Eliza Grant

Eliza is another casualty of The Great War who rests within yards of where we sit today. Eliza was not in the military, a nursing profession, or an aid worker. Yet her death was as a direct result of war.

.Eliza Hammond was born into a mining family in Castleford in 1876.

.Eliza, aged 23, married widower Clayton Dixon Grant in this church on 22 May 1899, 126 years ago.

In 1911, the Grant family lived on William Street, off Lock Lane, Castleford, in one of the many rows of houses occupied by local miners. Eliza looked after her children and at least two step-children.#

Sometime in 1916, Eliza went to work at Barnbow, Crossgates.

The declaration of war with Germany on 3 August 1914 created an urgent need for large volumes of arms/ammunition. However, few establishments, apart from Woolwich Arsenal, were involved in this work, especially by mass production. An early initiative was taken by Leeds commerce and the city’s major firms, with the newly formed Leeds Munitions Committee quickly promoting the production of shells at Leeds Forge Company, Armley. Works at Hunslet and Newlay (Horsforth) followed suit. A directing board comprising six Leeds citizens, charged with constructing the First National Shell Filling Factory, met in August 1915. A site between Crossgates and Garforth, part of the Gascoigne estate, was selected at Barnbow between Crossgates and Garforth.

.The leading site, initially some 313 acres (later increased to 400 acres), extended along the eastern part of Manston Lane, embracing two farms at Shippen and Lazencroft. The North Eastern Railway was along the southern boundary. Possessions cleared away from the site were sold by auction, and the construction plant and materials were quickly transported from Leeds. The site soon increased electricity and quickly added water and wastewater facilities.

.The site also had a farm that produced milk for the factory workers.

The Ministry of Munitions’ decision to install an AMATOL factory at Barnbow instead of Otley began the erection of the melting house building—AMATOL ‘B’—in March 1916. In April, the first batch of thirty 4.5 shells was filled, and the output quickly increased to 6000 shells a day when the number of shifts was increased from two to three.

In the AMATOL factory, 12,000 tons of tri-nitro-toluene (TNT) was mixed with 26,350 tons of ammonium nitrate to produce the highly explosive ‘AMATOL’ compound. In the cartridge factory, 61,000 tons of propellant were made into breech-loading charges made up of NCT and cordite, the material having been weighed out in ounces and parts of an ounce. Working with cordite for long periods caused the skin of the operatives to turn yellow; the cure for this was drinking plenty of milk.

.To recruit a large workforce, an employment bureau was opened at the Wellesley Building in Leeds, and the first batch of employees received one month’s training at Woolwich. Training was subsequently undertaken at Barnbow, and after preliminary trials in December 1915, filling operations began, continuing thereafter without a break. One-third of the workers came from Leeds, others from Castleford, Wakefield, Harrogate, Knaresborough, Selby, York, Tadcaster, Wetherby and many outlying villages. Three 8-hour shifts were adopted: 6.00 – 2.00 pm, 2.00 – 10.00 pm and 10.00 – 6.00 am. Work was usually done 6 days a week, with Saturday off every 3 weeks; no holidays were taken. In October 1916, with a workforce of some 16,000, a new production bonus scheme was introduced, which identified ineffective operations. Thereafter, the number of workers declined to about 9,000, although 9 months later, production increased. A typical munition worker’s earnings for a full week averaged £3.0s.0d, and the girls who swept up waste for recycling (droppings after shell assembly) earned £1.17s.0d a week. Workers in the danger/powder room received extra pay. At one period, wages totalled £24,000 per week, and it was claimed that the cost of producing munitions at Barnbow compared favourably with any other similar factory in the country.

.The first explosion (there were two further explosions) took place in one of the fusing rooms on the night of 5 December 1916, where it is said that 35 women lost their lives. Some of these 35 women died as a result of their injuries later.

Due to censorship, no account of the accidents was made public; however, Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig, in a special order of the day issued from the British HQ in France, paid tribute to the devotion and sacrifice of the munitions workers. A Roll of Honour, ‘They Died Serving’, records the names of all factory workers who lost their lives in the three explosions. The name of Ethel Agnes Jackson, who was killed in the blast in December 1916, heads the list of wartime casualties on the roll of honour in the Colton Methodist Church.

.Eliza, along with Jane Few, Edith Levitt and Olive Yeates, died in Leeds Infirmary on 6 December 1916; some of the girls and ladies who did not die at Barnbow.

.Some of the death certificates of the casualties give their cause of death as ‘Shock due to injuries to vital organs caused accidentally by an explosion in a shell factory’. This shows that although there were many mutilated bodies, the force of the explosion caused catastrophic trauma.

Sources:
Ancestry; British Newspaper Archive; The Great War Forum;

Anne Batchelor from her book ‘The Barnbow Canaries’.

http://www.barwickinelmethistoricalsociety.com/4746.html

Allerton Bywater churchyard

Only a short distance from where the congregation sit rests the remains of Henry Prescott.

Henry served in the West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own), 2nd/6th Bn—service number 6026. The source, UK, Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919, shows that he was born at Shipley and enlisted in Pontefract.

According to the CWGC, Henry died ‘at home’ on February 8, 1917, at 40. Henry’s mother, Susan Rennard, was responsible for distributing any money owed to Henry.

Henry’s parents were George Prescott and Susan, nee Wood. When George died, Susan remarried widower John Rennard in Bradford in the winter of 1886. In the census of 1891, both the Rennard and Prescott families were living on Dawson Street, Shipley. Susan’s husband, John Rennard, died in Shipley in 1911; a few years later, in 1913, Susan joined her daughter and husband in Canada, who had been there since 1907. By the end of the war, Susan was living in Winnipeg.

One last look for anything relating to Henry was to search the Pension Records – I used Fold3, where I found the cause of Henry’s demise – he accidentally drowned, and his mother was refused a pension. The reason – Entitlement not admitted.

St Mary the Less burial record entry for Henry. End column, which the incumbent added, reads: Accidentally drowned Private in W Yorks

The West Riding Regiment, 2^nd/6^th War Diary

Extract – 11 September 1917
At Zero plus 3, the leading line advanced straight to the front trench. During the advance, one man was seriously injured and another slightly wounded by machine gun fire from the flank.

Two enemy were found by 2/lieut. O (?) E Brooksbank, who was leading the party, at the junction of the front line with OSTERICH AVENUE. One was inclined to show fight and was killed, and the other was taken prisoner. Two other prisoners were captured from the top of a dugout. About 50 yds West of the trench junction. There were other Germans inside, who refused to come out and the dugout was burned with P Bombs

There was a little fighting in the neighbourhood of this point, and several Germans were killed.

In the meanwhile, 2/lieut J R Allett, who was leading the party detailed for the support trench, passed through, and found no difficulty in reaching his objective. One German was observed to be making for REINCOURT, and was shot. One dugout was found and destroyed by P Bombs, its occupants, if any, refusing to come out. Another German was wounded not far from STAR CROSS ROADS, while endeavouring to escape, and was brought in. Five other Germans are believed to have been killed in this trench. At the STAR CROSS ROADS there was no sign of the enemy nor of dugouts.

The operation, as a whole, was carried out very successfully, 3 wounded and 1 wounded prisoner being taken, 2 (?) dugout being destroyed and 90 of the enemy being killed. Some documents were also captured and sent down.

Our own losses amounted to one man severely and two men slightly wounded.

The success was very largely due to the very careful reconnaissances carried out on five separate nights by 2/lieut Brooksbank and 2/lieut J R Allott, and on at least two occasions by the two sergeants and all section leaders who took part in the raid.

Names and ranks of the men involved in the events mentioned in the diary.

Extract – possibility 13 September 1917

At 4 am this morning, after a very quiet night, the enemy put down a heavy barrage of all calibres up to 8 inch on the Battalion Front Line, and on PUDSEY SUPPORT. On the right Company front, this continued unitl 5-15 am: on the left Company front it lifted about 5 am, and the enemy attack the line in considerable strength – approximately 160 men. The attack commenced between the left post of the right front Company and the right post of the left front Company. Every man in the right part was either killed or wounded. They put up a very find fight and bayoneted 1 German Officer and 2 man.

Some of the enemy forced their way through towards the old Company H Q in LONDON SUPPRT, occupied by 1 Officer, 2/lieut Hodgson * and 4 men. The enemy threw stick bombs at his stromboe horn, which apparently they mistook for a sentry. 2/lieut Hodgson met them and drove them back, and they left the line near the old No.11 Post of the left front Company, which had been entirely destroyed by consecutive bombardments two days ago. Several Germans were killed and wounded in front of Nos. 1 & 2 Posts.

My approximate casualties are 1 Officer killed Captain G C Turner, killed, 10 other ranks killed ad 30 wounded, 1 NCO and 1 man, who were not in a post, missing. All wounded were evacuated from Battalion HQ by 10 am.

Captain Turner did magnificently before receiving a direct hit by a medium trench mortar, and is reported to have himself accounted for 5 Germans.

I forward herewith 100 marks, some silver, letter and ribbons taken from the dead Officer, and shoulder straps taken from the dead man. Also some papers and nose(?) caps. I shall be glad if the latter can be returned for verification of calibre.

Lieut. Colonel, Comdng, 2/6^th West Yorkshire Regt.

Source – Free download from the National Archives

Captain G C Turner, mentioned in the above extract, was killed instantaneously by a shell at Riencourt on 13 September 1917; this information confirms the diary entry. George Corrall Turner was 32 years old when he died and rests in Favreuil British Cemetery, 2km north of Bapaume.

George, the son of John and Sabina Turner, lived in Ilkley—in 1901 at Red Gables and later at Newlands. He was educated at Ilkley Grammar School, Sedburgh, and Leeds University. He was a civil engineer and had spent three years in Canada and British Columbia. At the outbreak of war, he joined the Leeds University OTC and obtained a commission in the West Yorkshire Regiment in 1915.

George is one of 20 Fell and Rock Climbing Club members who died during WW1 and are remembered on a memorial at Great Gable. George is also remembered at Ilkley Grammar School, Sedburgh and Leeds University memorials. Sedburgh School also has a memorial to four Victoria Cross or George Cross recipients ( 1 Boer War and 3 WW2).

From the Westmorland Gazette, 27 October 1917 – His Colonel in a letter to his home at Ilkley spoke in high terms of the courage, perseverance and endurance of Capt. Turner. The writer added “His company was holding the front line, and the enemy placed an intense barrage on the battalion front. Your son did magnificent work, as he always has done, and went from post to post for nearly an hour under very severe fire. A little before 5 a.m. the enemy attacked in force, and it was very greatly due to the splendid example your son has always set and to the perfect courage and coolness shown by him last night, that his company successfully repelled the attack and inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. He was killed instantaneously by a shell, just after leaving a post where he had been leading a hand to hand fight. Your son was mentioned the other day in divisional orders for gallantry and devotion to duty.”

Sources – De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour 1914-1919; The Commonwealth War Graves Commission; Craven’s Part in the Great War; Find a Grave; Regimental War Diary, and various newspapers.

A Soldier, Hunter, Conservationist and Explorer

If you have ever been to the Natural History Museum in London, you may have been distracted by the relatively large skeleton of a blue whale or the carved decorative columns and missed the memorial to Frederick Selous on the right wall of the left staircase.

Frederick Courteney Selous, DSO, was born in 1851. His exploits are said to have inspired Sir Henry Rider Haggard’s Allan Quartermain. He was a friend of Theodore th January Roosevelt and Cecil Rhodes.

Born at Regent’s Park, London, he was one of five children of an upper-middle-class family and the third generation of Huguenot immigrants. His father was Chairman of the London Stock Exchange, and his mother was a published poet.

Aged 15, Selous was one of the survivors of the Regent’s Park skating disaster. When the ice broke, over 200 skaters were enjoying winter fun. Selous managed to escape by crawling onto slabs of broken ice. Many were not as lucky, and 40 died that day by drowning and freezing.  

The Kentish Express of Saturday, 19th January 1867, is one of the newspapers that tells of the events and does not mince its words. The Disaster in Regent’s Park. ‘The Star believes that the radical evil is that skating is permitted where life or death depends upon the thoughtless exercising a rare amount of good sense, or, it may be, upon the prudence or stupidity of some half-witted official. The mischief appears to have been wrought by the park keepers breaking away the ice around the island that the water-fowl might have the means of disporting in their favourite element.  If all those officials had been subordinated to one central authority – if the park-keepers and the Royal Humane Society’s men had received their instructions from the same source – this, probably, would not have happened.  But be this as it may, there is no reason in the world why the skating ponds of London should cover move than two or three feet depth of water.

The Telegraph declares it is idle to say that nobody expected the melancholy occurrence.  Two things were known – the state of the ice and the temper of the crowd; and the knowledge of these things ought to have been sufficent warning‘.  And the article continues but ends with ‘and if the blame for not having prevented this disaster is to be laid anywhere, it must be at the door of the Commissioner of Works’.

In his late teens, he travelled to Africa. He collected specimens for museums, hunted, and explored many rarely seen areas. He was the first white man to be seen by many.

He fought and was wounded in the First Matabele War. During the Second Matabele War, he led the Bulawayo Field Force and wrote about the campaign. During this period in his life, he met and fought alongside Baden-Powell.

Selous, initially rejected for service in WWI due to his age (64), joined as a subaltern and saw service fighting against German colonial forces in East Africa. In August 1915, he was promoted to captain in the 25th (Frontiersmen) Battalion, Royal Fusiliers. In September of the following year, he was awarded the DSO, with the citation reading: Capt Frederick Courtney Selous, Royal Fusiliers. For conspicuous gallantry, resource and endurance. He has set a magnificent example to all ranks, and the value of his services with his battalion cannot be over-estimated.

On 4th January 1917, he was fighting in the bush war on the banks of the Rufiji River against German colonel Schutztruppen with his troops outnumbered five to one. While crawling forward during combat, he raised his head and binoculars to locate the enemy and was shot in the head by a German sniper, killing him instantly.

Theodore Roosevelt wrote of his close friend: He led a singularly adventurous and fascinating life, with just the right alternations between the wilderness and civilization. He helped spread the borders of his people’s land. He added much to the sum of human knowledge and interest. He closed his life exactly as such a life ought to be closed, by dying in battle for his country while rendering her valiant and effective service. Who could wish a better life or a better death, or desire to leave a more honorable heritage to his family and his nation?

His old school published a book, ‘Memorials of Rugbeians Who Fell in The Great War,’ which includes two pages dedicated to Frederick Selous. The book covers his life, education, explorations, and service as a soldier. It is available to view on Fold3’s subscription website.

Sources:
Memorials of Rugbeians Who Fell in The Great War, Volume IV
https://roadstothegreatwar-ww1.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-last-british-square-was-formed-in.html
Western Front Association
The British Newspaper Archive

Snippets taken from other sources acknowledged

Bardsey War Memorial

While writing another article for a family history society, I remembered visiting Bardsey Church a few years ago. While clicking and searching through some pictures I had taken that morning, I found one: a photo of a memorial plaque.

What do we know about this young man from the plaque on the church’s wall?

Someone called William Harold Ryder, the third son of Charles Foster and Anna Ryder. Another question arises: who are they, as there is also a memorial for them?

But back to William, he served during WW1 as a lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps and fell whilst serving in France on July 6th, 1917, at age 20. He rests in Warloy Baillon some 21km north east of Amiens. The cemetery is an extension to the local cemetery. The first Commonwealth burial took place in the communal cemetery in October 1915 and the last on 1 July 1916. By that date, field ambulances had come to the village in readiness for the attack on the German front line eight kilometres away, and the extension was begun on the eastern side of the cemetery. The fighting from July to November 1916 on the northern part of the Somme front accounts for the majority of the burials in the extension, but some are from the German attack in the spring of 1918. The extension contains 1,331 First World War Commonwealth burials and two from the Second World War. There are also 18 German war graves in the extension. The communal cemetery contains 46 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 158 French war graves.

William’s memorial plaque C Sklinar 2007

The information on the memorial inside the church gives a good start to finding out more about William.

William, as we know, was the son of Charles Foster Ryder and his wife Anna. Anna died in 1907, and a memorial in the church informs everyone that Charles Foster had the church floor restored to its original level in 1914 in memory of his wife.

Charles F Ryder married Anna Potter on February 7th 1888, at Christ Church, Lancaster Gate. Charles was aged 32, a bachelor of Chapel Allerton, and the son of Charles Ryder was a brewer. While his new wife was aged 25, a spinster with no occupation living at 48 Cleveland Square, the son of William Potter (deceased), a merchant. Witness to this joyful event was Anna(?) L Ross and W Henderson.

In the census of 1881, Anna was living with her father, William, and mother, Agnes (both from Manchester), at 48 Cleveland Square. William described his occupation as an East India Merchant. The household also included the parents, Anna and her brother, and seven servants.

In the census of 1901, Charles F, a brewer, is living on Leeds Road, Scarcroft, with his children – Daniel G, aged 8, Agnes L, aged 6, and Wm H, aged 4, Rosamund aged two and Marion E, Harrison a visitor – Anna is not with her husband in the census. But a search for Anna, born in 1863 in Little Missenden, finds an Anna Ryder living as the married Head of The Hall, Little Thurlow, Suffolk. With Anna is Georgina M Bryant, a 25-year-old trained hospital nurse, and other staff – could Anna have been sickly and lived in the country for her health?

By 1911, Charles is a Brewery Director, more than likely Tetley’s Brewery, and living at The Grange, Scarcroft. On the census for The Grange are Charles F, Agnes Louisa, Rosamund Daphne and 7 servants. The Grange was a 20-roomed property with 10 people living within its walls. William, now aged 14, was a boarder at Uppingham, one of England’s Public Schools. The school sees many people pass through its doors who have now become well known including:- 5 Victoria Cross recipients; Richard Thorp, actor; John Suchet, journalist and broadcaster; Phil Spencer, property expert; C R W Nevison, Official War Artist in both World Wars; Sir Donald Campbell; Sir Malcolm Campbell and William Henry Pratt aka Boris Karloff to name just a few.

William served in the RFC, and his medal card states that he had served as a lieutenant in the Yorks Hussars. However, there is no mention of any medals awarded in his name, but his date of death is recorded in the remarks section.

William died on July 6th 1917, and Probate was granted in London on June 8th, 1918, to Charles Foster Ryder, a gentleman.