RAWCLIFFE WAR MEMORIAL

Our latest blog article is contributed by Group member Alan Dodsworth, with thanks:

I have always been drawn to Cenotaphs or Memorials in towns and villages as I have travelled the UK and, no matter where our home has been, we have always tried to attend some form of Remembrance Day service. In both cases it is the seemingly endless lists of the names of those making ‘the ultimate sacrifice’, particularly associated with WW1, that strike a chord. I do feel very strongly that the very least we can do is ‘remember’ them once a year.

But who is it that we are ‘remembering’? What did they do before the war? Why did they join up? Where and with whom did they serve? Who else in the family was involved? What was the impact on those left behind? What would they have accomplished if they had survived? These are all questions that run through my mind as the names are read out and we stand facing the Memorial.

Like most families in the country WW1 touched ours. Both my mum and dad lost an Uncle and my wife’s Grandfather served in Mesopotamia. The family impact was drawn into sharp relief last year as we accompanied my parents on a poignent commemorative trip to Ypres and Arras. Each Memorial carries one of their names – among the names of the many thousands with no known grave. With the power of the internet, background research before the trip yielded amazing information, previously unknown by the family. This included that my mum’s grandfather and a future Uncle had both been prisoners of war. Information undiscovered until 95 years after the event.

With the trip last year still in mind the recent article in the Goole Times about the Goole WW1 Research Group attracted me to their last meeting to find out what activity was taking place as we approach the Centenary of the start of WW1 in August next year.

Having lived in Rawcliffe for the last 12 years my particular interest was in the 56 names on the Cenotaph between Rawcliffe and Rawcliffe Bridge and on the plaque in St James Church. My thought being that a bit more information about each name, answering some of the questions posed above, could be included in a folder along with a photo, if one can be found, to be available for those with an interest.

I have no doubt that others in the Village may have done a similar exercise previously or have unrecorded knowledge of individual family members that, when identified, can be added to the knowledge bank.

Alongside the 56 names on the memorial there is a blank space where a name has been removed. This name has been identified, by comparing the list on the order of service for the Unveiling and Dedication of the War Memorial on 15^th October 1921 with the remaining names, as James Shenton. As yet no explanation for this ‘removal’ has been found. Can you help?

Of those named, 47 have ‘base’ data collated into a spreadsheet, from CWGC data, Service records and Census data that links them with Rawcliffe or Rawcliffe Bridge. The Goole Times Almanak and Roll of Honour have helped with this research in several instances. The 9 other names have proved to be more difficult to pinpoint from the data available so far and the research continues.

Goole Times publications from the beginning of the War are now being reviewed for mentions of Rawcliffe people, which are proving quite fruitful but will take some time owing to the many other distractions in the publications.

Points of interest to date:

From internet links I discovered that a ‘Roll of Honour’ for those from both Villages serving in the War was drawn up and mounted in the Church. It is still present to this day in its frame on the back wall. Some 337 names are recorded on it, including 12 ladies. This list shows the tremendous ‘Call of Duty’ felt by some families locally to the war effort. A Rawcliffe Patriotic Committee was formed to maintain this Roll of Honour in April 1915 at which point 67 names were entitled to be recorded.

A ‘Scroll of Honour’ started in the Rawcliffe School at the end of 1914 for those past pupils now serving appears to be an ongoing activity recorded in the Goole Times. Eighteen names were included in the original Goole Times article and by 22^nd January 1915 had reached 24, although 4 of these names have not been found and may be in the damaged parts of or missing copies of the paper around that time.

The number of locals employed at the Papermill in Rawcliffe Bridge who went on to serve were vast. Unsurprisingly farming and farm labourers numbered highly in those serving but other occupations included employees of the Aire and Calder Navigation and shop keepers.

Most of those who died were Infantry men, with the most common Regiment being the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI). Very few Service Records appear to exist for those in the KOYLI’s.

As well as final resting places including the UK (4), France (24) and Belgium (15) there are Rawcliffe people from WW1 buried in Kenya, Israel and Palestine, Iraq, Turkey, Greece and Italy.

Two Captains, a Lieutenant and Second Lieutenant feature in those killed, along with a Company Serjeant Major, Serjeant, three Corporals and a couple of Lance Corporals.

The first death was in April 1915 and the last in April 1920 with 1917 seeing 21 deaths.

Finally a plea that if you have any information that will help this or similar research going on for the names on the Goole Cenotaph – please get in touch.

Alan Dodsworth

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.

Trinity Methodist Church War Memorials

War memorials take many different forms ranging from simple shrines to grand epitaphs, and were erected as temporary features or were designed as permanent fixtures. Some were designed to be modern pieces of architecture to fulfil their object of design but others followed traditional practices of memorial. An example of the latter is the use of stained glass windows and the church. These memorials are often full of religious iconography and are dedicated to individual soldiers, such as in St John’s Parish Church (Goole), or are dedicated to the fallen of the congregation and local population.

           

The dedication of shrines and memorials within the church is in itself a complex theological idea, with ranging beliefs between the Catholic and Protestant spans of the Christian Church. The dedication of shrines within the Wesleyan (Protestant) Church can therefore be considered unusual. Yet within the Methodist Churches in Goole memorials were erected to the serving men and women of their congregation.  

         

Within the chancel of the Boothferry Road Trinity Methodist (Wesleyan) Church are two stained glass windows with the dedication:

“TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN MEMORY OF THE FOLLOWING YOUNG MEN WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-18.”

On the first plaque are listed – “W. Silvester, H. Simms, G. Snead, F. Thurston, E.Vause and J. Vause”.

On the second plaque are listed – “B. Arnold, H. Caukill, W. Hounsley, E. Jackson, F. Kirby and W.R. Raney”.

The permanent memorial replaced an earlier Roll of Honour erected in the church during 1917. The 1917 memorial was dedicated to all those serving from the Church in the armed forces but has since been lost. The Roll of Honour was dedicated during a service during late October 1917. The memorial, made by a Mr H E Chambers, is described as ‘handsomely designed’ and ‘well executed Roll of Honour’, consisting of a handsome oak frame, with rich gold beading. Only those connected with the church immediately before the war were included on the roll. 46 members of the church were listed and of those six were marked with a long gilt cross to mark the giving of their lives.

With the exception of B. Arnold and E. Jackson all those listed on the later memorial are also noted on the 1917 Roll of Honour. Those named on the Roll of Honour (additional to those on the stained glass) were noted in an article in the Goole Times newspaper –

E. Arnold, L. Butler, Campbell, A Davidson, H. Diamond, H. Dixon, F. Evans, P Flowers, T Gale, T Green, A Heunsley, C Hobson, W Jackson, P Joyner, OW Kelsey, G N Lidguard, P Lundy, I Mellor, A Phillipson, E Phillipson, W Ramsbottom, A R Raney, G. Rushby, F Schofield, H Simms, H Sinclair, G Snead, R Snead, R Sykes, A.Vause, W Vause, H Ward, T Ward, S Weatherill, F Wilson, G Yeoman, J Yeoman.

           

Out of the 46 men listed on the 1917 Roll of Honour ten were killed whilst serving in the armed forces and a further two men joining the armed services during the last year of the war would lose their lives.

          

The erection of shrines within the Methodist church is unusual but the memorials and shrines placed within the Trinity Methodist Church demonstrate the popular demand for remembrance during the war and in the years following.