Gunner William Mosley
(Photograph courtesy of www.cpgw.org.uk)
Saturday June 3rd 2017 is the centenary of the death, in action, of William Mosley from Farnhill. He wasn’t a WW1 Volunteer but he was one of the Kildwick bell-ringers. The current bell-ringers will be ringing a Quarter Peal of Plain Bob Triples in his memory, beginning shortly after 2pm and continuing for around 45 minutes or so.
Click here for a short biography of William Mosley.
In the 1930s the writer Arthur Mee coined the term “Thankful Village” for those places which had lost no men in World War 1, because all those who left to serve came home again. In 2013, an updated list identified 53 civil parishes in England and Wales from which all serving personnel returned.
Kildwick wasn’t on that list. Should it be added ?
Phyllis Inskip
(photograph courtesy of Mrs. Freda Topham)
Members of the project recently contacted a relative of two of the Farnhill WW1 Volunteers, George and Richard Inskip. This lady was able to provide us with our first photograph of Richard and a photograph of George which is much better than anything we currently have.
She was also able to show us a photograph of their younger sister, Phyllis, one of twins born in 1907. It’s a lovely picture, probably taken in the early 1920s, when the family were living in Hanover Street and Phyllis would have been a teenager. This is what a Farnhill teenager looked like in the 1920s !
If you’d like to help us find more photographs of the Farnhill WW1 Volunteers and their families, please email us.
Click to view and alphabetical list of the Volunteers.
The middle names of people often provide useful information about a person’s family or origins. Boys are sometimes given their mother’s maiden name, for example – this seems to be particularly prevalent in Scottish families.
Our project is uncovering lots of interesting middle names: including the Farnhill WW1 Volunteer James Scarborough Theodore Pollard; and the younger brother of another Volunteer, Harry Mossman Dawson.
One of these is named after the place the family used to live, and the other was given an old family name. I’m sure you can guess which is which.
So our research has shown that James Pollard was descended, on his mother’s side, from the Scarborough family – prominent in the area from the very earliest records. Harry Dawson’s family, however, were relatively new to the area having previously lived near Mossman Fields in Shipley.
If you would like to help us untangle the family histories of the 68 men from Farnhill who volunteered to fight in WW1, please email us.
We’ve been having trouble identifying the parents of one of the Volunteers, Harry Pollard. He was brought up by Binns Hartley and his wife Sophia Annie (nee Pollard). That Harry was some close relation of Sophia’s is almost certain, but quite what their precise kinship was is eluding us at present. What we do know is that Sophia Annie had a brother with the name Feargus O’Connor Pollard. Very unusual, I’m sure you’ll agree.
It gets even more unusual when you find out that the Volunteer William Birch Holmes had a great-uncle called Feargus O’Connor Holmes.
What is it with Feargus O’Connor you may be thinking. For the answer to this and why we’ve come to the conclusion that the Pollard and Holmes families shared the same radical political views, take a look at the articles on Chartism on the Farnhill and Kildwick History Group site.
If you would like to help us research the lives of all 68 of the Farnhill WW1 Volunteers, please email us.
A Magic lantern show will launch a community initiative focussing on villagers who fought in the First World War.
The March 3 event will formally kick-off the Farnhill WW1 Volunteers Project, which is researching the lives of those who volunteered to serve in the Great War.
The project will examine what the 68 men did before, during and – in the case of those who survived – after the conflict.
Short biographies of each will be prepared and the information will be made widely available.
What life in the village was like a century ago and the social context in which the volunteers lived will also be examined.
Project co-ordinator, Graham Taylor, said magic lantern show evenings were a regular feature at Kildwick & Farnhill Institute – where the launch event takes place – during the First World War.
“We know that many of the men from Farnhill who fought in the war attended the shows when they were home on leave,” he said.
“We thought that recreating one of these events would be a good way of launching our project.
“The shows, a forerunner of modern motion pictures, were not simply sources of light entertainment. They also provided people at home with news about life at the front.
“It’s been a number of years since anything like this has been put on at the institute and – who knows – it might be the last opportunity we have to experience this unique form of entertainment from a bygone age.”
Experienced lanternist Andrew Gill will recreate a show using authentic Victorian and World War One glass slides and an original magic lantern, converted to use electricity.
Admission to the 7pm event is free and anyone is invited to attend, but organisers warn that some scenes may be unsuitable for young children.
Seats can be reserved. Two seats per application are allowed and reservations will be held until ten minutes before the start.
Mr Taylor said those behind the project, which is spearheaded by the institute committee and supported by an £8,400 Heritage Lottery Fund grant, were still keen to hear from anyone wanting to get involved.
“We are planning a dedicated website, displays, talks and an exhibition to coincide with the centenary of Armistice Day, in November, 2018,” he said.
“We hope as many local people as possible will want to take part in research and other activities.
“In particular, we would really like to hear from people whose relatives came from Farnhill and fought in World War One or lived in the village at that time.”
Private Willie Barker
(photograph courtesy of cpgw.org.uk)
A remarkable feature of the 68 Farnhill Volunteers is that only six of them died during WW1. All of these losses were, of course, tragic; but perhaps the saddest story is that of the death of Willie Barker.
Willie Barker was born, in Farnhill, in December 1896 and was just 19 when he joined the 11th battalion East Yorkshire Regiment. He was sent to France on the 11th of September 1918, very close to the end of the war, and the regimental diary records that he arrived as part of a contingent of 141 men. The battalion was at this time resting behind the lines and for a fortnight Willie’s life must have one of lectures, training, checking kit, and playing football – matches appear to have taken place almost every day.
The battalion returned to the front line during the afternoon and evening of the September 24th. The regimental diary records this as being a quiet period and the battalion was fully in position by 7:30am on the 25th.
However at some point on the 24th, during this quiet period, Willie Barker was killed. His time on the front line can only have been a few hours at the most.
Willie Barker is buried in Bailleul Cemetery close to where he died. His name is commemorated on the Kildwick War Memorial.
If you would like to help us research the lives of all 68 of the Farnhill WW1 Volunteers, please email us.
An interesting connection
As we research the Farnhill WW1 Volunteers we’re finding that many of them were connected – either they were members of an extended family; they worked at the same mill; or they shared leisure pursuits.
Recent research, yet to be confirmed, suggests that a woman called Ida Dawson was closely related no less than three Volunteers. It looks as if she was:
• The mother of Harry Walmsley
• The sister of John William Dawson
• The aunt of Walter Dawson
If you would like to help us research other interesting connections between the Farmhill WW1 Volunteers, please email us at farnhillww1volunteers@gmail.com.
1892 Kildwick watercolour
(courtesy of Margaret Yao)
This rather nice watercolour, showing the west end and bell-tower of Kildwick Church, was painted by Millie Clough in 1892, when she was just 15.
Matilda (Millie) Clough was born in Crosshills in 1877. In 1898 she married William Green of Farnhill and they set up home at 33 Main Street, Farnhill, where William ran a butcher’s shop.
Between 1898 and 1912 they had six children, 4 boys and 2 girls, including Eric Green who was one of the Farnhill WW1 Volunteers.
Article – An 1892 Kildwick watercolour
Click to view an alphabetical list of the Volunteers.
Project launch event
Institute Committee at launch of project
The project starts officially today. January 1st 2017. However, we have already started to plan our first public event which will be a WW1 Magic Lantern Show to be held on March 3rd, in the Institute building.
