year and were now poised to breach the fearsome defences of the Hindenburg Line. Even though the fighting now took place over the shattered battlefields of 1916 and 1917 fighting  was more mobile and success depended on speedy rather than meticulous planning; it was a type of warfare at which British Divisions seemed to excel. The 62 nd (West Riding) Division had only arrived in France in 1917 and was recruited largely from the old West Riding of Yorkshire. Its effi

PRIVATE 12904 LAWRENCE SYLVESTER ROBINSON SCOTT, 2 nd BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. DIED 7 th APRIL 1920, AGED 25. Lawrence Scott enlisted into the ‘Ilkley Pals’ Company which had been formed in late August 1914 after a recruiting meeting held in the Kings Hall on Station Road. During his service he was wounded on three occasions, but his death almost 18 months after the war had ended, would shock the town. Born in Skipton in 1894 Lawrence was one of four children of John Scott, a brewer, and his wife Emily. The family moved to Ilkley in 1911 and took a house on Sunset View off Leeds Road (now called Sunset Drive) before moving on the West View on Wells Road. He was sent to school as a boarder at Denstone College, Staffordshire before attending University College, Durham where he hoped, after his studies, to take Holy Orders. The start of the war interrupted his studies as he enlisted, with many men from Ilkley, into the 9 th Battalion West Riding Regiment. The ‘P

PRIVATE 434909 EDWARD RENDER, 50 th BATTALION CANADIAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE. KILLED IN ACTION, 18 th NOVEMBER 1916, AGED 20. Born in Ilkley on the 22 nd November 1895 Edward was the son of William, a mason, and Margaret Render who lived at 9, Dean Street. In 1909 the family decided to emigrate to Canada and left aboard the Empress of Britain, bound for Quebec moving to the town of Medicine Hat in Alberta. Edward’s father appears to have died not long after arriving in Canada and he lived with his mother and sisters 658 8 th Street SE and worked as a carpenter. Edward enlisted into the Canadian Army on the 6 th of February 1915 and was posted to the 50 th (Calgary) Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. His unit arrived in Britain in October 1915 where it remained until August 1916. Posted to the Somme Sector on the 18 th November that year, the 50 th were in the front line near to the village of Courcellette where it was involved in a successful attack again

PRIVATE WILLIAM (BILLY) HAYWOOD 1/7 th BATTALION DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY. DIED (INFLUENZA) 23 rd FEBRUARY 1919 AGED 19. In mid February 1919 young William Haywood arrived home on leave from his unit which was stationed in Belgium. Clearly very ill with what was soon diagnosed as influenza his condition deteriorated, pneumonia set in and within a week he was dead. William was born in Ilkley in 1899 the eldest son of Joseph and Clara Haywood who lived at Springs Cottage on Springs Lane. Joseph was a carter and a staunch Methodist who worshipped with his family at Christchurch on The Grove. Every Sunday afternoon William would help the younger members of the congregation with their reading and help out in the little Sunday School. He was also member of the local Volunteers Company based at the Drill Hall on Leeds Road. The Volunteers were a sort of WW1 equivalent of the Home Guard and were made up of young boys under military age waiting call up along with older men too old t

GUNNER/SHOEING SMITH, 776142 WALTER THIRKELL, 245   BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY. DIED (INFLUENZA), 3 rd MARCH 1919 AGED 28 Walter Thirkell was another victim of the flu pandemic which struck over the winter of 1918-19. At the end of February 1919 he had been released from the army after serving throughout the war. His skills as an engine fitter on the railways were urgently needed in peacetime Britain and so his discharge was brought forward. He had only been back with his parents at 6 Springs Terrace when he developed symptoms of flu which progressed to bronchial-pneumonia from which he succumbed on the 3 rd of March. Born in the village of Carnforth, Lancashire, Walter was the youngest of 12 children born to William and Elizabeth Thirkell. His father worked on the railways as a foreman fitter on the Midland Railway and when Walter was very young brought his family to Ilkley. Walter too would work for the Midland Railway like many of the male members of his family.

SERGEANT 65137 EDGAR EARNSHAW, 1 st BATTALION NORTHUMBERLAND FUSILIERS. DIED (INFLUENZA) 27 th FEBRUARY 1919 AGED 25. Edgar Earnshaw was born in West Ardsley, near Wakefield, on 31 st October 1893, but moved to Ilkley at the age of 5 to live 31 Middleton Road when his father became the organist and choirmaster at Christchurch on The Grove. His parents John and Annice had 7 children in total but 6 of them had died in infancy leaving Edgar the sole survivor. A pupil at Ilkley Grammar School where he represented the school at cricket, Edgar was also a musical prodigy. An accomplished violinist, pianist and organist he also had a noted singing voice. During his childhood he won numerous competitions and awards across the north of England for his musical abilities and as an adult would give recitals, especially on the piano, often attended by hundreds of people. After completing his education he remained living with his parents and took a post as a bank clerk at the Yorkshi

SAPPER 237847 WILLIAM CLIFFORD HABISHAW, 102 AIR LINE SECTION ROYAL ENGINEERS. ASPHYXIATED 29th DECEMBER 1918 AGED 31 Born at 4 Richmond Place, Ilkley in 1888 William was the son of Joseph Habishaw, a bath house attendant, and his wife Mary. The family would later move to a house on Belle Vue Terrace which they ran as a small lodging house. Educated locally, William trained as an electrical engineer but at the beginning of the war was employed as a turf accountant. In the aut umn of 1915 he married local woman, Margaret Moon and together they moved into Glenholme on Parish Ghyll Drive. William had originally enlisted into the West Yorkshire Regiment in December 1915 but his call up was deferred until May of the following year and in August 1916 posted to the Machine Gun Corps. By the spring of 1917 presumably because of his electrical engineering training was sent to join a signals company of the Royal Engineers where he learned to be a telephonist. William remained in Brita

PRIVATE 57823 BADEN STANLEY LAMBERT, 4 th BATTALION EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. DIED OF INFLUENZA 15 th NOVEMBER 1918 AGED 18 Born in Ilkley in July 1900, Baden was the son of joiner John Lambert and his wife Elizabeth. The youngest of twelve children of whom only seven survived the family lived at 43 Wellington Road. Upon reaching the age of 18 he was conscripted into the army and sent to a training unit before being assigned to the 4 th East Yorkshire Regiment who were based at Sculcoates near Hull and it was here that he died from influenza on the 15 th November 1918. The army returned Badens body to his family and today he lies in the towns cemetery and is remembered with pride on our war memorial. Photo courtesy James Cooper

PRIVATE 10123 JAMES CLARKSON, 2 nd BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. DIED 14 th NOVEMBER 1918, AGED 23 James Clarkson had enlisted into the Regular Army in 1911 or 1912 when he joined the 2 nd Battalion of the West Riding Regiment. The battalion were mobilised at the outbreak of war and went to France on 16 th August, however, James did not join his them until the following month when he had reached the age of 18. In this initial phase of the war battles were fought across open country but by November 1914 both sides began to dig the trenches along the front line that would define the war. That month james and his battalion were in the front line east of Ypres. It was here that on the 8 th he was hit in the head by a bullet which entered beneath his left eye, passed through his tongue and lodged in his jaw. Evacuated from the front he was sent St Gabriels Hospital in London for treatment. Writing of his exploits he would describe blood thirsty bayonet attacks on the Ge

PRIVATE 47052 WILLIAM JAMES (JIMMY) ELLIS, 15 th BATTALION DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY. DIED OF WOUNDS, 10 th NOVEMBER 1918 AGED 22. As the First World War drew to its close then so too did the life of young Jimmy Ellis, who died in the 19 th Casualty Clearing Station in France the day before the Armistice was signed. His final hours were recorded by the Rev. W A Parrott, a Wesleyan Chaplain at the hospital, who sat with him as his life ebbed away. Jimmy knew that he would not survive the gangrene that infected his body and as he prayed with the chaplain, placed his life into God’s hands. His final words were for his family and his sweetheart before he peacefully died. Back home as news of the Armistice became known Jimmy’s family would have been unaware of their son’s tragic death. Their own feelings about the end of the war would in any case have been tempered by the memories of another son, Charles, who had been killed in May 1915 whilst serving his country. Lister El

LIEUTENANT LESLIE PEVERIL SUTCLIFFE, ROYAL ENGINEERS. DIED FROM INFLUENZA, 4 th NOVEMBER 1918 AGED 27. It was late October 1918 that Leslie Sutcliffe arrived in the little town of Smithers high in the Rockies Mountains of British Columbia. As the days shortened and winters grip began to take hold he rented a room at a boarding house in the town. His general health was already poor and now he was suffering from the effects of influenza, probably Spanish Flu. Within days his condition worsened and he succumbed to this deadly disease on the 4 th of November. Born in Sowerby Bridge on 3 rd August 1892 Leslie was the second son of Henry and Kate Sutcliffe. His father was a prosperous solicitor and wool merchant who was able to send his sons to boarding school, in Leslies case first to Sedburgh and then Uppingham where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps. After School instead of taking a place at university as might be expected of a boy from his background he went

PRIVATE 307602 JAMES WILLIAM WRIGHT, 1/6TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 1st NOVEMBER 1918 AGED 34. In the final days of the war the Allies continued their relentless attacks against the weakening German Army and all along the front line British troops were called upon to prevail against an enemy still desperately defending their trenches. The 1/6th West Riding Regiment had fought on the Western Front for over 3 years and now prepared for one last attack  against the well defended enemy lines along the River Rhonelle to the south east of  Valenciennes. By this stage of the war British assaults against German positions were thoroughly planned and involved complex coordination of infantry, artillery and air attacks. At Zero Hour, 5.15am the West Riding battalion rose from their trenches behind a creeping artillery barrage designed to protect them from observation by the ever vigilant enemy. After advancing across No Man’s Land the battalion reached

LIEUTENANT GODFREY MICHAEL (MICKY) SMITH, 256 th BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY. DIED OF WOUNDS, 28 TH OCTOBER 1918, AGED 22. At the beginning of the war Micky Smith had been a member of the 11 th (Wharfedale) Battery, of the 4 th West Riding Howitzer Brigade, a Territorial Army unit attached to the 49 th West Riding Division. Based at the Drill Hall on Leeds Road it was made up of part-time soldiers who lived in Ilkley and Burley in Wharfedale who trained on a Saturday evening and went to occasional camps. Indeed in August 1914 immediately after its summer camp the Wharfedale battery mobilised for war. Micky accompanied the battery when it landed in France on 15 th April 1915 to fight on the Western Front. He remained with battery until 1917 when he was recommended for officer training and returned to Britain. In the spring of 1918 now gazetted as a 2 nd Lieutenant he returned to France and was posted to the 256 th Brigade of the Royal Field artillery, part of th

LIEUTENANT AMOS CLARKSON MC, 8 th BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT (2 nd LEEDS RIFLES). DIED OF WOUNDS, 24 th OCTOBER 1918, AGED 23 . Amos Clarkson was the last of the Ilkley ‘Pals’ Company to die during the war. On 31 st August, along with 127 men from the town, he had enlisted into the 9 th West Riding Regiment and now over four years later and as the Great War approached its conclusion he succumbed to wounds received during one of the final attacks. The ‘Pals’ had left Ilkley with much fanfare in early September 1914, had fought for over 3 years and now 30 of them lay dead in the fields of France and Belgium. Born in Silsden on the 18 th April 1895, Amos, was one of four children of John Clarkson, a coal agent and his wife Hannah. It was the death of his father in 1908 that brought the family to Ilkley, when Hannah bought the Midland Hotel on Station Road which she ran with her sister Elizabeth. Young Amos won a place at Ilkley Grammar School and appears to have

AIRCRAFT MECHANIC 3 rd CLASS 66571 HAROLD HIRST, ROYAL AIR FORCE, 9 TH BALLOON COMPANY. DIED FROM PNEUMONIA 16 th OCTOBER 1918, AGED 27 YEARS On the 18 th September 1918 whilst home of leave from the RAF Harold Hirst married Frances Mary Fox at Addingham Parish Church. After spending just a few days with his new bride he left Ilkley and began the long journey back to his unit which was stationed in Italy. It was while travelling that Harold contracted influenza and was admitted to hospital near to Vincenza, Northern Italy on 13 th October 1918.  Sadly, his condition deteriorated and just three days later he succumbed to broncial-pneumonia. He had been married for just 25 days. Harold was born in Thackley, a suburb of Bradford in 1892 one of 7 children of Joseph Hirst a wool merchant and his wife Mary. The family moved to Ilkley not long after Harold was born and lived in a large house on Easby Drive. Educated at Ilkley Grammar School he later worked with his father in the f

PRIVATE 036317 ARTHUR (KNOWN AS JACK) ROBINSON, ROYAL ARMY ORDNANCE CORPS. DIED 22 nd OCTOBER 1918 AGED 26 YEARS. Jack Robinson was the second member of his family to die on the Western Front in 1918 as just two months earlier in August his older brother Bernard had succumbed to wounds received whilst serving with the Ilkley Pals. John Robinson and his wife Harriet had brought up ten children in Ilkley including Jack and Bernard in the Ashgrove area of the town. A coal carter by calling John had employed Jack to help with deliveries to local customers. At the beginning of the war Jack had enlisted into a territorial unit of the Royal Field Artillery but had later been transferred into the army Ordnance Corps. This unit was responsible for priming and preparing shells for the artillery and was usually located away from the front line and in relative safety. Jack may have been wounded at some stage earlier in the war and thus not fully fit for front line service which m

PRIVATE 92122 THOMAS NOEL WITTING, 19 TH BATTALION DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY (2 ND DURHAM PALS). KILLED IN ACTION 14 TH OCTOBER 1918 AGED 24 YEARS It was on the 6 th October 1918 that Noel Witting arrived in France as a newly trained private in the British Army. Just eight days later he lay dead in a Belgian field to the east of Ypres. To his parents, Charles and Emily, back in Ilkley, the death of their youngest son would have been a grievous blow made all the worse as their youngest son, Stanley, had been killed in France just seven months earlier. Noel, was born on Christmas Eve 1893 in the Potternewton area of Leeds. His father was an agent and commercial traveller for a woollen mill and would have spent much of his time away from home. In the early part of the century Charles had moved his family to Scarborough where both his sons attended the local Grammar School. In April 1910 Noel joined the National and Provincial Bank as was sent as a trainee to a branch of the ban

CAPTAIN BRIAN DACRE, 9 th BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT (ILKLEY PALS COMPANY). KILLED IN ACTION 12 th OCTOBER 1918, AGED 28 YEARS. Brian Dacre had volunteered for service in British Army during the first month of the war, and now less than four weeks before its end he was killed in action. It was on the 31 st of August 1914 that he had gone to the Kings Hall in Ilkley with his younger brother, Maurice, to a recruitment meeting where both had enlisted. Another 125 men from the town had done likewise and together they formed the Ilkley Pals Company of the newly raised 9 th Battalion of the West Riding Regiment. Just a few days later Brian and Maurice would head the column of friends and comrades as the Ilkley lads left the Drill Hall on Leeds Road and marched off to war. Their destination was Dorset where after a long and probably uncomfortable journey they set up camp in rolling countryside near to the village of Wool to begin their training. The Ilkley Pals were sti