WILSDEN SOLDIERS IN THE GREAT WAR (D – G)

Stanley Arthur Davies

When he left school he became a horseman on a farm. Given his experience with horses it is likely that he was enlisted into the Royal Artillery though it is not possible to verify.

SURVIVED

At the age of 40, Stanley married Eliza Grayshon in Girlington in 1923. At the time his address was 3, New Council Houses (Windy Grove).

(Conservative Club Roll of honour)

Both Horace and his father, Wainwright, served in WW1.

SURVIVED

After the war Horace went to live in Silsden. He married Lily Brown there in 1932 but by 1939 they were living back in Wilsden at 7 Cherry Tree Row and Horace was a spring maker.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

In 1891 Wainwright married Sarah Ann Raistrick. They had two sons, Horace and Ernest. In 1911 the family lived at 6 Gawthorpe Street, Wilsden, and Wainwright’s occupation was crepe weaver.

He would have been slightly over the age limit when conscription was brought in, so he must have volunteered and may have knocked a few years off his date of birth when he enlisted. His eldest son Horace also served in WW1.

SURVIVED

Horace and Sarah Ann were still living at 6 Gawthorpe Street in 1939.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Born 17 March 1893, Winfield was the son of Annie and George Dearden, a poultry farmer. He had two younger sisters, Emma and Edith and on leaving school became a worsted weaver.  His address whilst serving in the Navy was 15 Lister Villa. Prior to his enlistment at the end of 1915, Winfield had been a conductor. His cousin William who lived next door but one (at 11 Lister Villa) also served in WW1.

SURVIVED

After the war Winfield followed his father into poultry farming at Mount Pleasant, 23 Crack Lane. In 1928 he married Isabel Healey a widow with two children.

(Conservative Club Roll of honour)

William Dearden

Willie was born at 11 Lister Villa, Wilsden in 1894, the son of Sarah and Edward Dearden an engine tenter, he had two older half- siblings Emily and James. His cousin Winfield Dearden, who also served in WW1 lived in the house next door but one (no. 15).

By 1911 Willie and his parents lived at 13 Dewhirst Street where they were still living after the war. He became an iron turner for Simmonites at West Holme works, Thornton Road.

In August 1916 Willie enlisted into the Royal Flying Corps where he was a turner He served on airfields in France from April 1917 until September 1919.

SURVIVED

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

Clifford Charles Dibb

Born in Guiseley on 7 November 1889, son of Sarah and David Dickenson Dibb a farm labourer. Clifford had an older sister Annie and three younger brothers; Arthur, Herbert and Harry. At the time of his marriage Clifford was a farmer’s man, living in Allerton. He married Annie Hillas in June 1913 and they lived at 124 Harecroft and then at 18 Victoria Street.

Prior to being called up in September 1916 he had been a warehouseman.

SURVIVED

Clifford and Annie were still living in Wilsden in 1939, at 1 Peel Street. He was working as a woolcomber.

(Service Rec)

Harry Hackney Doggett

Harry was born in 1896 in Outwood, Wakefield, the son of Lincolnshire parents Lavinia and John Doggett, a Colliery Weighman.

Lavinia died whilst Harry was just an infant and he was looked after by a house-keeper employed by his father.

At the time Harry enlisted he was living in Wilsden.

His battalion had been in the thick of an attack at the end of September 1916 at Flers-Corcelette on the western edge of High Wood. Two thirds of the battalion strength were dead, wounded or missing at the roll call afterwards.

Harry survived that engagement and the smaller phases of the Battle of the Somme which took place in October and November at Morval and Le Transloy but he died as the result of accidental injuries on 13 December 1916.

DIED 13.12.16 aged 20

(Wilsden War Memorial)

Arthur Dolphin

Arthur was born at 27 Lister Villa, Wilsden on Christmas Eve 1886 son of Clara and Thomas Riddiough Dolphin, a weaving overlooker. He had three older siblings, Eva, Annie and John and one younger, Marion.

In December 1912 Arthur married Lilian Brigg at St Matthews Church. Since 1905 he had been a professional county cricketer, keeping wicket for Yorkshire. They had a daughter, Eva, was born the following year.

Arthur joined up in early 1915, and served in France. He was injured at least three times, right wrist and left arm, and back.

SURVIVED

On demobilisation his address was 52 Crooke Lane but by 1919 it was 21 School Terrace, Crack Lane where he lived for another ten years.

In spite of the damage his wounds had caused, Arthur went back to keeping wicket for Yorkshire until 1927. He played for England in one test against Australia in 1921. After retiring, he was a cricket umpire for a further ten years including six test matches

(Service Rec under James Holdsworth 1251)

(Conservative Club Roll of honour)

Francis Melvar Dover

Born in Wilsden on 2 June 1890, Melvar was the only child of Mary (Polly) and Fred Dover, a worsted weaver. They started out living with Fred’s parents but by 1911 and for many years afterwards they lived at 206 Main Street.

Melvar was an assistant draper prior to enlisting in November 1916.

He was discharged on medical grounds a year later due to extreme flat feet.

SURVIVED

He became a commercial traveller in the wholesale tobacco trade and married Miriam Whalley in December 1930.

(Conservative Club Roll of honour)

(Pension Rec)

Lawrence Watmough Dover

Lawrence was born in Allerton on 25 October 1898, he was the son of Susannah and George Edward Dover, stuff weaving overlooker, of 60 South View, Sandy Lane. He had a younger sister, Marion.

Lawrence was working as a weaving overlooker until he was called up in March 1917 and was sent to France at the end of December.

DIED 23.7.18 aged 19

Lawrence is commemorated at Sandy Lane Bethel Baptist Church memorial and in the Wilsden Parish Church Great War Remembrance booklet (his father was born in Wilsden and he had family still living there).

By 1911 Joseph was running a coal and corn merchants from the farm.

SURVIVED

He married Emily Hannam in October 1924, they lived at Thornlea, the house next to Birchen Lea Farm and Joseph continued to be a coal and corn merchant.

(Harecroft Chapel Roll of honour)

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

Frank Driver

Frank was the son of a farmer, Sutcliffe Driver and his first wife Mary Briggs. He was born at Old Allan on 21 September 1894. Frank’s mother died in 1896 and his father re-married another Mary (Pollard).

By 1905 the family lived at Norr Hill Farm, where they lived for many years, and Frank was assisting his father on the farm.

He enlisted in December 1915 and was discharged in February 1919, a little sooner than he would otherwise have been, due to wounds he had received in the closing weeks of the war.

His younger brother Greenwood was also in the Army in WW1.

SURVIVED

In 1921 Frank married farmer’s daughter Clara Procter of Chellow Grange Farm. They had two children, Fred and Alice and were dairy farmers at Norr Farm for many years.

Greenwood Driver

Photo Chris Barrett via Ancestry.co.uk

Greenwood was born at Old Allan in 1896, to Sutcliffe Greenwood and first wife Mary Briggs. His mother died in 1896 shortly after his birth and his father re-married another Mary (Pollard).

Greenwood’s older siblings were Hannah, Margaret, Ruth, Ada, Sarah and Frank, his younger half-siblings were Mary and Colonel.

In 1905 the family was living at Norr Hill Farm.

Both Greenwood and his older brother Frank served in WW1.

The Keighley News reported in November 1917 “Lance-Corporal Greenwood Driver, West Yorkshire Regiment, son of Mrs & Mrs Sutcliffe Driver, of Norr Hill Farm, is in hospital in Birmingham suffering from a shrapnel wound in the left arm. He is 20 years of age and joined the Army in October 1916, being drafted to France the January following. He formerly helped to drive a steam waggon for Messrs. James Hill & Co.,woolcombers of Allerton”.

SURVIVED

After the war, in 1919, Greenwood returned to Norr Hill Farm. He married Lucy Ann Wilson in 1920, they lived in Harden and had three children, Iris, Alan and Louis.

(Keighley News 3.11.17)

John Dunnett

John was born on 24 February 1898, the son of Scottish parents, Jessie and John ‘Bobby’ Dunnett, Wilsden’s Policeman. He was third of four children (Barbara, William, John and Ellen) and they lived at first at 144, Main Street but later moved to 24 Royd Terrace.

John jnr was training to be a motor cycle mechanic with Tidswells at Preston Street, Bradford.

Both John and his older brother William served in WW1.

When he enlisted in June 1916 it was into the Royal Army Service Corps with a view to becoming a Motor Transport Driver. He passed to become a Ford Driver despite being put on a charge in February 1917 for ‘driving at an excessive speed down Hospital Hill in Aldershot’, but by the end of March he had been transferred to the Infantry and into the York & Lancaster Regt.

John was killed on 18 October 1917 at Passchendaele. His battalion had ‘been over the top’ and the men were asleep at rest camp immediately afterwards. John was killed by a bomb dropped from a German plane during an air raid on the camp.

DIED 18.10.17 aged 19

(Wilsden War Memorial)

William Farquhar Dunnett

Born in Oakworth on 8 July 1896, William was the second of four children (Barbara, William, John and Ellen) of Wilsden village constable John ‘Bobbie’ Dunnett and wife Jessie.

In 1911, throughout the war, and afterwards, the family lived at 24 Royd Street. William was a junior clerk in 1911 but probably trained as a motor mechanic before enlisting, (like his brother John who also served in the Army and was killed in October 1917).

William served in Serbia.

SURVIVED

After the war William worked as a motor engineer.

In 1920 he married Alice Hardy at St Matthew’s church (Alice’s father Sunderland had also been in the Army in WW1). By 1939 William was a garage proprietor and living in Adel, Leeds.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

Samuel Robert Eddison

Born in Sicklinghall near Wetherby on 10 March 1885, Robert was the son of Rebecca and Isaac Eddison, a carter for a farm and coal merchant. Robert had three younger siblings, John Mary and Elsie. They moved to Bradford before he was three years old.

On leaving school Robert started out as a weaver but soon followed his father into being a cart driver.

Robert married Helen Ray in 1906 and they had five children, Grace, Violet, George, Mary and Thomas. Between 1911 and 1914 Robert learned to be a steam wagon driver. In 1914 they were living at Four Lane Ends, Bradford. He signed up at end of August 1914 almost four weeks after war was declared, choosing the West Riding Regt.  He had previously served in the 19^th foot Militia and Bradford Volunteers. Unfortunately he was deaf and so he was discharged as medically unfit in November the same year. At around the same time the family moved to 17 Anderson Street, Wilsden.

SURVIVED

After the war, in 1920, Robert once again joined the Territorials for just over a year.

He went back to being a coal carter in Bradford.

(Pension Rec)(Service Rec)

John Edmondson

John was born at 19 Victoria Street, Wilsden on 30 November 1898, the son of Rawnsley and Violetta Edmondson. The family moved to 49 Lane Side before the birth of his younger sister Frances and two much younger brothers, Fred and Norris.

John was a plumber’s apprentice with Alfred Holdsworth in Great Horton prior to being called up in February 1917, just after his 18^th birthday, together with Wilsdeners Herbert Clark and Harry Tidswell. They were all given numbers within 99 of each other.

He went missing on 23 March 1918, the third day of Operation Michael, the German Spring Offensive in which Luddendorff planned to smash through the line before further re-inforcements, including the Americans who had finally entered the war, could make their way to the Western Front.

John was confirmed soon after as having been killed. He never got to meet his little brother Norris, born just 18 days before his death, nor a younger sister Elsie who was born in 1921.

He is commemorated on the Pozieres memorial.

DIED 23.3.18 aged 19

(Wilsden War Memorial)

Fred Ellerby

Fred was born on 1 July 1896 at Radnor Street in Bradford, the youngest son of Louisa and Benjamin Ellerby, a traveller in the dress trade. He had five sisters, four of them older than him (Mary Ann, Annie, Edith, Florrie and Ada) and an older brother (George). In 1911 the family lived at 3 Thomas Edmund Villas, Shay Lane. Prior to joining up, Fred was a weaving overlooker.

SURVIVED

After the war he married Ellen and they lived at Upper New Holland Farm, Fred became a manager for a rope and twine  merchant

(Service Rec)

Frank Ellison

Born on 10 March 1890 in Wilsden, sixth of seven children of Selina and Edwin Ellison a tin-platesmith whose home and business moved to various locations on Wilsden Main Street; 113, 155 and, in 1911, 110 Main Street. Frank became a plumber. He married Rosetta Holmes in September 1913 and they lived at, and ran the plumbing business from, 197 Main Street.

He enlisted into the Royal Flying Corps and was an aircraft fitter.

SURVIVED

After the war, Frank returned to plumbing and he and Rosetta lived in the house he’d lived in with his parents, ‘Eldercroft’ 110 Main Street. His parents had both died, a week apart, in May 1920.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Joe Emmott

Joe was born in Wilsden on 3 May 1900, the middle child of three of Phoebe and William Ambler Emmott, a mechanic in a woolcombing mill.  Joe had an older brother Arthur and a younger sister Alice. In 1901 the family lived at 2 Club Row but by 1911 they were living at 92 Main Street and were still there when he was called up, in June 1918, just after his eighteenth birthday. Until that time he had, like his father and brother, been a mechanic.

Joe was on active service in England until after the war had ended, going to France in March 1919 until November the same year.

SURVIVED

Joe went back to live with his parents at 92 Main Street, then in 1923 he married Emma Lister in Clayton. They settled in Great Horton with their children, and Joe continued to be a mill engineer.

(Service Rec)

Edward Evans

Edward was born in 1899 at 49 West View, Wilsden, the son of Joseph Evans, a springmaker and his wife Eva. He had a younger sister, Evelyn.  His father had died before the start of the Great War and his widowed mother moved her family to 129 Main St, Wilsden. Prior to his enlistment Edward was a mule-spinner at Amblers Prospect Mill. He joined up in July 1917 and went to France in April 1918.

On 8 September 1918 Edward was killed by machine-gun fire during a bombing attack. He has no known burial place.

DIED 8.9.18 aged 19

(Wilsden War Memorial)

Edward was born 28 November 1874 at Bareilly, Bengal, India He was the youngest son of Elizabeth and John Fant. He had an older sister Frances and an older brother Frank. All the children were born in India, their father was a sergeant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, but he died when Edward was only four years old. By 1881 Elizabeth had brought them back to England and they were living in Scarborough. Prior to joining up he was a milk boy. He enrolled in the Navy in 1890 and qualified as Gunner in 1909.

SURVIVED

In 1919 Edward married Gertrude Souter, Wilsden’s District Nurse, she had also seen service in WW1 being sent to India with Queen Alexandra’s Military Nursing Service.

They had one son, John, who also became a Petty Officer in the Royal Navy. The family lived at 136 Main Street (now the dental surgery).

Alexander Fawcett

Alec was the third of four children (Matilda, Reginald, Alec and Clara) of Herbert Fawcett, a weaving overlooker, and his second wife Paulina, a dressmaker.

Alec also had two older half-siblings, John and Edith. The family lived at 1 Sykes View, Tweedy Street for many years.

Before the war Alec was employed as a clerk. Both he and his older brother Reg served in WW1.

SURVIVED

After the war Alec worked as a textile orders clerk. He married Maggie Andrews in June 1920. They lived at 12 Tan House Lane, (brother Reg and his family lived next door at No 10). They had three children, Gwendoline, Vera, and Keith and the family emigrated to Canada in 1930.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

Reg was born at South View, Wilsden on 11 Sept 1891, the second of four children (Matilda, Reginald, Alec and Clara) of Herbert Fawcett, a weaving overlooker, and his second wife Paulina, a dressmaker.

Reg also had two older half-siblings, John and Edith. He grew up at 1 Sykes View.

In 1909 he started work for the Post Office, as a sorting clerk and telegraphist, a job he would return to after the war.

Reg joined up in 1914 and was assigned to the cable laying company of the RE

SURVIVED

After the war he married Ellen Outhwaite and became a Post Office clerk.  They lived at 10 Tan House Lane and had three children, Matthew (known as Peter), Joan, and Dorothy. (brother Alec and his family lived next door at no 12)

Both Frank and his older brother William served in WW1.

By the end of the war the family was living at the Brewers Arms where William (snr) was now the innkeeper.

SURVIVED

After demobilisation both brothers became gardeners. In May 1920 Frank married Mabel Kettlewell in Bingley. They lived in Wilsden and had sons Jack and Raymond.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

By 1911 their father was a milk dealer and they had moved to 14 Main Street Wilsden.

Both William and his younger brother Frank served in WW1.

SURVIVED

After the war they returned to live at the Brewers Arms where their father was now the innkeeper. Both brothers became gardeners.

William married Annie Haigh at Wilsden Independent Chapel in January 1927.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

Albert Edward Fieldhouse

Born on 14 January 1897 at 256 Main Street, Albert was the younger of two sons of Mary and Walter Fieldhouse, a mule spinner in a textile mill. There were also three sisters; Louisa, Alice and Florrie.

By 1901 the family had moved to 1, Kings Court, close by.

Both Albert and his brother Joseph enlisted in Bradford, but into different regiments.

Albert died of wounds on 11 July 1916, ten days into the Battle of the Somme, a battle which lasted five months with the loss of 600,000 British soldiers. Albert was buried just behind the lines but later heavy shelling of the area meant that his grave was lost.

DIED 11.7.16 aged 18

Joseph, his brother, was killed in action seventeen months later

(Wilsden War Memorial)

Joseph Fieldhouse

Joseph was born at 1 Victoria Street on 6 January 1893, the eldest child of Mary and Walter Fieldhouse, a mule spinner in a textile mill. He had one brother, Albert, and three sisters, Louisa, Alice and Florrie. The family lived at 1 Kings Court, Ling Bob.

Both brothers enlisted, although into different regiments. Joseph initially enlisted in the Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment and was given No. 19866, but he later transferred into the South Staffordshire Regiment.

Joseph was killed in a German counter-offensive, following the Battle of Cambrai.

DIED 1.12.17 aged 24

Albert, his brother, had been killed seventeen months previously

(Wilsden War Memorial)

Harold moved to Andover, Massachusetts with his family before 1911. He and his older brother Lawrence both enlisted in America.

SURVIVED

(Keighley News 21.12.18)

Lawrence Fielding

Lawrence was born on 18 June 1893 at Cranford Place, Wilsden, the second of five children (Ann, Lawrence, Harold, Denis and Lillian) of Ann and John Richard Fielding, a mule minder in a worsted spinning mill. In 1901 the family lived at 13 Anderson Street. Lawrence spent his childhood in Wilsden before the family moved to Massachusetts. The AEF first took part in the war in October 1917.

The US WW1 centennial commission website says this about Lawrence:

‘He was awarded the Croix de Guerre with gilt star, January 5, 1919. “From October 3-9, 1918 near St. Etienne-a-Arnes, as liaison agent, under a violent bombardment, he displayed coolness and courage. Was killed during the action.” He is buried at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery’.

DIED 2.10.18 aged 26

His brother Harold also served in WW1.

Fielding Square in the city of Lawrence, Massachusetts is named in memory of Lawrence Fielding.

(Keighley News 21.12.18)

Arthur Firth

Born in 1890 at Spring Head Terrace, Thornton Arthur was the eldest child of Sarah and Edward Firth, a coal dealer. His younger siblings were Percy, Cora, Florence and Eli. In 1901 the family was living at 40, Harecroft and by 1911 they had moved to Hewenden Brow Farm, Arthur was a woolsorter.

In May 1915 Arthur married Sarah Kershaw at Cullingworth. He was still a woolsorter at this time, but he was called up (as was his brother Percy) in 1916.

SURVIVED

After the war, Arthur and Sarah and their two children lived at 1, The Avenue, Wilsden, Arthur continued to be a woolsorter.

(Harecroft Chapel Roll of honour)

(Bradford Weekly Telegraph 29.6.17)

Ernest Richard Firth

Born in Halifax on 12 July1877, Ernest was the son of Mary Elizabeth and Robert Firth, a railway engine driver. He had a younger sister Bertha. By 1911 the family were living in the Eastbrook area of Bradford and Ernest was working as an upholsterer. He then became an insurance agent and married Mary Alice Lumb in Bradford in July 1910.

Given his previous working history it is strange that when Ernest enlisted in 1915 he was a cowman living at Middle Bents Farm, although when he was mobilised a year later he was put to work as an orderly room clerk in hospitals in England until being posted with the 20^th Egyptian Reinforcements to Alexandria in March 1918. He stayed in Egypt until September 1919, finally being demobilised in January 1920.

SURVIVED

In 1920 Ernest lived at Rose Cottage, Hallas Bridge.

(Service Rec)

Percy Firth M.M.

Percy was born in 1892 in Thornton, the second of five children (Arthur, Percy, Cora, Florence and Eli) of Sarah and Edward Firth, a coal dealer.

In 1901 the family was living at 40, Harecroft and by 1911 they had moved to Hewenden Brow Farm. Percy was a worsted spinning overlooker. Both Percy and his elder brother Arthur joined up in 1916 and Percy was sent to France around Christmas 1916 and was awarded the Military Medal in August 1918, reported in the Edinburgh Gazette 23 October 1918.

SURVIVED

After the war, in early 1919, he married Sarah Lonsdale and they lived at 130 Harecroft and later, 17 Gillrene Avenue, Wilsden.

He was a worsted spinning manager.

(Harecroft Chapel Roll of honour)

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Fred Flesher

Born in Burley-in-Wharfedale, son of Louisa and Edward Flesher, a stone mason, Fred was third of six children; Harry, George, Fred, Emma, Herbert and Lena. His widowed mother moved the family to 25, Lister Villa, Wilsden.

All four of the brothers joined up.

In June 1917, Fred got a ‘Blighty’ wound, shrapnel in the legs, and was sent home to England but he was soon back at the Front. Fred’s recovery unfortunately caused him to arrive back in Belgium during the Third Battle of Ypres, otherwise known as Passchendaele.

Fred was severely wounded in both thighs on 15^th October 1917 and died two days later.

DIED 17.10.17 aged 28

(Wilsden War Memorial)

George Christopher Flesher

Born 25 August 1886 in Burley-in-Wharfedale. George was the second of six children of Louisa and Edward Flesher, a stone mason. Their father, Edward died in 1904.

George became a woolsorter for a worsted spinning factory. In 1910 he married Ellen Marriott and they lived in Burley-in-Wharfedale.

Between 1911 and 1914 his mother and the younger children moved to Wilsden.

George signed up in the fortnight after war was declared.

SURVIVED

After the war George went back to being a woolsorter, he was the only one of the brothers to stay in Burley-in-Wharfedale and never move to Wilsden.

(Keighley News 15.12.17)

Harry Flesher

Harry was the oldest of six children of Louisa and Edward Flesher, a stone mason. He was born in Burley-in-Wharfedale on Christmas Day 1884.

He became a stone mason like his father and by 1911 was the first of the family to be living, with his wife Harriette (whom he married in 1906) and daughter Maude, in Wilsden at 16 Crooke Lane.

Between 1911 and 1914 their widowed mother, Louisa, moved with the younger children to 25 Lister Villa, Wilsden.

Harry and all three of his brothers served in the army in WW1.

SURVIVED

After the war, Harry and Harriet went to live at Rylstone near Skipton. He carried on with his former occupation of stone mason. They had another daughter, Margaret.

(Keighley News 15.12.17)

Herbert Flesher

then Labour Corps 651619

Herbert was born on 30 July 1894 in Burley-in-Wharfedale, the fifth of six children of Louisa and Edward Flesher, stone mason.  Their father died in 1904 and by 1914 Louisa had moved, with her younger children to 25 Lister Villa, Wilsden. Herbert was a twister for Downs, Coulter & Co of Spring Mills, Wilsden.

Herbert was sent to France at the beginning of 1917 and after only one month was wounded in the right arm by shrapnel which turned septic and it was necessary to send him back to England for treatment. Back in France, in November of 1917 he was again in hospital due to an accident to his right thigh during bayonet practice. Then, just a couple of weeks later he got a bullet wound through his knee which took him to hospital in England again.

SURVIVED

After the war Herbert became a warp twister (and later a milk salesman). In 1922 he married Maggie Gledhill (nee Leach, her first husband Ewart, a sailor in WW1, had died in December 1918) and they had one son, Edward.

In later years Herbert was renowned in the village for his own-recipe liniment for horses which he used to good effect on his damaged knee.

(Bradford Weekly Telegraph 28.12.17)

He married Hannah Jowett in Sept 1914 and she lived with her parents at 9 Crack Lane during the war years and when Sam was first demobilised before they went to live in Harden.

SURVIVED

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Robert Edmondson Fox

Robert was born 7 March 1885 at 42 Agar Street, Manningham, the youngest of five sons of Mary and John Fox, a wool stapler. Robert’s older siblings were John, Edmund, Alfred and Albert.

By 1901 Robert was a butcher and he was living with Alfred at Willow Farm, Stoney Ridge where Alfred was a cattle dealer,

A decade later in 1911, Robert and his eldest brother John were living at Norr Hill Farm and Robert was a milk salesman.

He was reported missing, presumed dead on 10 Feb 1917 in an attack at Beaumont Hamel. His body was subsequently recovered and he is buried at Serre Road cemetery, on the Somme.

DIED 10.2.17 aged 31

(Cottingley war memorial)

John Charles Gardner

John was born in Bradford on 17^th December 1899, the son of Mary Ann Gardner. At the time of the Great War he lived at 1 Fir Street, Ling Bob, with his Uncle and Aunt, James and Clara Watmough.

John was a woolsorter prior to enlistment in January 1918.

He was gassed at end of August having been in France seven weeks.

SURVIVED

In November 1923 John married Mary Lee, his near neighbour at 4 Oak Street where they lived when married. His occupation was woolcomber. They had four sons, Derek, Colin, Neville and Gordon.

Class

Francis Dixon Garthwaite

then Royal Air Force 44126

Dixon was born on 4 December 1886 in Oakworth, the youngest of five children (older siblings were Ann, Thomas, Alice and Emily) of Margaret and George Garthwaite, a woollen weaver. The parents and older children were all born in county Durham. In 1891 the family lived at Skipton but by 1901 their mother had brought them to live at 7 Club Row.

At the beginning of 1910 Dixon married Helen Holmes in Keighley and they immediately set sail for America to start life at Rhode Island. Their son George Vernon was born later that year.

At the outbreak of WW1, Dixon’s mother was living at Woodlands Cottage, 37, Wilsden Hill. Dixon had previously been in the Territorial Force and was called back up in October 1914. He came back to England and was mobilised at the beginning of March 1915.

Dixon had been a motor mechanic before joining up. After training in the ASC as a motor transport driver he was sent to Rome.

He infringed quite a few of the army rules, culminating in his taking a motor car from the pool without permission to drive a friend, who was awaiting trial, around Rome. The military establishment sentenced Dixon to 3 months imprisonment and ‘discharge with ignominy’.

This was not the end of his military career because in August 1916 he joined the RFC (which in 1918 became the RAF)

SURVIVED

Dixon returned to America in about 1922.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

(Pension Rec)

Thomas Gawthorpe

Thomas was born in Wilsden in 1890, the son of Mary Elizabeth Gawthorpe. A year after he was born they were living with his grandfather at School Street. By 1901 just Mary and Thomas were living in the Seven Dials area of Bingley.

By 1911 Thomas had joined the 1^st West Riding Regt and was serving in India. It was one of eight battalions to remain in India throughout the war.

SURVIVED but…

In 1919 Thomas’s address on the electoral roll was 1 Tweedy Street, his aunt Sarah Jane Gawthorpe’s house, but he was an ‘absent voter’.

When his service medals were sent out in March 1921 the roll had ‘deceased’ typed next to his name. They were returned.

It is probable that he had died in India during or just after the war.

His aunt died in 1922.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

George Highslip Woods Gedney

George was born in Wilsden in 1895. He was one of eight children of Edith and Samuel Gedney, an engine driver. In 1901 the family lived in Bingley, a decade later they had moved to Hull.

Before WW1 George was employed as a barman in Hull. He was sent to France just before Christmas 1916 and was wounded with a gunshot wound to the chest the following April. After ten months recuperating in England he was sent back to France. George suffered from a fever and was sent home again in August 1918 but succumbed to bronchitis and tuberculosis almost a year later at home in Hull.

DIED 3.7.1919 aged 24

His youngest brother Charles (known by his middle name Norman, and born in Allerton) had been killed in action on 29 September 1918.

(Pensions Rec)

(CWGC)

Arthur Gill

Both Arthur and his younger brother Willie served in the army in WW1.

SURVIVED

In 1919 the brothers’ home address was 4 Club Row

Their sister Annie married Ernest Atkinson who had also served in WW1

(Conservative Club Roll of honour)

William Gill

Willie was born in Oakworth in 1900, the son of Sarah and William Gill, a carter and farm labourer. He had three older siblings Lucy, Annie, and Arthur. By 1911 the family had moved to 1 King Street, Wilsden (now the entrance to the park).

Both Willie and his brother Arthur served in the army in WW1.

Willie enlisted in July 1918, he had been working as a winding overlooker and was living with his parents at 4 Club Row.

He started off in the Durham Light Infantry but transferred to the RAMC in September 1919 and when demobilised in early 1920 he was working at 44^th Casualty Clearing Station which had followed the Army of Occupation into Germany and ended up at Cologne.

SURVIVED

From returning home in 1919 until 1927, when he married Doris Bailey in Cullingworth, Willie lived at 4 Club Row and worked as stone and brick waller.

(Service Rec)

Unfortunately there is no other record of Richard either in the censuses or the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records. Perhaps the transcriber wrote his surname down incorrectly. Any further information would be gratefully received so that Richard can be properly remembered.

DIED

(Oddfellows plaque in Mechanics Institute, now lost)

Archibald William Goodchild

Born in Tottenham, London on 12 February 1893, son of Amelia and George Goodchild, a commercial traveller. Archibald had three siblings, Amelia jnr, George jnr and Ernest.

At the age of 10, his father having died in 1896, Archibald and his younger brother Ernest were living in the Alexandra Orphanage for infants in Islington.

In 1911 they had re-joined their mother and siblings and they now lived in Wibsey, Bradford.

During the war she moved to Copy House on Lee Lane and this was Archibald’s home address when he was missing presumed killed in France at the very beginning of 1917.  

DIED 3.1.17 aged 23

His body was never found and he is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial

(Soldiers Died in the Great War)

Stephen Grady

Born in 1886 in Manningham, Stephen’s surname was originally O’Grady. He was the son of Elizabeth and John O’Grady, a stone mason, and had older brothers Cornelius, Patrick, John and younger siblings Martha and Edward

By the 1911 census their parents had died. The five youngest children were living together, still in Manningham, and Stephen was a ‘plush finisher’. Three days after the census he married Elizabeth O’Connell. Their daughter Anne was born the following year.

Stephen joined up within a month of war being declared. Prior to this he had been working as a woolcomber. He was mentioned in dispatches on 9 April 1917 (London Gazette 22 May 1917).

SURVIVED

Stephen appears in connection with Wilsden just once, on the 1918 census, when he was living at 2 Queens Court, Ling Bob, together with his wife Elizabeth.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

(Service Rec)

George is one of three George Greenwoods who were on the electoral roll in Wilsden at the end of the war, and who had a ‘Naval or Military vote’. This George lived at 2 Gawthorpe Street in 1919 and 1920, but it has not been possible to identify any other records of him.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

By 1911 their mother had died and the family was living at 100 Main Street. George was a mason’s apprentice.

SURVIVED

George’s address at the end of the war was 2 Croft House with his father, step-mother and some of his siblings. He later lived at 6 Well Street where he remained for the rest of his life. He was a mason and bricklayer and was married to Hilda who died in 1929.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

George Arthur Greenwood

Arthur was born on 3 December 1894, the fourth of eight children of Mary and Joseph (Joe) Greenwood, dairy farmer of North Hall Farm, Wilsden Hill. His three older siblings were Henry, Clifford and Emily, and his younger ones were Florence, Doris, Sydney and Charles.

His brother Clifford and his cousins Wilfred and George also served in WW1.

On leaving school Arthur worked with his father on the farm.

SURVIVED

After the war Arthur returned to North Hall Farm, then he lived at 4 Tanhouse Lane until 1923.

(Bradford Weekly Telegraph 4.1.18)

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

Harold Greenwood

Harold was born in Manningham in 1887. He had a brother, George, who was twelve years his senior. When Harold left school he became a Grocers’ Assistant, he and his nephew Walter were living with Harold’s mother, Hannah, at Whetley Terrace in Bradford at this time. By 1911 the three of them had moved to 13, Lister Villa in Wilsden and all were employed in weaving coat linings.

Prior to enlistment, in October 1915, Harold had been employed as a plush weaver by the Fur Fabric Company, Canal Rd, Bradford.

He was killed in action on 22 June 1917, just after the Battle of Messines Ridge.

DIED 22.6.17 aged 30

(Wilsden War Memorial)

Manassah Greenwood

Born on 15 April 1887 in Brotherton near Pontefract, Manassah was the second of four children of Florence and Joseph Greenwood, a stone quarryman.

He married Wilsden girl Minnie Chippendale in 1912 at which time he was living in Denholme working as a woolcomber.

When married they moved to 3 Cranford Place.

SURVIVED

Minnie’s brother Albert also served in WW1. He lived with them for a year on his return after being released from a prisoner of war camp.

Minnie and Manassah continued to live at 3 Cranford Place until the Second World War.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Randolph Greenwood

Randolph was born on 8 February 1900 in Bradford, the son of Mary and Fred Greenwood, a weaving overlooker. In 1911 they lived in Thornton, and younger sister Ida had been born.

SURVIVED

After demobilisation from the Army, Randolph became a woolcomber. He married Nora Smith (older sister of Harling Smith who also served in WW1) in May 1920. Nora’s family lived at 19 Anderson Street immediately behind Randolph at 19 Tweedy Street

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

By 1911 Wilfred was working as a textile designer and living with his parents at Mount Pleasant, 23 Crack Lane He was married and daughter Edna was born in 1916, but soon after that his wife died.

SURVIVED

After the war Wilfred continued to be a textile designer and lived at 14 Tanhouse Lane.

In 1921 he married Annie Morris at the Central Wesleyan Chapel, Wilsden. They had a son, Ronald, born in 1925.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

William Clifford Greenwood  

Clifford was born in Wilsden in 1891, the second of eight children of Mary and Joseph (Joe) Greenwood, a dairy farmer at North Hall Farm, Wilsden Hill. He became a motor mechanic and worked at the Elite Motor Co. in Bradford.

In 1911 he married Florence Waddington and they lived at Westbourne Road in Manningham. Their son Eric was born the following year. Clifford was a motor lorry driver for the City Motor Cab Company.

He joined up on 11^th August, as soon war was declared and by December 1914 he was driving a lorry in the RASC, taking ammunition up to the trenches and wounded soldiers back to the base hospital. In a letter to his father he described sleeping in the lorry on top of boxes of 18lb shells.

His younger brother Arthur also served in WW1.

SURVIVED

When discharged from the army, in 1919, Clifford’s home address was 177 Main Street, Wilsden.

(Service Rec)

Wright became a grocer in Burnley before enlistment.

SURVIVED

In 1918 Wright’s home address was 9 King Street, Wilsden. He and his younger brother ran weekend charabanc trips.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)