The Somme Remembered – 29th July 1916
Cornelius Thomas William Rigby – what an impressive name. A name that over the years may have been forgotten by family and friends, but not any more.
While someone speaks my name I shall not die
So let’s speak this man’s name some more.
St Mary’s Church Birmingham via Wikipedia
Cornelius Thomas William Rigby was born on the 23rd of April 1874 and baptised on the 19th of December 1874 in St Mary’s Church, Birmingham – the same day as his elder sister, Harriet, who was born in April 1872.
Cornelius and Harriet were the children of The Rev. Thomas Newton and his wife Sarah Elizabeth Rigby.
In 1881 Thomas and Sarah were living at 13 Trinity Road, Handsworth. Thomas was a Clergyman without his own parish and was father to four children : Cornelius, 7; Florence, 12; Annie, 11 and Harriet who was 9 years old. Also in the house on census night was Ann Louisa Lees, widow, Thomas’s sister in law; Jno W Parish, boarder and Harriet Rigby, Thomas’s 79 years old widowed mother and one servant, Annie M Tomlins.
Ten years later in the 1891 census. The family had seen one tragedy in the past decade – Sarah Elizabeth had died. Sarah died in Handsworth in the early part of 1884. The census has the rest of the family living at 13 Mill Bridge, Skipton.
1901 – Field House, Wakefield Road, Cumberworth is home, but only home to Thomas, his daughter Annie Newton and Cornelius thomas William. Thomas is a Church of England Clergyman, Annie is the family’s housekeeper and Cornelius is a Dealer in Cattle Medicines.
The family were now due to have some happier times as in the summer of 1899 Florence Elizabeth married Charles Douglas Yeomans a steel manufacturer from Sheffield on 1st of June 1899 in Cumberworth and a number of years later, Harriet Edith married John William Mitchell on the 4th of July 1906, also in Cumberworth.
The next census, 1911. The family is still Thomas, Annie and Cornelius. Cornelius now describes himself as a Veterinary Medicine Dealer. Home is still Field House, an 8 roomed house, but now described as in Denby Dale.
Cornelius Thomas William Rigby via Sheffield newspaper
Cornelius enlisted in Huddersfield, joining the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment, as Private 3/11375. His Medal Card tells that he entered France on the 6th of October 1915 and was eligible for the 15 Str, the British and Victory Medals – Pip, Squeak and Wilfred.
As with all the men mentioned in this month’s blogs, Cornelius died, aged 42, 100 years ago today and is remembered, as many others are in this series, on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing and if you have no known grave, what a wonderful place to be remembered.
His entry in the Soldier’s Effects Register tells that his money was to go to his sister, Annie.
Thomas Newton Rigby died in the winter of 1926 aged 91. The CWGC entry for Cornelius ‘Son of the late Rev. Thomas Newton Rigby, M.A., of Denby Dale, Huddersfield.’ Did Thomas die before the information for the CWGC had been collected and collated.