ARTHUR SHEARD

and

JOHN WILLIAM DENNY

The Group was recently in receipt of a grant from the Goole Community Wind Farm Fund which has allowed for two sets of First World War memorabilia to be framed.

Arthur Sheard was an Able Seaman aboard HMS Indefatigable when she was lost during the Battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916. Arthur was born 17th December 1893 in Reedness, eventually working as a keelman and living at an address in Roma Terrace, off Hodgson Street, Hull. Following his enlistment, on an unknown date, to the 5th Battalion King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry he was transferred to the Royal Naval Division on 17th August 1915, being posted to the training school at HMS Victory. On 23rd November he was posted to the battlecruiser HMS Invincible, from where just over two weeks later on 8th December he left to join the Indefatigable, being aboard officially from the following day. Both ships, along with sister ship Queen Mary were all lost during the Battle of Jutland.

Arthur married Adelaide Smith on 24th March 1913, eventually having two children – Arthur b.February 1914 and Edna b.May 1915. Following his death the Memorial Scroll and accompanying letter were sent to Adelaide. The Memorial Scroll, letter and photograph were donated to the Group from the estate of the late Carole Howard who was herself a family and local historian.

For reasons that are unknown today, Arthur is not named on any of the local  War Memorials.

The second set is comprised of a photograph of Private John William Denny, being with his wife Dora and their children, Edna and John and the British War and Victory Medals awarded to him for his service during the ‘Great War’.

No service record survives to detail John' enlistment but his BW&V Medal Roll page does show that he was in France with the KOYLI from 9th January 1917, as No.202942 before being transferred to 14th Entrenching Battalion on 16th February 1918. Ten weeks later on 5th May he is assigned to 13th Bn Rifle Brigade, as No.318430, with which he remains until 11th November 1918, then being posted to the 5th Bn London Regiment.

John was wounded on two unknown occasions as denoted by the wound strips on the left sleeve of his tunic. His name was included within the ‘Daily List’ for wounded on 25th August 1917, no other details known.

Within an article that celebrates his golden wedding anniversary to Dora, John is stated to have served in France with the KOYLI for three years, where he was wounded and gassed.

John later served with the Home Guard during the Second World War.

The medals were acquired by the Group via an online auction. Interestingly, instead of having the last unit of which he was assigned to inscribed on them, they are in fact inscribed as 202942 JW Denny KOYLI, which is how they are identified on the brass plaque below them.

The Group would like to thank Bill Reynolds, late of Gallery Framing Goole for his work on these and other items within our collection. They can all be seen at the forthcoming Goole History Exhibition at Junction, where the Group will be joined by Boothferry Family and Local History Group, Yorkshire Waterways Heritage Society and the militaria collection of Mike Howard between 18th-29th August 10am-2pm each day.

An Element of Luck – Researching Goole Street Shrines

In 2010 I undertook a project to identify soldiers in Goole Museum’s Photographic Collection. The project expanded upon its original objective to create an index of entries in the local Newspaper, the Goole Times, for the First World War. Whilst undertaking this research I came across several articles referring to the erection of Street Shrines (or Street Rolls of Honour) in the town during 1917. I had not heard of the type of memorial before but after a small amount of research I found that during the First World War they were a common form of memorial in several of Britain’s cities. Their erection within a small town such as Goole is rather rare, with few known comparisons.

A search through the local archives and local museum photographic collection resulted in no pictures. Several enquiries were made with Goole’s local historians which resulted in information about shrines erected in the town but not the actual street shrines (our previous research on the St Paul’s Shrines is thanks to this information). I therefore had a challenge to find out what happened to the street shrines.

The obvious solution would be to research using the Goole Times newspaper, which reported minute details of events within the town during the early 20th Century. After several weeks searching the years after the war and anniversary dates only one reference to the shrines was made. In 1919 a report was made to the only act of vandalism made to the shrines when flowers were stolen from one of them.

Several months later luck occurred when one of Goole’s local historians happened to see and copy a postcard of Pasture Road in the 1920s, and with much thanks realised it’s significance. The Post Card shows the only known image of a Goole Street Shrine. Given the size of Goole and the considerable research that has been made by Local Historians it is normally possible to research any topic or know where to find information, or know somebody who remembers an event or a person. After asking several locals I found that people could perhaps remember a shrine or a memorial or had heard of them but did not know when they were removed or any details. Therefore the shrines must have been removed probably before the Second World War.

In Hull much research has been made into Street Shrines and there is some evidence as to when individual shrines were removed. Some were made into permanent memorials and one of these survives in location and a second on an industrial estate. An original shrine survives in location, albeit on a new building and temporary removed for new building works. Many more were removed during slums clearances or were destroyed during the Second World War and many more have been lost through decay or vandalism. In the 1980s two were salvaged before their streets were demolished and are now in Hull Street Life Museum.

The difference between Hull and Goole is that Hull’s shrines were not erected as one but were erected singularly or in areas or by small groups and businesses. Goole’s shrines, with the exception of one, were erected as a result of the Church of England’s Men’s Society. Therefore the shrines had a religious element and the governance of a church authority and were part of a set. Therefore being religious articles it would have been unlikely that they were removed individually or destroyed and were most likely moved elsewhere during the 1920s or 1930s. Unfortunately further research in church and local archives did not provide further evidence of the shrines.

Recently whilst undertaking research on another topic luck struck again. Having spare credits on the Newspaper Archive website I undertook a search for War Shrines using all different tag words but with no results. I then searched for Old Goole and under a misspelt heading was an article referring to the proposed removal of the Goole War Shrines - ‘To Be Removed Failing Maintenance Promises’ in the [Hull] Daily Mail, dated 30^th May 1930. A search in the Goole Times for the corresponding article provides the full details:

Searching through the articles in the following weeks no reply was published regarding the articles and it can only be assumed that the decision was made to remove the street shrines en masse in 1930. No references are made to storing the shrines and it is assumed that all were destroyed. The next stage of the research will be to trace minutes of the meeting and appeal for pictures of 1920s Goole.

An East Coast Raid

Ninety-Seventy years ago a tragic event happened which would lead to the loss of life and serious injury to the people of the town. In August 1915 Goole suffered an aerial attack by a Zeppelin air ship of the German Armed Forces. In a series of three posts the Society will tell the storey of the raid and process of remembering the war dead.

            The first actions of enemy conduct on Britain were throughout late 1914 with Sea Bombardments to Great Yarmouth and the East Coast. In January 1915 the Kaiser approved aerial bombardments by Zeppelin airships. The first aerial raids targeted Norfolk and London. In June 1915 the first air raid on Hull took place causing loss of life and damage to property. The short summer nights saw little enemy action over the next several months but in August 1915 the raids re-commenced with consequences for the town of Goole.

           

            On the 9th August five Zeppelins were launched against Britain. Four of these were targeted against London and the fifth, L-9, was aimed to target Hull. En route to Hull L-9 was attacked by aeroplane and losing orientation flew in direction of Goole.

           

            An official account states that the Zeppelin first made land over the East Coast, at Skipsea, during the night of the 9th August but upon being intercepted by aircraft made out to sea and became lost in fog. Twice the Zeppelin returned over land before being followed out to sea by aeroplanes. An hour later the Zeppelin again flew over land in the vicinity of Hutton-Cranswick and Beverley before reaching the River Humber, at 11.10pm. The airship navigated westwards along river before reaching Goole. The town not previously subject to air raid precautions was showing lights and unprepared for an air raid. At 11.15 the town was bombed.

            The censorships of the period meant that the Goole Times, published three days after the raid, reported the attack under the title an ‘East Coast Raid’. The account reports that another air raid had taken place on the East Coast by an air ship sent by the ‘vile and unscrupulous Huns’. It is reported that little damage was done to property but lists one man, nine women and six children killed and five men, seven women and several children receiving ‘more or less’ serious injuries. In reference to damage it is stated that incendiary bombs caused some fires but these were quickly extinguished. The night of the attack was extremely dark, with thick fog, which rendered night flying very difficult and one of the pilots sent to engage the enemy was killed in a crash landing.

            The Admiralty [the Navy being responsible aerial defence at the time] reported that a squadron of hostile airships visited the East Coast on the night of the attacks causing fires by dropping incendiary bombs but these were quickly extinguished and only immaterial damage was done. One Zeppelin was seriously damaged by the gunfire of the land defences and was reported on Wednesday being towed into Ostend. It was later subject to continued attacks by aircraft from Dunkirk under heavy fire and it is now reported that, after having had her back broken and rear compartments damaged, she was completely destroyed by explosions.

            The report of the air raid does not reference the name of the town attacked and downplays the extent of damage caused to the town, despite being reported in a local newspaper and the true extent of the raid already well known. The politics of war therefore prevented newspapers providing information to help the enemy or damage the moral of the civilian population.

           

An account of the raid will feature in our next blog.

References:

The Goole Times Newspaper

Hook, J (1995) This Dear Land: The Zeppelin Raids on Hull and District 1915-1918. J. Hook.