Ilkley in The First World War by Edward Wild

LIEUTENANT ERIC BERTRAND RALPH SCOTT, 25TH DIVISIONAL SIGNALS COMPANY ROYAL ENGINEERS. KILLED IN ACTION 10TH JULY 1916. Eric Bertrand Ralph Scott was born in Ilkley on the 8th November 1894. His father, Ralph, was an engineer who lived with his wife Mary at 3, Tarn Villas on Cowpasture Road. Eric was a pupil at Dean Close School in Cheltenham where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps. In 1912, aged 18, he commenced further studies at the Royal School of Mines in Sou th Kensington, now part of Imperial College. Significantly, Eric also joined the Territorial Army, enlisting as a sapper in the London Electrical Engineers. At the commencement of the war his unit was mobilised, however, his experience singled him out as officer material and he received a commission into the Royal Engineers on the 7th January 1915. Eric was posted to a Signals Company attached to the 25th Division in September of the same year. The Signals Company was responsible for laying and maint...

LIEUTENANT ERIC MALLINSON, 9TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 7TH JULY 1916. Eric Mallinson was the second son of a well to do woolen merchant and was born in Roundhay, Leeds in 1884. His father died whilst Eric was still a pupil at Sedbergh School. At about this time, the family moved to Ilkley and lived in a house called Ashburn on Parish Ghyll Road. At the age of 20 Eric left Britain and sailed for New Zealand, where he bought a sheep farm in the Canterbu ry District on the South Island. Once there he married a Scottish woman called Helen Rennet and together they had two children. For reasons that are unknown Eric sold the farm in 1912 and decided to head for Canada, crossing from the USA into Quebec in December of that year. His wife and children meanwhile returned to Britain, where they took up residence at 11, Albany Mansions in Battersea, London. Whilst in Canada Eric appears to have undergone some military service in the militia in Vancouver. At th...

LANCE CORPORAL, 12841, JOHN HENRY TURNER, 9TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. (ILKLEY PALS). KILLED IN ACTION 6TH JULY 1916 Lance Corporal John Henry Turner was another Ilkley Pal who died on the 6th July. In the front line near to Contalmaison, the 9th Duke of Wellingtons were subjected to continued German artillery fire. Seeking shelter in the dugouts that lined the trench wall did not give much protection against high explosive shells. John, is reported to have been asleep  when a shell struck the trench where he was lying killing him instantly. John Turner was born in 1880 in a small back-to-back house at 43 Bright Street in the New Wortley district of Leeds. His father was an engine driver with North Eastern Railway who moved to Ilkley in the 1890s living at 3 Railway Terrace. Young John obtained a position at Ilkley Railway Station as a porter and lived with the family of another porter, William Rooks, at Wilmot House on Railway Road. Before the outbreak of war he and h...

LANCE CORPORAL GEORGE HUDSON, 9TH BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT, (ILKLEY PALS). KILLED IN ACTION 6TH JULY 1916. Little 6 year old Annie Hudson and her four year old brother, William, were left orphans on the 6th July 1916. During their brief lives, they had already seen their mother, Mabel, die at the age of 25, three years earlier, now their father, George Gregory Hudson, succumbed to the wounds sustained whilst fighting for his country. George Hudson was not a native of Ilkley but had been born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. His father Charles, a gardener, moved around the country looking for work opportunities and took with him his wife Annie and their large family. At the turn of the 20th Century the Hudsons arrived in Ilkley and eventually moved to Corn Mill House on Railway Road. Charles worked as a gardener and opened a florists shop at 14 Skipton Road. George, now in his early twenties worked for J. Spencer and Sons who were cab proprietors and a coal merchants. In Ma...

PRIVATE 10124 NORMAN DOBSON

MAJOR STATHAM BROADBENT MAUFE, 11TH BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 4TH JULY 1916. Major Statham Broadbent Maufe and his battalion 11th West Yorkshire Regiment had not taken part in the fighting on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. However, on the 4th July they went into the front line near to the village of Contalmaison. The battalion was involved in attacks against the German trenches during which they suffered heavy casualties including Statham  Maufe who was badly wounded. Evacuated to the Casualty Clearing Station at Heilly, he succumbed to his wounds on the 5th July. Statham was the son of Frederick Broadbent Maufe who lived at Warlbeck on Kings Road. The family owned the famous Bradford department store Brown,Muff. The family surname had originally been Muff but was changed to Maufe in 1909. Statham was educated at a small prep school in Southbourne, Hampshire and then Uppingham School in Rutland. He attended Clare College, Cambridge U...

LIEUTENANT ARTHUR BASIL LEE. 5TH BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 2ND JULY 1916. Arthur Basil Lee was born in New Brighton, Cheshire in 1896. His father worked for the Bank of Liverpool and moved to Ilkley to manage the branch in the town. The family lived at 1 Wells Walk and Arthur, their only son, was educated at Ghyll Royd School and Ilkley Grammar. After leaving school he worked for stuff merchants Sutherland, Parker and Co in Bradford and also played r ugby for Ilkley RUFC. He was also a member of the Territorial Army serving with the Ilkley and Otley Battery of the Royal Field Artillery. Arthur was commissioned into the 5th West Yorkshire Regiment and served with them in the Somme area. His battalion was not initially involved in the attacks on the 1st July 1916 but his company was sent to support an attack on a feature known as the Schwaben Redoubt. This was a German fortification near to Thiepval which, because of its shape, was nicknamed 'The P...