Ilkley in The First World War by Edward Wild

GUNNER 65890 WILLIAM LAMBERT KENDALL, 155 th SIEGE BATTERY, ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY. KILLED IN ACTION 3 rd OCTOBER 1918, AGED 24 YEARS. William (Bill) Kendal was born on 9 th March 1894 at 4 Leeds Road Ilkley, one of three sons of Thomas and Elizabeth Kendal. His father was a tobacconist who shortly after Bill’s birth moved to new premises at 25 Church Street where the family lived above the shop. After leaving school he was employed briefly as a fireman but later became a postman working from the sorting office which was then on Wells Road. Bill enlisted into the Royal Garrison Artillery in Leeds on 1 st November 1915 and within a few days was posted to the regiment’s depot which was in Dover. It was in March the following year that he crossed the English Channel and landed in France and joined the training school of the British 2 nd Army and the following month was posted to the 24 th Trench Mortar Battery. On 10 th May whilst serving in the front line he received ...

CAPTAIN RICHARD FREDERICK REYNOLDS, 15 th BATTALION HAMPSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 2 nd OCTOBER 1918, AGED 30 YEARS. Richard Frederick Reynolds, always known as Fred, was born on the 8 th December 1887, although exactly where is unclear. His mother said that he was born in Ilkley but his birth was registered in Leeds.  His father Richard Freshfield Reynolds (also known as Fred) was a noted Quaker scientist and industrialist who owned the firm of Reynolds and Branson in Leeds. The company manufactured pharmaceutical chemicals as well surgical equipment and medical instruments. Indeed the company was one of the forerunners in developing X-ray photography. His mother Dora meanwhile came from a family of noted artists and portrait painters. She was herself an accomplished painter who had exhibited at the Royal Academy; however, she was also a famous author of fiction who wrote over forty novels. The Reynolds family lived in a large house on Crossbeck Road and als...

PRIVATE 64248 BERTIE BODDY 1 st BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 24 TH SEPTEMBER 1918, AGED 18 YEARS. Young Bertie Boddy had been on the Western Front for just16 days when he was killed in action just north of the village of Holnon near St Quintin on 24 th September 1918. The 1 st West Yorkshire Regiment had been in action in the area for several days and had mounted several successful attacks against the German lines. On the 17 th of the month, the day that another Ilkley man, Joseph Brunskill, had been killed, Bertie had been reported missing before eventually finding his way back to the British trenches. In the final weeks of the war fighting had become more fluid and far less reliant on complicated trench systems. The morale of the German Army was weakening and where no longer the force that they had been earlier in the war. Nevertheless, they were still dangerous and able to impose a terrible toll on the attacking allies. At 5am on the morning...

PRIVATE 38806 JOSEPH PATTINSON BRUNSKILL, 1 st BATTALION WEST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION 17 th SEPTEMBER 1918 AGED 39 YEARS. Born in the small village of Longtown in Cumberland, Joseph Brunskill was the son of Richard Brunskill, a gamekeeper, and his wife Agnes. In time Joseph followed in his father’s footsteps and also became a gamekeeper and moved to Yorkshire to work on the Denton Estate near Ilkley. For some years he lodged at Heathershaw Farm until 1913 when he married Annie Mallory in the parish church of St Helens and together they would have two children. Joseph appears to have enlisted into the 21 st battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment in 1916 and over the next couple of years served with the 2/6 th Battalion of the West Yorkshires and also with the 3 rd Entrenching Battalion. This may indicate that he had been wounded and upon his return to the front was assigned to a new battalion. By September 1918 Joseph was serving in the 1 st Battalion of ...

2 nd LIEUTENANT CECIL MUSCROFT COLEMAN, ROYAL AIR FORCE. KILLED IN ACTION, 6 th SEPTEMBER 1918, AGED 18. On the morning of the 6 th September 1918 12 planes of No 11 Squadron Royal Air Force took off from an airfield near to the village of Proyart in the Somme Valley and flew north-east towards Cambrai about 25 miles away. Flying Bristol B.F.2b’s, they were on a reconnaissance patrol over the German lines to gather intelligence ahead of a forthcoming British attack. At about 10.30am as the patrol, flying at 17000ft began the journey back to their base they were attacked by about 30 German Fokker DV 2ii biplanes. The German single seat machines were of the latest design and were superior to the Bristol Fighters which had two seats for a pilot and observer.  One of the British planes was being flown by Lieutenant Ewart Underwood with 2 nd Lieutenant Cecil Muscroft Coleman as his observer and air gunner. In the ensuing ‘dog fight’ which was swift and brutal planes from...

SHOE SMITH 98949 CHARLES ALFRED THORNTON, 123 rd BRIGADE ROYAL FIELD ARTILLERY.   KILLED IN ACTION 3 rd SEPTEMBER 1918, AGED 39 YEARS. Charles Was born in the hamlet of Langtoft in the East Riding of Yorkshire in 1879, the son of Michael and Sarah Thornton. The Thornton’s were a large family who moved to Ilkley just before the beginning of the 20 th Century where Michael took up employment as a brick layer. Charles, however, remained in East Yorkshire working as a blacksmith and farrier on local farms. Just before the beginning of the war and now married with two children he opened a blacksmiths shop in the village of Barkston Ash near Tadcaster. In 1914 the British Army was largely reliant on the horse to pull wagons and to move the guns. The rapid expansion of the army following the declaration of war necessitated the recruitment of men who had the skills required to maintain and care for these essential animals. As a farrier Charles had skill that were clearly ...

PRIVATE 12786 HARRY FARRAH, 2 nd BATTALION WEST RIDING REGIMENT. KILLED IN ACTION, 30 th AUGUST 2018, AGED 29. Harry Farrar had volunteered for the Ilkley Pals Company of the 9 th West Riding Regiment at a packed meeting at the Kings Hall, on Station Road on the 31 st August 1914, and now exactly four years later, he lay dead in France. A butcher by trade he was the son of Tetley and Ada Farrar who lived at 13 South Hawksworth Street in house overlooking what is now the central car park. The family were originally from Crossflatts near Bingley, and where Harry was born on November 22 nd 1889. However, before the beginning of the war, Tetley Farrar brought his family, which included 5 children, to Ilkley and took employment as a jobbing gardener. Along with the rest of the Ilkley Pals, Harry was sent to Dorset to commence their training in 1914 and then sent to the Western Front arriving in France on the 15 th July 1915. He undoubtedly saw a considerable amount of action ...