World War Two Commemoration
The names of eighteen World War Two Servicemen are listed on the Midgley and Luddenden War Memorial.
A Brief history of each of these men follows:
Gordon Baume
to be uploaded soon
Donald Clay
to be uploaded soon
James Trevor Cotterell
to be uploaded soon
Albert Cowan
to be uploaded soon
John Crilley
to be uploaded soon
Ernest Dransfield
to be uploaded soon
Jack Fletcher
to be uploaded soon
Thomas Gill
to be uploaded soon
CORPORAL GEORGE GREENWOOD
d 22nd February 1942 aged 28
George was born on 10th January 1914 at 21 Duke Street to Thomas, a former soldier, Motorman (Paper Mill) and then Steward at Midgley Working Men’s Club, who gave his life in Belgium in August that year, and Annie (nee Smyth, and born in Ireland) who, as a widow was later working as a screwer at Lindley’s. He was brought up at Goitside, Booth and Spring Bank.
In 1939 he was living with his mother in Wadsworth Street, Halifax and working as a pattern cutter and stock keeper at John Mackintosh and Son, Albion Mills, Halifax. He married Kathleen Alice Watson in February 1941 at St Michaels’ Mytholmoroyd and moved to Spring View, Luddendenfoot.They already had a child, Henry, born in 1938, who had been adopted by the Sellars family.
He signed up for the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment in June 1940 and went out to the Far East in Spring 1941.
He died in Burma and is remembered on the Rangoon Memorial in the Tukkyan War Cemetery, Yangon, Myanmar.
ASSISTANT STEWARD PHILIP JOSEPH GORMAN
d. 2nd May 1942 aged 17
Philip was born in Sculcoates, Hull in July 1925.
His parents John Gorman and Martha (nee Younger, born in 1904) were married in Hull in September 1924. In 1939 Martha was still living in Hull, carrying out Unpaid Domestic Duties. John was a Chief Steward in the Merchant Navy. They moved to 8 Riding Head Lane, Luddenden around 1940.
Philip served in the Merchant Navy on SS Cape Corso and was lost, presumed drowned, on 2nd May 1942 when it was sunk by torpedo from German bombers. The Cape Corso set sail as part of the convoy PQ15 taking munitions to Russia. She was to have been part of PQ14 but bad weather forced her to return to Reykjavik and become part of the next convoy.
Of the crew 44 and 12 Gunners, 39 crew and 11 gunners were lost at 73 2N 19 46E. The Cape Corso was built at Lithgows, Glasgow in 1929 and was called the Knight of St George until 1934 and owned by Lyle Shipping Co Ltd.
Philip is remembered on the Tower Hill Memorial for Merchant Seafarers in London.
REV JOHN FOSTER HAIGH
d. 23rd September 1943 aged 42
John Foster was born in May 1901 and was brought up in Tredegar, Monmouthshire, Wales. His father was a coal miner.
He trained as an architect but after a few years he decided to train for the ministry at Edinburgh University and Airedale Theological College, Bradford.
In 1930 he became the Minister at Booth Congregational Church
In January 1933 he married Annie Farrar, aged 36, from 2 Mill House, Luddenden, daughter of Joseph Pickles Farrar a retired Mill Mechanic.
In 1934 he moved to Heywood Chapel, Northowram,
He was a very good musician and at 16 conducted a choir. He was also an organist, played the piano, had a tenor voice of rare quality and was very successful at the Welsh Eisteddfods. At Booth he organised several music festivals, and performed with Halifax Amateur Operatic Society with great success.
He enlisted in June 1940 was made a Chaplain and sent to Singapore with the 4th Suffolk Regiment and he was captured by the Japanese and sent to Niki-Niki POW Camp where he died on 23 September 1943 of beri-beri (thiamine deficiency). He is buried at Thanbyuzatyat War Cemetery in Burma (Myanmar).
The cemetery sits a stone’s throw from the end of the infamous death railway. This cross-country route was built by forced labour, including prisoners of war, during the Second World War, in often gruelling conditions. It has been said that a man died for every sleeper laid across the 415-kilometre (258 mi) route of the railway. Many of those who died lie at rest in CWGC’s care.
And as a reminder of what they went through, visitors to Thanbyuzayat will see a handmade wooden cross in the cemetery’s entrance, assembled out of those infamous railway sleepers by prisoners.
Rev J Foster Haigh is remembered with a bronze plaque in that cemetery, behind the cenotaph in Luddenden and also in:
Halifax Civic Books of Remembrance
Heywood Congregational Church, Northowram
St Matthew’s Northowram
His widow Annie had returned to Mill House and she passed away aged 100 years in 1997.
TROOPER THOMAS LISTER
d 1st February 1943 aged 32
Thomas was born on 16th August 1911 and lived in Hebden Bridge. His parents Sam (a Carter at the Railway Station, and later a Road Sweeper) and Phoebe (nee Chadwick, a mill hand) lived at 5 Buttress Bank. He went to Central Street Council School and attended Salem Methodist Church, before joining Messrs R Sutcliffe and Co, Melbourne Works, Hebden Bridge. In 1939 he was single, living with his parents and working as a Seam Presser for a Wholesale Clothier.
He signed up in 1940 with the 9th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment. The 9th Battalion was converted to the 146th Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) in 1941 and was based in India. He was listed as missing in Burma in March 1943.
Thomas is buried at the Taukkyan War Cemetery, Rangoon and is commemorated in Heptonstall Churchyard, the Hebden Bridge Methodist Churches Book of Remembrance and on the Luddenden and Midgley War Memorial.
PRIVATE SAMUEL LONGBOTTOM
d 22nd March 1941 aged 28
Information on Samuel is very limited and so far we have not found any documents connecting him to the village.
We know that he served in the 2nd Battalion West Riding Regiment (The Prince of Wales Own) and died on 22nd March 1941. He is buried in the Keren War Cemetery.
ABLE SEAMAN DANIEL MAGUIRE
d. 17th November 1942 aged 20
Daniel was born on 14th July 1922 in Luddenden and baptised at St Walburga’s church in Luddendenfoot (this building has been demolished and the site is now a care home Aachen Brook).
His parents John H Maguire and mother Catherine (nee Flood) were from Liverpool. John H is in Liverpool in the 1901 and 1911 census returns and we can also find Catherine Flood in the 1901 and 1911 census. The couple married in Liverpool in 1921 (Q2,8b,84). We can see that John H was living on Providence Place in the 1921 census shortly before Daniel was born but can’t at present find Catherine in the 1921 Census.
In 1939, the family is living at 8 Halifax Lane. The 1939 voters register shows the names of three of the family (John H and Catherine plus one child Joseph P, three names of other family members are redacted on this document).
After joining up Daniel did his Royal Navy training at HMS President III on the north bank of the Thames near Wapping, He then served on a Merchant ship the SS Widestone as a DEMS gunner. The Defensively Equipped Merchant Ship (DEMS) was an initiative started in 1939 to try and protect merchant vessels from enemy attack by placing anti aircraft guns and anti submarine depth Chargers on merchant vessels. These were manned by the Royal Navy.
In November 1942, the SS Widestone left Cardiff docks laden with 3,400 tonnes of Coal and headed north to Oban to join a convoy across the Atlantic to Halifax, Nova Scotia and then onwards to New York. The ship was one of 33 vessels that linked up to form Convoy ONS 144, many were empty (loaded with ballast) and were going to pick up more supplies from America before returning to the UK. They were supported by one Royal Navy Corvette and four Norwegian Corvettes. ONS 144 was the 144th Outward bound from Great Britain to North America
The Convoy was intercepted by a U-boat wolf pack (with the code name Kreusotter, Viper) on 15th November, but the U-boats soon lost contact. The wolf pack consisted of thirteen U-boats. They attacked again on 17th November and SS Widestone and a Greek Vessel Mount Taurus were both sunk with no survivors. The following day another four allied ships were lost.
The SS Widestone went down with all 42 hands including Daniel Maguire, he was one of seven Royal Navy Gunners who lost their lives on this vessel.
The six ships in the convoy that were sunk including one of the Norwegian Corvettes. A total of 86 allied sailors died in these attacks.
The torpedo that sank SS Widestone was fired by U 184 on it's first active patrol. U 184 was reported missing 5 days later on 21st November. There was no indication of it's fate and the crew of 50 men all perished.
Daniel is remembered on The Portsmouth Naval Memorial.
References:
There is a lot of information about Convoy ONS144 and on the Viper Wolf Pack at the following websites:
Convoy ONS-144
ONS 144
And information about DEMS here:
Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships
Civil Birth Registration: 1922/Q3/Halifax/9a/644
1921 Census, RG15/496/4/28/Schedule no 124
1939 England and Wales Voters Register, Halifax CB/496-1/KEAD/Schedule no.50
DRIVER HARRY NOBLE
d. 29th January 1942 AGED 24
Harry was born in on 27th July 1917. Harry's families were both local to the Village. His parents George and Annie Maria Cook were both living at Benns when they married in 1900. His father's family were farmers and Harry's grandparents lived in various houses around Luddenden during their married life, including Yellow Birch and Shepherd House.
Harry's father George was a painter and decorator, the family lived at Green Royd, Midgley for a while and Cleveley Gardens in Mytholmroyd. When his father died in 1936 and the family moved to 4 Riding Head Lane.
Harry worked as a Grocery Assistant at the Co-op in Halifax. He was engaged to Maud Eastwood (of Mytholmroyd).
In 1940, he enlisted as a Driver in the Royal Army Service Corps. This was the Logistics part of the British Army and dealt with the supply of food, water, fuel, clothing, stationary in fact anything and everything the Army needed to keep fighting. They recruited tradesman, butchers, bakers and office clerks to help keep the war efforts moving.
We do not know a lot about Harry’s time in the Army as the WW2 Service Records have not yet been released. He was killed in Action in Libya on 29th January 1942 aged 24.
He is buried at the Benghazi War Cemetery and is remembered here on the Luddenden War Memorial and also at the Wainsgate Methodist Chapel in Hebden Bridge.
References:
Civil Birth Registration, 1917/Q3/9a/262
1921 Census, RG15/493/1/12/108
1939 England and Wales Voters Register, Halifax CB/496/KEAE/Schedule no.12
PRIVATE RONALD ROYSTON
d. 24th April 1944, aged 26
Ronald was born at Linthwaite on 1st October 1917, the eldest of four children parents Herbert Royston and Mary Cruddas.
In 1921 the family has moved slightly closer to Huddersfield and is living in Milnsbridge, Ronald is the eldest child, he has a younger brother Jack and a sister Elsie. Brother Kenneth and sister Mary followed.
By 1939 the family was living at 29-33 Chapel Street in Luddenden and Ronald was working as a weaver.
Ronald joined the 5th Seaforth Highlanders but we are not sure of the date as the WW2 service records have not been released yet.
But we know that Compulsory Conscription was introduced in September 1939 for all men aged between 18 to 41. Ronald would have been 21 at the time, so he would almost definitely have been conscripted early in the war.
In which case he saw action with the 5th Seaforth Highlanders in North Africa (including El Alamein in October/November 1942 and the Battle of Wadi Akarit in April 1943) and later in 1943, he would have been fighting in Sicily, both campaigns under the control of Field Marshall Montgomery.
After the surrender of Italy on 3rd September 1943, the Battalion returned to the UK (in October) for training in preparation for the Normandy landings.
They were initially billeted at Gorhambury Park in Herfordshire and then moved to East Anglia in March 1944.
Ronald was accidentally killed whilst on the second day of a two day training exercise in the UK on 24th April just a few weeks before the Battalion embarked for Normandy (The Regiment landed on Juno Beach near Ornemouth as the second wave of troops on the afternoon of D Day).
His body was returned to the family and he is buried here in the village Cemetery.
References
1921 Census, RG15/495/9/16/53
1939 England and Wales Voters Register. Halifax CB/496/1/KEAD/schedule 41
PRIVATE CECIL TISSON
d. 29th June 1944 aged 29
Cecil Tisson was born in St Helier 18th December 1914, his parents were Charles William and Gertrude Florence Tisson, both from St Helier. His parents married on New Year’s Day 1913.
By 1915 the family was living in London, Cecil’s father is listed as a Trunk Maker, in WW1 he served in the Royal Army Service Corps as a Driver until he was demobbed in 1919. In 1921, the family was living in Pimlico, his father was working as a carpenter at The Palace Hotel in Bloomsbury and there is a younger child, Constance Fortune.
By 1939, Cecil is working as a Painter's Labourer in Southampton.
At some point after this, a link is made with the Crilley family in Luddenden, but how this link was made is a mystery.
The Crilley's were originally from Liverpool. The 1921 Census, shows them living on Tarbock Street, Margaret's Mother is listed as a Widow and has five children living with her. By 1939 the family is living in Luddenden at 15 Halifax Lane.
Cecil married Margaret Crilley in 1942 in the Halifax area.
John Crilley who became Cecil's brother-in-law was a Royal Marine Commando. He was Killed in Action in Burma in 1945.
Cecil was in the 7th Battalion Hampshire Regiment and took part in the D Day landings. The 1st Battalion landed on D Day, the 7th Battalion were in reserve and landed on 22nd June. The Regiment landed on Gold Beach at Manvieux near Arromanches.
The War diaries follow the regiments advance through France towards Caen, but there are no mention of casualties in the diary. The diaries are a fascinating insight into the detail of the planning that went into the D Day landings and are well worth having a look at.
We do know that Cecil was killed in action on 29th June 1944 aged 29 years as the Regiment pushed towards the strategic Town of Caen.
He is buried a Hottot les Bauges War Cemetery which is about 10 miles outside of Bayeux.
References:
1921 Census. RG15/511/5/2/44
1939 England and Wales Voters Register. County of Southampton/99-2/ECNF/schedule 263
Civil Marriage Registration. 1942/Q3/9a/1078
GUNNER CLIFFORD UTTLEY
d. 3 June 1944 AGED 34
Clifford was the second son of Fred and Minnie Uttley. Fred was born at 4 Upperfoot on 12th May 1909 Christened St Michael's Mythomroyd 27 April 1910). In 1911, the family is listed as parents Fred (25 years old, Dyer’s Labourer), Minnie (30 years old) and sons James William (aged 5) and Clifford (aged 1).
By the time of the 1921 census , the family had moved up the road to Paradise on Ellen Royd Lane. Three more children had arrived Ada Mary and the twins Fred and Marjorie. Their father was working as a motor transport assistant (drayman) for a local brewery, Richard Whitaker in Halifax.
Clifford married Eveline Lawton in Grimethorpe in August 1932 and the couple had 2 children. They were living at Tillotson Buildings on Burnley Road, Luddendenfoot in 1939, Clifford was working as a warehouse man for H Helliwell's (worsted spinners). There are three names redacted on this document (probably their children), but we can look on the UK birth Register for children’s whose surname is Uttley and whose mother’s maiden name is Lawton. Two hits are George W Uttley born Q2 1934 in Hemsworth (near Grimethorpe) and Peter G born Q2 1935 also in Hemsworth.
We are not sure when Clifford joined up as the WW2 Service records have not yet been released. He was a member of the 101st Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment. The Regiment was formed in 1939 to defend the British Fleet at Scapa Flow from Air Attack.
The Regiment was posted to India in 1943, firstly to Avadi in the city of Chennai (formerly Madras) and later to Mumbai (formerly Bombay).
Clifford died of burns in hospital on 3 June 1944 aged 34 and is buried at the Kirkee War Cemetery in Pune (formerly Puna).
After his death, his wife Eveline moved back to Grimethorpe. She died in 1999 aged 88 in the Chester /Ellesmere Port area.
References
1911 Census, RG14/496/4/19/Schedule.No 18
1921 Census, RG15/496/4/22/Schedule No 206
1939 England and Wales Voters Register, Sowerby Bridge UD/496A-4/KOQR/Schedule No 29
Civil Marriage Registration, 1932/Q3/9c/402