This war grave is one of our Remembrance Sunday 2024 stories, sitting alongside that of Percy Smallwood. Percy died only five weeks before WW1 came to an end; Harry here died about seven weeks after. John Helliwell was born in Walsden in 1852. His father John was a railway porter and he and his wife …
Read more “V1.8 – Fanny, John, Harry, Charles Henry and Ann Horsfall Helliwell”
Two William Henry Robinsons are buried here, or rather one is buried here but two are named. A father and son who both died young, the wife and mother left to mourn them, and the second man in her life (and the only one who outlived her). The first William Henry Robinson was born in …
Read more “28.28 – William Henry Robinson (x2) and Alice and James Thomas Highley”
This story, we thought, would be a relatively straightforward “war grave” story to post in time for Remembrance Sunday 2024. Instead, the background work on John William threw up a horrible sad story of its own; that of a soldier who was found guilty of one of the worst crimes and who was able to …
A lad like any other lad who met an early end – one of three named here, in fact – and a wife and mother who had to carry on regardless. Samuel Thomas was born in 1855 to another Samuel, a railway labourer, and his wife Betty. He was the youngest of the four children …
Read more “11.22 – Samuel, Sarah Jane, Henry and Charles William Thomas”
This war grave is a tricky one, because when we get down to William, outside of his war service there’s no heroes of the story – only a child to absorb the consequences of her parents’ and grandparents’ choices. Sometimes it’s hard to respect the dead and tell the truth. Patrick Walls was born in …
Read more “13.6 – Patrick, Mary Ann, Mary Jane, Florence and William Walls”
Here’s a war grave that encompasses quite a bit more than “just” WW1; here we have wealth gained, wealth lost, new starts, domestic violence, and a little bit of Russian and Canadian intrigue. The story begins with George Hirst and Harriet Rowlandson of Knottingley, who married at Christ Church in East Knottingley in July 1851. …
Read more “15.30 – William, Thomas and Sarah Elizabeth Lord, and Joe Hirst and Mary Ann Shackleton”
The people above are buried here, under this lancet-laid-flat in the lower yard. Emma Jane is last in the title of this story but she’s the thread that ties everyone else together. This grave contains her first and third husbands and her two sons and a daughter in law, as well as four unnamed infants. …
This story was told on our Remembrance Sunday 2023 tour. This is another tale that is about a family, not just a soldier. As often happens, it is filled with tragedy, and not a little graphic detail. Reader discretion is advised. John Albert Barker was born in 1882 to John and Susannah (Marshall) Barker. Susanna …
This story was told on our Remembrance Sunday 2023 tour. This is a story of not just a soldier, but an entire family that were drastically affected by the events of WW1. But let’s start with the birth of a little boy that would one day die for his country. George William Rohrer was born …
Read more “15.4 – Margaretta, George, Leopold and Sarah Mary Rohrer”
(the following is the text from our coverage of this grave on our Remembrance Sunday 2023 tour, so does not cover all the abovenamed in full detail) I’d like to share the life of Fred Ashworth with you, another of our brave Tod lads who died for his country, fighting to keep us all free. …
Read more “V7.7 – Annie, Fred, Mary, Edith, Richard and Will Ashworth”