WILSDEN SOLDIERS IN THE GREAT WAR (H – I)

Joseph Alderman Haigh

Joseph was born in Wilsden in 1879, the son of Martha and George Haigh a joiner. He had three sisters Mary, Sarah and Edith. Before Joseph was three years old the family moved to Idle. His father died in the next few years, his mother re-married and Joseph acquired three step-siblings.

He married Alice Ann Bottomley in 1904, they lived in Shipley and had four sons, Albert, Fred. James and Walter.

Prior to enlistment in 1915, Joseph was a woolcomber.

His division landed at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on 7 October 1915. In the fierce fighting which followed he was badly wounded and was evacuated onto the hospital ship HS Dongola where he died on 16 October 1915.

DIED 16.10.15 aged 36

He is buried at East Mudros Military Cemetery

(Soldiers Died in the Great War)

The eldest of his sisters, Bertha, married Ellick Hudson of Wilsden. Ellick would also serve in WW1.

SURVIVED

After the war, Percy lived with his sister Bertha and her husband Ellick Hudson at 146 Main Street, then 12 Chapel Row until he married Edith Spencer in 1923. Percy and Edith had four daughters, Florence, Dorothy, Margaret and Joan. By 1939 they were living at Thornton and Percy was a works foreman for the gas street lighting.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Fred’s middle name ‘Downs’ was his mother’s maiden name.

His younger siblings were Emily, Frank, Amy, Winnie, Hartley and Ernest.

SURVIVED

After the war he came back to live at Nook Farm with his parents until he married Alice Thackray in Haworth in January 1920. Their marriage certificate states his occupation to be ‘farmer (ex Army)’. Later he worked as a quarryman.

Fred and Alice lived at 34 Crooke Lane and had three children Irene, Geoffrey and Margaret.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

Joseph William Hannam

Joseph was born in Wilsden on 11 April 1896, the second child of Martha and Isaac Hannam, a dairyman who, by 1911, had become a dairy farmer at Pye Bank Farm. He had two brothers Thomas (older) and Harry (younger) and a younger sister, Amelia.

Both Joseph and Thomas served in WW1

SURVIVED

Joseph married Nellie Drake in September 1922, they farmed at Church Lane Farm for forty years.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Thomas Hannam

Both Thomas and his younger brother Joe enlisted into the army.

SURVIVED

Thomas continued to farm with his father at Pye Bank, but died in 1933.

(Conservative Club Roll of honour)

Percy Hardacre

Percy was born in Leeds on 24 June 1890, the son of (Eliza) and Joseph Hardacre. His parents were lodging house keepers. Percy had an older brother, Reginald and a younger sister, Louise. By 1911 the family had moved to 19 Crack Lane, Wilsden and Percy was working as a grocery assistant at the Co-Op. He became the manager of the butchery department in the next couple of years but decided to Percy emigrate to New Zealand. He lived at Te Aroroa near Gisborne and worked as an assistant store-keeper for Kirk Alexander there.

He enlisted into the NZEF in April 1915 and served in the Balkans, Egypt and France.

In December 1916 he got a gun-shot wound to the head which kept him in hospital in France for several weeks.

SURVIVED

Percy returned to his parent’s home, now Storrs Farm Cottage in Harecroft, and on New Year’s Day 1919 he married Ethel Hardy. At the time he was still on active service, So too was Ethel’s father, Sunderland Hardy who also served in WW1.

Percy was sent back to New Zealand with the NZEF and Ethel followed him within a couple of years.

(Bradford Weekly Telegraph 22.12.16/Keighley News 27.4.18)

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

(NZ service records)

Aretas John Hardaker

Aretas was born at Leeming, Oxenhope in 1899, the son of Grace and Robert Hardaker, a worsted weaver. He had two sisters, Sarah and Estella, and a younger brother, Winston.

They moved to Wilsden before 1910 and lived at 12 Tanhouse Lane.

Aretas enlisted (underage) in March 1916 and was discharged on medical grounds due to illness in October 1919 and he returned home to live at 35 Wilsden Hill

SURVIVED

His war-time experiences probably scarred him mentally because in 1939 he was a patient at the West Riding Mental Hospital (High Royds) at Menston. In the twenty years between the two world wars Aretas only once appeared on the electoral register, in 1925, living at 35 Wilsden Hill with his sisters. He never married.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

Cyril Hardisty

Cyril was born on 23 May 1894 in Clayton where his father Binns Albert Hardisty was a boot and shoe maker. His mother was called Faith. Cyril had an older brother and sister, Percy and Louie

He worked as a clerk for Bradford Corporation Gas Department before the war.

He signed up with the Reserve in 1915 and was taken into the Royal Engineers. At his attestation his address was the Gas Station, Wilsden (his father was the engine tenter for the gas station and the family lived there). In September 1918 he became a clerk at the Brigade headquarters of the Tank Corps Swanage. The electoral roll of 1918 shows his home address as 24 Moss Row, the cottage associated with the gas station.

SURVIVED

When Cyril returned to civilian life he became a bank clerk. In 1924 he married a fellow clerk, Winifred Swindlehurst, in Birkenshaw where they made their home.

(Service Rec)

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Fred Hardy

then 15th Bn Durham Light Infantry 46432

Born in Wilsden on 18 June 1899, Fred was the son of Hannah and Joshua Luther Hardy, a stone mason.

Fred had an older brother, Tom, and two older sisters, Ada and Mary.

In 1901, the family lived at Norr Green, Wilsden, but they had moved to 10 New Brighton, Cottingley, by the time he enlisted in November 1917. He had previously been employed as a Dyer at Lister’s Manningham Mills. His older brother Tom also served in WW1.

Originally in the WRR, Fred was transferred to the Durham Light Infantry in June 1918.

He was killed in action on 15 August 1918 in the Somme area. The Allies were making significant gains during this time, which would later be called the ‘Advance to Victory’ but at great cost to the young men who had been conscripted into the Army when they turned eighteen, among them was Fred.

DIED 15.8.18 aged 19

(Wilsden War Memorial)

Sidney Robert Hardy

Sidney was born in Wilsden on 19 Sept 1895, fourth of five children of Elizabeth and Herbert Hardy a cashier. His siblings were Rachel, Frederick, Mary Ann and Florence.

At the start of the war they were living at 16 Royd Street.

Sidney enlisted into the West Yorkshire Regt in December 1915 and was later transferred to the Pay Corps.

SURVIVED

When Sidney was demobilised in 1919 he returned to his parents’ home at 56 Lane Side.  Later the same year they moved to Prospect House, Crooke Lane, where Sidney lived for the next seven years.

He was married to Gwendoline Allanson, in 1924 and they had one son, David, born 1928.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

(Bradford Weekly Telegraph 31.5.18)

Sunderland Hardy

Born in Thornton on 1 February 1868, Sunderland was the only child of Joseph Hardy, a stuff manufacturer, and his first wife, Elizabeth (nee Sunderland).

Sunderland’s mother died soon after his birth and his father remarried. They had another child, Hannah, half-sister to Sunderland.

When he got married, on 22 July 1891, to Martha Clark, at St Matthews Church, Sunderland was working as a warp dresser.

By 1901 they were living at 3 Moorside Road where Sunderland would live for the rest of his life.

Though over-age, he enlisted in June 1915 and was accepted for home service. He had previously worked as a clerk for SR Rawnsley.

He worked in the Pay Corps as a clerk, continuing until well after the war had ended. He was finally discharged in 1920 with heart trouble.

SURVIVED

Sunderland and Martha had two daughters, Ethel and Alice. In 1919 Ethel married Percy Hardacre an Australian soldier who had been born in Wilsden. Both her husband and father were at that time still serving in the army.

(1918 Naval & Military vote) (Pension Rec)

(Conservative Club Roll of honour)

Tom, like his father, became a stone mason and worked for a builder.

He married Emily Hetty Dodson at St Matthews at the start of 1910, and just over a year later they were living at 35 The Norr. They had two children, Amy and Jack.

SURVIVED

At the end of the war, in 1918, they lived at 12 Moss Row. Tom continued to be a builder’s stone mason.

His younger brother Fred also served in WW1 and was killed in action in August 1918.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

William Clifford Hargreaves

Clifford was born in Harecroft on 27 January 1900, the eldest son of Annie and Samuel Hargreaves, a woolcomber.

Clifford had four younger brothers, Albert, Fred, Frank and Norman. In 1911 the family lived at 44 Lane Side and it was from this address that he enlisted.

SURVIVED

Clifford married Mary Barron in October 1927, at which time he was a clerk and was living at 20 Windy Grove. He later became a weaving manager for a dress goods manufacturer.

They had a son Brian Eugene (born 1930).

(Harecroft Chapel Roll of honour)

By 1911 the family had moved to 3 Dewhirst Street, Wilsden and Albert was a woolcomber in a worsted mill.

In December 1911 he married Lizzie Spencer.

Both Albert and Ramoth served in WW1.

SURVIVED

In 1918, Albert’s address was 3 Lister Villa. He became a quarryman like his father.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Herbert Preston Harrison

Born at 153 Main Street, Wilsden in 1899, Herbert was the only son of Sarah and Preston Harrison of Spring Hill, Main Street, Wilsden. Preston was an oil dealer & general dealer, mainly in bowls and pottery.

Herbert had an older sister, Maud and two younger ones; Clara & Minnie.

He enlisted at Keighley, after being given a white feather on a trip into Bradford. He was underage and not eligible to join up, but he was a tall boy and lied about his age to get into the prestigious Grenadier Guards. There was still a minimum height requirement for the Guards and their superb drill and immaculate uniforms, even in the squalour of the trenches, was a source of wonder to the ordinary Tommies who adjoined them in the line.

Herbert’s father, Preston, died in 1917 whilst Herbert was on active service in France. The family lost both its men in a short space of time when Herbert was killed in action in France on 4 May 1918.

DIED 4.5.18 aged 19

(Wilsden War Memorial)

Ramoth Harrison

Born at 8 Royd End, Wilsden on 1 August 1890 the eldest son of Jenny and Tom Harrison, his mother was a weaver and his father was a quarryman. Ramoth had a younger brother (by three years), Albert. In 1911 the family had moved to 3 Dewhirst Street and Ramoth was a quarryman like his father. A year later he married Constance Favell at St Matthew’s church, his address at this time was 9 Anderson Street.

Both the brothers served in WW1, Ramoth enlisted into the Manchester Regt in November 1916 and served overseas, being discharged on medical grounds at the end of April 1918.

SURVIVED

After the war had ended Ramoth and Constance went to live in Mirfield. They had two children Lawrence (born 1914) and Dorothy (1919). Ramoth became a window cleaner.

(Bradford Weekly Telegraph 8.6.17)

Bailey married Clara Greenwood in August 1894. They lived at 4 South View and had three children, Charles, Maud and Thomas.

He was too old to be conscripted and so must have volunteered for the Army. His eldest son Charles, and Bailey’s brother Frank, also served in WW1.

Bailey became a grandfather whilst on active service when his son Charles’ daughter (Mabel) was born at the end of October 1918.

SURVIVED

Bailey and Clara lived at 17 Lister Villa in 1918. They emigrated to Australia, as did their two sons and families.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Charles William Hartley

He enlisted sometime prior to 1917 because he was reported wounded in the Bradford Weekly Telegraph at the beginning of 1917. This may have resulted in him being given a medical discharge because he was working as a weaving overlooker by May 1918 when he married Sarah Atkinson at St Matthews Church. His address was given as 17 Lister Villa, and his father, who also served in WW1, was a soldier still on active service.

SURVIVED

Charles and Sarah had a daughter, Mabel. They lived at Crooke Lane for a few years, (first at no. 34, then 12). They eventually emigrated to Victoria, Australia.

(Bradford Weekly Telegraph 5.1.17)

Frank Hartley

Frank was born in Wilsden on 30 January 1894, the son of Mary and Rhodes Hartley, a boot merchant. He had an older sister Hetty and an older brother Ellick. Their mother died when Frank was still very young and their father remarried. The family moved to Barkerend in Bradford.

Frank went into the boot and shoe business with his father.

Frank enlisted in February 1916 and served in France. He was wounded by a gunshot wound to his thigh in 1918.

SURVIVED

He married Marion Dolphin in Bradford in 1919. She was the younger sister of cricketer Arthur Dolphin who also served in WW1.

(Service Rec)

Frank Hartley

Frank was born in Wilsden in 1877, the third of six children of Mary and William Hartley a cotton warp dresser. His siblings were Bailey, John, Mary Ann, Elizabeth and Clara.

Frank worked as a worsted spinning overlooker

When he married Martha Hewitt, in 1912 at the Independent Chapel Wilsden, Frank was an assurance agent living at 12 Club Row. He became the Wilsden Rate collector.

He was called up in October 1916 and after ten weeks training was sent to France. He was gassed in April 1918 for which he was treated in hospital in France. At the end of the war Frank worked for the Army Pay Corps until demobilised. His eldest brother Bailey also served in WW1.

SURVIVED

After the war Frank and Martha lived at 16 Royd Terrace.

(Bradford Weekly Telegraph 18.4.18)

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Harry Hartley

Harry was the son of Emma and Holmes Hartley, a worsted weaving overlooker. He was the third of six children and was born in Little Horton in 1885.

He never lived in Wilsden but he and his family lived at Lidget Green and he worked in the piece room of S.P. Myers & Co at Birkshead Mill for some years before being called up. He was married to Lilian and they lived at 962 Great Horton Road, Bradford. His elder brother John and younger brother     were both also in the Army. John had been missing since June 1917, his body was never found. He was among 19 men killed in an attack at ‘Inverness Copse’ near Ypres.

DIED 20.9.17 aged 24

(Keighley News 3.11.17)

Herbert Heaton

Born in Wilsden in 1888, Herbert was the youngest child of Sarah and William Sutcliffe Heaton. He had older siblings Willie and Martha.

Herbert enlisted in December 1915, he had been living in Keighley and was a fitter and turner until his enlistment.

At the beginning of September 1916 Herbert was in hospital in Camiers, France, seriously ill with nephritis. After five days he was considered to be out of danger but was no longer fit for active service.

He was finally discharged from the war hospital at Morton Banks in August 1918 and went to live at 197 Main Street (the home of Frank and Rosetta Ellison).

SURVIVED

He married Annice Bower (the widow of Jimmy Bower who had been killed in action three years earlier) in August 1920. He had been living at 178 Main Street for the previous two years, and his occupation was engineer. They went to live in Annice’s house at 56 Crooke Lane.

Herbert died in 1928, probably from the kidney failure which had resulted in his hospitalisation during the war.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

(Service Rec)

John Luther Heaton

John was born in Wilsden on 2 March 1882, the son of Mary Ann and James Greenwood Heaton, a reed and heald maker. He had a younger sister Elsie. In Spring 1911 John was working as a lamplighter for the Urban District Council and was living with his sister and parents at 140 Main Street. He married Mary Craven in November of the same year and they moved into the house next door at 138 Main Street. They had two children, John Samuel and Elsie Amy.

John enlisted in December 1915 and went onto the reserve, not being mobilised until May 1918. He was working as a postman and heald maker.

SURVIVED

In 1939 they were still living at 138 Main Street and John was a labourer for the gas works.

(Service Rec)

Fred Burton Hillas

Born on 15 November 1896 in Wilsden, Fred was the son of Bertha and Isaac Hillas, a worsted warp dresser. He had two older sisters, Mary and Annie. Their mother died when Fred was a child and Isaac remarried in 1910. In 1911 the family lived at 18 Wellington Street.

SURVIVED

After the war Fred lived for several years at 124 Harecroft. He married Winifred Walton in December 1921. In 1939 he was living in Allerton and was a motor driver.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Joshua Hillas

Joshua was born on 15 August 1884, the only son of Susannah and Isaac Hillas, a cotton warp dresser. He had one older sister, Emily, and two younger ones, Mary and Annie.

Joshua was a regular soldier in the Royal Field Artillery for eight years and in the reserve for four years (whilst working as a woolsorter for Ambler & Sons, spinners). He married Ann Goatley in Frimley, Surrey in 1906. They had four children, Annie, Clifford and Alice and John.

After war broke out, he was called up again in June 1916. At this time Joshua and Ann lived at 4 Moorside Road.

He was reported missing in action on 3 May 1917 but had been taken Prisoner of War and was sent to a camp in Westphalia, Germany from where he was able to send a postcard home six weeks later to let them know he was safe. He spent time at three different camps before the war ended.

SURVIVED

(Bradford Weekly Telegraph 15.6.17)

Whittaker Hird

Whittaker was born at Shay Gate, Wilsden on 3 June 1882, the youngest of eight children of Maria and Thomas Hird a stone quarryman who became a greengrocer.

He married Nellie Crook in March 1906 in Bingley.

In 1911 Whittaker was living with wife Nellie and daughters Evelyn and Neva in Allerton. He had been working as a wool warehouseman since before his marriage.

Whittaker joined up in 1915, and was sent to France in August same year.

Two more children, Elsie and Jack, were born during the war and the family was by now living at 8 The Square, Wilsden Hill, where they lived for the next twenty years.

SURVIVED

(St Matthew’s Baptism Recs)

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

W. Hirst

The most likely first name is William or Walter and he appears to be a little older than many of the other soldiers, but research so far has not found him. The lack of any later picture in the BWT suggests that Pte. W. Hirst survived the war. Further information would be gratefully received.

SURVIVED

(Bradford Weekly Telegraph 29.9.16)

Ralph Hockney

Born on 21 June 1887, Ralph was the son of Mary Hockney a weaver. She married Robert Mehew in 1891 and had another three children, Arthur, Charles William, and Amy, half-brothers to Ralph.

At the April 1911 census Ralph was a Greengrocer, living with his mother and stepfather at 18 Flax Hall. By the time he married Annie Maud in September 1911 he was working as a mule spinner. Ralph and Annie lived at 4 Forrester Street, Denholme.

He enlisted in October 1915 and served in England in an agricultural company of the Labour Corps because he had very poor eyesight in one eye. At beginning and end of his service he was in the West Yorkshire Regt.

SURVIVED

After the war Ralph and Annie lived with his stepfather and half-brother Charles at 18 Flax Hall until they moved to Denholme around 1932.

(Service Rec)

Fred Holmes

Born at Stoney Ridge in 1889, Fred was the second youngest son of John Holmes, stone delver and wife Mary, grocery shopkeeper, of Harecroft. They had seven children; Jesse, Clara, Phillip, Maggie, Jonas, Fred and Percy. The older boys were all employed in the stone industry, and at the time of his marriage, in 1910 in Cullingworth, to Florence (Florrie) Smith Fred was also a stone mason. However, after he was married, Fred became a shopkeeper in Cullingworth. They had one son, called Jack.

Fred did not want to be a soldier. He and Florrie moved to Morecambe to live with Fred’s sister Maggie and her husband, and Fred went to work at a munitions factory in Lancaster whilst Florrie helped Maggie run their guest house. However, conscription was introduced in 1917 and Fred enlisted at Keighley into the Yorkshire Regiment, the same regiment as his younger brother, Percy. At one point they were at the front just three miles apart and they passed each other once while marching but were unable to stop to have a chat.

Fred was killed in action near Ypres on 19 June 1917.

DIED 19.6.17 aged 28

His brother Percy had been killed just seven weeks before.

(Wilsden War Memorial)

(Harecroft Chapel Roll of honour)

SURVIVED

When Harry was demobilised after the war he returned to live with his parents who were now living at Bents Head Farm. He joined his father in his work as a milk and farm produce dealer and he married Ivy. They had two children.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

Percy Holmes

Born in Bingley on 26 May 1891, Percy was the youngest of seven children of John Holmes, stone delver and wife Mary, grocery shopkeeper, of Harecroft, they were; Jesse, Clara, Phillip, Maggie, Jonas, Fred and Percy.

Percy became a woolsorter for H G Shaw, commission woolcombers on Canal Road, Bradford, but he was also a Territorial, and he enlisted at Halifax in October 1916 and was in the same battalion as Wilsdeners Sam Rhodes and Arthur Lund. They would have reminisced about Wilsden together, fought alongside each other and indeed, Percy and Sam were killed in the same action in the Battle of Arras on the same day, 3 May 1917. Neither of their bodies was recovered and they were declared dead a year later.

DIED 3.5.17 aged 26

Percy’s nearest brother, Fred, was killed just seven weeks after his brother.

(Wilsden War Memorial)

(Harecroft Chapel Roll of honour)

Cyril Holroyd

Born in 1893 in Halifax, the only child of Emily Ann and John Holroyd, an insurance salesman. In later childhood he was brought up in Allerton. He married Emily Greenwood in April 1916 when he was on leave, having enlisted in December 1915, and they lived at 39 Wilsden Hill. Cyril was previously employed as a woolsorter by B Parkinson & Co, Sunbridge Rd, Bradford.

The Siege Batteries had the largest guns and howitzers, mounted on railways or on massive concrete emplacements They had a range of 10,000 yards and could drop shells well into land behind the enemy’s lines. Being placed about a mile and a half behind the front line, heavy artillery had the least vulnerability and the greatest capability of all the weapon groups for it was vulnerable only to the fire of hostile heavy guns and could attack infantry and field guns without direct retaliation. Cyril’s death on 6 August 1918 was described as being the result of a severe bombing raid.

DIED 6.8.18 aged 25

(Wilsden War Memorial)

John Edward Hopkinson

Born on 17 May 1898 in Saltaire, John Edward was the eldest of two sons of Priscilla and Edward Hogan, a labourer. Their father died when both were still infants and in 1902 Priscilla remarried John Hopkinson who adopted the two boys. Their new father was a soap maker for Hansons at Royd Mill, and he and Priscilla went on to have two more boys and a girl.

The family lived at 15 School Terrace, Crack Lane and John initially also went to work at Hanson’s soap works. He then became an Assistant Engineer at Amblers Mill.

He joined up in January 1917 and went to France in August the same year. His younger brother Lawrence also enlisted.

In April 1918 the Keighley News reported that he was in hospital with a poisoned gas wound to his hand, having previously also been slightly gassed and had Trench fever.

SURVIVED

By 1929, he was a motor lorry driver still living at 15 School Terrace, Crack Lane, and in November that year he married the girl next door at No 17, Alice Atkinson (sister of Ernest Atkinson who also served in the Army in WW1). They lived at ‘Birchmoor’, Harden Lane.

In 1939 they were both working at the isolation hospital at Morton Banks where John was an ambulance driver and head hospital porter and Alice was a hospital porteress.

(Service Rec)

(Keighley News 30.4.18)

Laurence Harry Hopkinson

Born in on 16 Dec 1899 in Saltaire, Laurence was the younger, by a year, of two sons of Priscilla and Edward Hogan, a labourer. Their father died when both were still infants and in 1902 Priscilla remarried John Hopkinson who adopted the two boys. Their new father worked at Hanson’s soap works and he and Priscilla went on to have two more boys and a girl.

Both Laurence and his older brother John served in WW1, Laurence being called up in January 1918 just after his eighteenth birthday.

SURVIVED

He was demobilised in January 1920 and returned to live at 15 School Terrace, Crack Lane with his mother and his siblings. He became a woolcomber

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

Alfred Howard

Alfred was born in 1882 in Bradford. He was the eldest son of Sarah and Thomas Howard, a stone mason, he had two younger siblings, John and Sarah.

Alfred married Phoebe Dodson in 1904 at Bradford Parish Church.

They had three daughters, Kathleen, Doris and Phoebe jnr. all born in Wilsden. The family lived at 38 Post Row, Ling Bob. The youngest child was only two weeks old when Alfred enlisted in early September 1914. He had been a Territorial previously with the 4^th Bn West Yorks Regt whilst working as a plasterer’s labourer. He was discharged as medically unfit, because of a chronic ear problem, three months after signing up.

SURVIVED but died in 1921

In 1918 Alfred’s address was 17 Anderson Street. He died in March 1921

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

(Service Rec)

Bertie Hudson

Bertie was born in Wilsden on 27 July 1895, the seventh of thirteen children of Ada and Edgar Hudson, a warp dresser.

Bertie was a weaver with S.R. Rawnsley at Albion Mill before he joined up in January 1916.

In June 1918 the Keighley News reported that he was in hospital in Boulogne having been gassed. His two brothers, Ellick and Fred were also serving in the Army.

SURVIVED

After the war Bertie continued to be a weaver. He married Mary Armstrong in 1921. Until their marriage he had been living with his parents at Sunny Bank, 3 Crack Lane.

Ellick Hudson

Born in Bradford on 2 June 1885, son of Ada and Edgar Hudson, a warp dresser.

Ellick had thirteen younger siblings (all born in Wilsden), Annie, Emma, George, Eva, Fred, Bertie, Alice, James, Albert, Ernest, Arthur, Clara and Edgar (jnr)

He married Bertha Hainsworth in Wilsden in January 1907.

Ellick enlisted in June 1916 and was called up in October the following year. He had been working as a warp dresser and he and Bertha were living at 18 Albert Street, but she went to live at 146 Main Street during the war.

In May 1918 Ellick passed as a signaller and a month later he was sent to France.

SURVIVED

Ellick was demobilised in March 1920, he and Bertha went to live at 12 Chapel Row. When Bertha’s younger brother Percy was demobilised, he lived with them there for a few years. Ellick’s own brothers Bertie and Fred also served in WW1.

(Service Rec)

Fred Hudson

Fred was the sixth of thirteen children of Ada and Edgar Hudson, a warp dresser. He was born in Wilsden on 26 March 1894.

He worked as a warp dresser like his father and was living with his parents at Sunny Bank, 3 Crack Lane when he enlisted in October 1916 (his brothers Ellick and Bertie had also enlisted earlier in the year).

Fred served in Gibraltar from December 1916 until well after the war had ended.

SURVIVED

He was demobilised in March 1920 and went to live in Allerton.

The following year  Fred married Lilian Cockroft, they had six children, George Doris, Phyllis, Edna, Winnie and Margaret

(Service Rec)

Albert Hume

In 1901, their mother died and the following year William re-married. By 1911 the family was living at 7 Lister Villa and Albert was working as a spinner.

SURVIVED

After the war both Albert and James returned to live at 7 Lister Villa with their stepmother Mary Ann until they married. Albert married Edith Greenwood in 1937

Albert became a piece examiner for a textile manufacturer.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

(Conservative Club Roll of honour)

James  Hume

James was the fourth of five sons of Elizabeth and William Hume, who were both worsted weavers. James was born in Wilsden on 9 April 1888. His brothers were Earl, Fred, Percy and Albert.

In 1901, their mother died and the following year William re-married. By 1911 the family was living at 7 Lister Villa and James was working as a farm hand but by the time he enlisted in December 1915 he was a spinner.

Both James and his younger brother Albert served in WW1.

James was sent to France in July 1916. Jumping across a trench aggravated a chronic problem with the cartilage in his knee (a footballing injury from 1911) and less than two months later he was evacuated to hospital in England for surgery, being given a medical discharge in July 1917.

SURVIVED

After the war both James and Albert went back to live for some years with their step-mother Mary Ann at 7 Lister Villa.

In 1932 when James married Eleanor Myerscough in Denholme he had been living in Denholme, but they then went to live at 14 Tanhouse Lane, Wilsden. He had been a general labourer and became a worsted mule-spinner.

They had two children, Ronald and Constance.

(Conservative Club Roll of honour).

(Service Rec)

Harry Hustler

Harry was the son of Ada and Charles Hustler, a wool warehouseman. He was born in Heaton, Bradford on 28 December 1892 and had an older brother, Richard, and seven younger siblings, Arthur, Lillie, Alice, Frank, George, Thomas and Wilfred. By 1911 the family had moved to Thornton and Harry was a textile worker.

He joined the regular army in February 1914 and became a Driver in the Royal Horse Artillery. He served in England but was invalided out in October 1914 due to deafness caused by recurrent ear infections.

SURVIVED

In 1919 Harry married Bertha Jubb, they lived at first with his parents at 22 Ling Bob, Wilsden. In 1924 Harry and Bertha moved into the house next door at no. 24 where they lived for the next ten years. They had four children Minnie, Gladys, Norman and Brian who were born in Wilsden.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

(Pension Rec)

By 1911 the family had moved to Duckworth Terrace and Frank was a stuff warehouseman. During WW1 they moved to Aycliffe Farm, Old Allen Road.

SURVIVED

Frank returned to live with his parents for a couple of years after being demobilised. His parents continued to live at Aycliffe Farm until their deaths.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Fred Illingworth

Born at Honey Pot cottages, Wilsden, in 1880, Fred was the youngest child of Sarah and William Illingworth, a quarryman. Fred had six older brothers and sisters; Stephen, Harriet, Jane, Susannah, Parkinson and William.

In April 1902 Fred married Elizabeth Slight at St Pauls Denholme, just before he enlisted (in June 1902) into the KRR. He served in Malta.

They had four children Mary, David, Maria and Percy. In 1911 the family lived at Denholme and Fred was out of the army and working as a woolcomber.

He re-engaged in April 1914 and was posted to France in November after war was declared.

In May 1917 Fred got gunshot wounds to the right knee and shoulder which took him back to hospital in England, but in mid-November he went back to the front. Two weeks later he was reported missing, he had been taken prisoner of war near Cambrai and was held in a camp in Germany.

SURVIVED

(Service Rec)

Milford was born at 423 Allerton Road, Allerton on 17 October 1895. He was the son of Miranda and Midgley Illingworth, a quarryman (later a plush weaver). Milford had a younger brother, Harold.

Milford became a mule spinner prior to enlistment. This may have been in Wilsden because he was a member of Wilsden Conservative Club.

SURVIVED

He married Henrietta Robinson in 1922 and they had a daughter, Marie. By 1939 they were living at Havelock Square, Thornton and Milford was a wool sorter. Seven years later he became the landlord of the Hope & Anchor pub at Allerton.

(Conservative Club Roll of honour)

William Illingworth

Willie was born at Providence Hall, Wilsden in 1895, second son of Sarah and Stephen Illingworth, he had an older brother, Basil, and three younger siblings, Drusilla, Harry and Muriel. Willie followed his father into the textile industry, and on leaving school he worked for Amblers at Prospect Mill, then later as a woolcomber for Isaac Holden and Sons, Thornton Road, Bradford.

The family lived at 10 Chapel Row.

Willie enlisted into the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1915 and was sent to France that December. In July 1916 he was wounded badly enough to be evacuated to hospital in Glasgow, but quickly returned to the front. Whilst on leave in December 1916 he married Elsie Bradley at Halifax. Only four months later he was killed.

Keighley News 28 April 1917; – “Private Willie Illingworth, Lancashire Fusiliers, second son of Mr Stephen Illingworth, of 10, Chapel Row, Wilsden, was killed in action on April 15…He had been in the great attack on the 15^th inst., and had come through unscathed, but was killed by a bullet from a sniper as he was bringing up ammunition for his gun, he being a machine gunner. His major, in writing home to Private Illingworth’s wife, said he “was a man who knew no fear”.”

DIED 15.4.17 aged 22

(Wilsden War Memorial)

Harry Ingham

Harry was born in Wilsden in 1889, the second youngest of ten children of Mary and Luke Ingham a coal miner. When Harry was two years old the family were living at 4 Dewhirst Street. By 1901, when Harry was twelve, his father had died and Mary was living at 1 Fir Street with Harry and six of his siblings. Harry was already working as a wool spinner.

He signed up as a regular soldier into the 10^th Hussars and served in India.

His battalion was recalled and sent to France on 6 October 1914.

SURVIVED

In 1919 Harry married Annie Pinkney, they had children Marjorie, Iris and Jack. In 1939 they were living at 14 Back Lane. Harry was a motor driver.

(Conservative Club Roll of honour)

SURVIVED

When John was demobilised after the war, he and Ethel lived at 1 Ling Bob.

(1918 Naval & Military vote)

Ronald had two older sisters, Elsie and Doris.

In 1911 Ethel and the children and their half-brother, Cuthbert, were living at Carlisle Road in Manningham with John Falkingham who had a cycle business. Ethel’s occupation on the census was housekeeper, clerk and assistant to the business. Ronald was still at school but he probably joined John in the business before WW1.

SURVIVED

When Ronald was demobilised after the war his address was 3 Norr Green Terrace, Wilsden, with John Falkingham, who married Ronald’s mother soon after.

(1919 Naval & Military vote)

William Ingham

William was born in 1867 in Wilsden son of Ann and Joshua Ingham, quarryman. He had two older siblings, Mary Ann and John and a younger one Thomas. They lived at the bottom of Wilsden Main Street in 1871.

He married Priscilla Whitehead in Keighley in January 1889.

William joined the Territorial Force when it first came into existence in 1908, part-time soldiering whilst he worked as a labourer for Sharp’s machine works in Bingley.

In 1911 William and Priscilla and their children lived in Keighley. Because he had been a Territorial, he was called up at the outbreak of war, being enlisted at the end of September 1914 and stating his age as just short of 35 years old. He also only informed the recruiting officer of his youngest three children (he had another five plus an adopted one).

William could no longer sustain the lie when his marriage certificate was checked and his age was proved to be 47. He was discharged in March 1915.

The oldest of his sons, Thomas who was a mechanic, joined the Royal Flying Corps in October 1915.

SURVIVED

and son Thomas also SURVIVED

(Service Rec)