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Doncaster Times Issue 1 - June 2016

Doncaster Times is a biannual publication of articles and pieces researched and written by members of the public, volunteers and professionals. For its first four years, the magazine will feature articles about Doncaster during the First World War, to commemorate the centenary. The most recent publication is available in hard copy only, available to purchase from Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, Doncaster Central Library and the Tourist Information Centre.

Doncaster Times is a biannual publication of articles and pieces researched and written by members of the public, volunteers and professionals. For its first four years, the magazine will feature articles about Doncaster during the First World War, to commemorate the centenary. The most recent publication is available in hard copy only, available to purchase from Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, Doncaster Central Library and the Tourist Information Centre.

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DONCASTER<br />

TIMES<br />

<strong>Issue</strong> 1: JUNE <strong>2016</strong><br />

At Home,<br />

At War


Contents<br />

Editorial 2<br />

Did He ’Go’ or Was He ‘Sent’? 3-5<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> and Conscription 6-8<br />

Spotlight 9<br />

Daughters of <strong>Doncaster</strong>: The Mystery Miss Hooper 10-11<br />

Hickleton Hall and the Great War 12-13<br />

Estate of War: <strong>Doncaster</strong>’s Country Houses 1914-18 14-16<br />

James Crampton: From Private to Major 17-18<br />

The Battle of the Somme documentary, 1916 19-20<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Musical Experiences during the Great War 21-23


<strong>Doncaster</strong> <strong>Times</strong><br />

At home, At war<br />

•<br />

•<br />

Uncover the past that shaped our future<br />

www.doncaster1914-18.org.uk<br />

•<br />

1 •


Welcome to the inaugural edition<br />

of <strong>Doncaster</strong> <strong>Times</strong>, a new take on<br />

what many of you will remember as<br />

Yesterday Today, which was published<br />

between 1991 and 2005.<br />

The production of <strong>Doncaster</strong> <strong>Times</strong> as a local<br />

history journal has been made possible by<br />

the generous funding received by <strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

1914-18 from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project<br />

commemorates the 100th anniversary of the<br />

First World War, and encourages the people of<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> to uncover and share their own First<br />

World War stories. Over the next three years, until<br />

July 2019, a series of events, exhibitions, and a<br />

new website will explore the role of the borough,<br />

its people, and the King’s Own Yorkshire Light<br />

Infantry in the conflict. <strong>Doncaster</strong> <strong>Times</strong> will focus<br />

on these tales for the life of the project, after which<br />

it will continue as a more general local and family<br />

history journal. Many groups and individuals have<br />

been involved in researching wartime family stories,<br />

the names on war memorials and how communities<br />

worked together towards the war effort. If you<br />

have been involved in such a project and would<br />

like to share your research and stories in a future<br />

edition of <strong>Doncaster</strong> <strong>Times</strong>, please contact me.<br />

In our first edition we deal with some of the issues<br />

that were prominent in 1916, such as the Military<br />

Service Act, which rendered every unmarried<br />

British male aged 18 - 41 eligible for call-up.<br />

This led to the setting up of appeal tribunals<br />

for cases of exemption, held in <strong>Doncaster</strong> at<br />

the Mansion House. Reserved occupations and<br />

conscientious objection were just two reasons<br />

for seeking exemption from military service.<br />

David Littlewood tells the story of conscription<br />

as a national initiative with a follow-up article<br />

by Lynsey Slater, giving an insight into how<br />

conscription affected <strong>Doncaster</strong>.<br />

A new feature, Spotlight, will feature an image<br />

or an artefact where information is needed to<br />

help identify some aspect, such as people on a<br />

photograph or what an object was used for. If you<br />

have a photograph or an image of something<br />

you need identifying please let us know.<br />

War was not just about the men fighting on the<br />

front line. Women had their role to play whether as<br />

munition workers, mothers keeping the home and<br />

families together, or nurses caring for convalescing<br />

soldiers or fundraising to send war comforts to the<br />

troops. Miss Hooper falls under the latter category<br />

and starts our series Daughters of <strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

showing women’s contribution to the war effort.<br />

John Dabell tells the story of Hickleton Hall and<br />

Lord and Lady Halifax’s contribution to the war,<br />

taking in Belgian refugees and later, although not<br />

recorded as being a military hospital, their care<br />

of wounded soldiers and officers. The owners of<br />

many of <strong>Doncaster</strong>’s country houses and estates<br />

turned their attention and indeed their houses over<br />

to the war effort with many becoming hospitals<br />

for convalescing military personnel. Lynsey Slater<br />

and Nicola Fox tell of the local landed families<br />

who helped the war effort including fundraising<br />

to send war comforts to the troops at the Front.<br />

The need for ‘normality’ at a time of war with all<br />

its ensuing hardship and horror saw people in<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> seeking entertainment through music.<br />

Philip Scowcroft tells of <strong>Doncaster</strong>’s musical<br />

experience during the war and its place in the<br />

celebrations of peace at the end of the conflict.<br />

Liz Astin of <strong>Doncaster</strong> Local Studies Library<br />

reveals her research journey to discover the<br />

tale of local hero, James Crampton, who made<br />

the jump from Private to Major at a remarkably<br />

young age and the connection she has recently<br />

made with James’ great niece, Janet Farrar.<br />

1 July 1916 saw the start of one of the most wellknown<br />

battles of the First World War, the Battle of<br />

the Somme. Only one month later a documentary<br />

film of the battle was released. The <strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

newspapers reviewed the film when it was<br />

shown in local cinemas in October <strong>2016</strong>.<br />

Lynsey Slater reviews local reactions to the film.<br />

I would like to thank the following: David Littlewood,<br />

Lynsey Slater, John Dabell, Nicola Fox, Philip<br />

L Scowcroft, Kate McAleese and Liz Astin for<br />

the research they have carried out and the<br />

subsequent articles they have contributed to<br />

this edition of <strong>Doncaster</strong> <strong>Times</strong>. I’d like to thank<br />

David Fordham from the <strong>Doncaster</strong> and District<br />

Philatelic and Postcard Society for supplying the<br />

Spotlight photographs for identification, Lynsey<br />

and the <strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18 volunteers, Jo Perrett<br />

and Alex Pilch, for proof-reading the content and<br />

those who have assisted with provision of the<br />

illustrations for the journal. My gratitude also<br />

goes to Jude Holland, <strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18 Project<br />

Manager, for her help compiling this first edition.<br />

Helen Wallder<br />

Local Studies Officer<br />

•<br />

2 •<br />

The next edition of<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> <strong>Times</strong><br />

will be published<br />

in October <strong>2016</strong>.<br />

Please send any<br />

contributions to me at:<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Local Studies<br />

Library, Waterdale,<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> DN1 3JE<br />

or email me<br />

by 26 August <strong>2016</strong> at:<br />

helen.wallder@doncaster.gov.uk<br />

DONCASTER<br />

TIMES<br />

<strong>Issue</strong> 1: May <strong>2016</strong><br />

At Home,<br />

At WAr


Did He ‘Go’ or<br />

Was He ‘Sent’?<br />

Conscription in the Great<br />

War and its relevance to<br />

family historians today<br />

Many family historians will have spent hours<br />

in front of a microfilm reader searching for<br />

a name in the long lists published in local<br />

newspapers headed ‘Killed’, ‘Missing’, ‘Wounded’<br />

or ‘Prisoner of War’. Focusing solely on those lists,<br />

most researchers probably fail to notice column<br />

after column from 1916 onwards entitled ‘At the<br />

Local Tribunal’ or ‘At the Appeals Tribunal’. These<br />

reports detailed the proceedings of military service<br />

tribunals, which were established under the Military<br />

Service Act to determine cases for exemption from<br />

conscription. Although the general perception is that<br />

the appeals system was primarily concerned with<br />

those few men who held conscientious objections,<br />

claims were actually lodged by a vast number of<br />

individuals, who came from all walks of British<br />

life, and had a highly diverse set of motivations<br />

for claiming exemption from military service. By<br />

studying the surviving records of tribunals’ hearings,<br />

family historians can gain an insight into the<br />

domestic and occupational circumstances of their<br />

ancestors, and an understanding of why they were<br />

sent to the Front or allowed to remain at home.<br />

The outbreak of the First World War unleashed<br />

a wave of patriotic fervour. Men in every locality<br />

besieged recruiting offices and queued for medical<br />

examinations, all desperate to join the colours and<br />

‘thrash ‘the Hun’’, not wishing to miss out on the big<br />

adventure that they all thought would be over by<br />

Christmas. The newspapers of late summer 1914<br />

were full of stories of heroic battles as both sides<br />

rushed for a strategic advantage. With enlistments<br />

averaging 116,000 per week in September, it<br />

seemed that the British ethos of volunteering<br />

would supply the necessary men without recourse<br />

to the ‘Prussian’ method of conscription. 1<br />

This heady atmosphere was quickly overtaken<br />

by a more sober assessment. By the end of<br />

1914, fighting on the Western Front had reached<br />

stalemate and a line of trenches was thrown up<br />

from the English Channel to the Swiss border.<br />

Battles such as Second Ypres and Loos resulted in<br />

unprecedented slaughter. Long lists of casualties<br />

became a feature of local newspapers, and word<br />

reached home of the deplorable conditions in the<br />

trenches. Men now became less willing to enlist,<br />

with the rate falling to around 100,000 per month<br />

by the middle of 1915. 2 Furthermore, volunteering<br />

was fast becoming a by-word for inefficiency, as it<br />

was leading to crippling losses of skilled workers<br />

from essential industries. Conscription seemed to<br />

offer a means of both getting more soldiers, and<br />

ensuring a more systematic allocation of manpower.<br />

Although the Government increasingly recognised<br />

the benefits of compulsory service, fears that it<br />

would lead to unrest amongst the working-classes<br />

prompted the decision to give volunteering one<br />

final opportunity. 3 Under what became known<br />

as the ‘Derby Scheme’, every male of military<br />

age was canvassed in an effort to persuade<br />

them to attest their willingness to serve. The<br />

attestees were then placed into age ‘groups’ to be<br />

summoned in order. Upon a man being called up,<br />

both he and his employer could lodge an appeal.<br />

Postponement to a later group could be claimed<br />

on hardship grounds, or it could be argued that<br />

the reservist’s occupation meant he should have<br />

been protected from service. To adjudicate on<br />

these appeals, each Local Registration Authority<br />

(the urban and rural district councils, and the<br />

borough councils) was required to establish a<br />

tribunal, largely made up of local councillors, with<br />

more complex cases being referred to a central<br />

tribunal in London. Attached to each appeal body<br />

was a military representative, who appeared at<br />

hearings with the power to object to claims. 4<br />

The Derby Scheme failed to adequately stimulate<br />

recruiting. Only around 2.1 million of the 5 million<br />

eligible attested, a figure that was further limited<br />

by removing the unfit and those employed in<br />

essential occupations to produce a result that<br />

was far below what the army believed necessary. 5<br />

This last failure of volunteering made the<br />

introduction of conscription inevitable. On 27<br />

January 1916, the Military Service Act rendered<br />

every unmarried British male aged between<br />

18 and 41 on 15 August 1915 eligible for call-up.<br />

The exemption system under conscription retained<br />

many features of that under the Derby Scheme, but<br />

also made some modifications. In addition to the<br />

previous grounds of occupation and domestic or<br />

business hardship, each reservist could now appeal<br />

on the basis that he suffered from ‘ill-health or<br />

•<br />

3 •


infirmity’, or that he held a ‘conscientious objection<br />

to the undertaking of combatant service’. 6 Such<br />

claims would be heard alongside those of attested<br />

men by the existing local tribunals, which could<br />

now grant temporary, conditional, or absolute<br />

exemption. 7 Furthermore, the Act established<br />

area appeal tribunals, to which the reservist or the<br />

military representative could refer a claim if they<br />

were dissatisfied with a local tribunal’s decision. 8<br />

By the end of the war, further Military Service<br />

Acts had extended the scope of conscription<br />

to all men, single and married, up to the age of<br />

51. However, it must be remembered that not<br />

every individual of military age came within the<br />

Tribunals’ jurisdiction. Many in essential war<br />

industries were afforded protection directly by<br />

government departments, most notably the<br />

Ministry of Munitions and the War Office, and<br />

therefore had no need to lodge a formal appeal. 9<br />

What is the relevance of all of this to the family<br />

historian? It might be expected that any national<br />

system of conscription would have left a large<br />

volume of official documents. This is not the case,<br />

however, because in 1921 the Government ordered<br />

local authorities to dispose of all the tribunal<br />

records. 10 Only a few exceptions were made,<br />

namely the papers of the Lothian and Peebles<br />

Appeal Tribunal, recently digitised by the National<br />

Archives of Scotland, and the papers of the<br />

Middlesex Appeal Tribunal and the Central Tribunal,<br />

which will soon be digitised under a joint project of<br />

the National Archives, the Friends of the National<br />

Archives, and the Federation of Family History<br />

Societies. 11 Fortunately, not all local authorities<br />

carried out the Government’s destruction order<br />

and for whatever reason some other records have<br />

been preserved. Every tribunal kept minutes, a<br />

register of decisions, a correspondence file, and<br />

the appeal forms for individual cases. Where such<br />

records survive they will usually be found in the<br />

local archives, most likely in the files of the council.<br />

After successive local government reorganisations<br />

since 1921 many archivists quite rightly complain<br />

that, with their limited staffing resources, they<br />

still do not know the full extent of their records<br />

and new discoveries are being made on a regular<br />

basis. In addition to official documents, the other<br />

significant resource on tribunal proceedings are<br />

the reports published in the local press. Many<br />

newspapers for the conscription period are<br />

accessible on microfilm at local history libraries.<br />

Exemption appeals offer rich potential as an avenue<br />

of inquiry for the family historian. In the popular<br />

mind, tribunal sittings were largely, or even solely,<br />

concerned with the cases of that small group<br />

of men who raised conscientious objections to<br />

performing military service. This misconception<br />

has been reinforced by the overwhelming focus<br />

on these individuals in the historiography. 12<br />

In actual fact, the number of men who appealed<br />

to the tribunals was vast, certainly over a million,<br />

meaning that many researchers should be able to<br />

find at least one relative who claimed exemption. 13<br />

Moreover, conscientious objectors made up only a<br />

tiny fraction of the appeal bodies’ workload, never<br />

more than 5% in any area studied so far, meaning<br />

that having no known family history of objections<br />

to war is not a bar to finding out about an<br />

ancestor through these records. 14 The vast majority<br />

of appellants argued some form of hardship or<br />

occupational grounds, although the precise reasons<br />

for claiming exemption were as varied as the<br />

backgrounds of the individuals who cited them.<br />

If there is a good chance of finding information on<br />

a relative, it is also likely that it will prove to be of<br />

interest. A tribunal register or an individual appeal<br />

form would be important finds for a family historian,<br />

as they would contain the name of the eligible man,<br />

his address, his occupation, age, and employer,<br />

whether the appeal was made by the man or the<br />

employer, the decision of the tribunal, and whether<br />

a further appeal was lodged. An examination of the<br />

local newspaper reports should also be rewarding.<br />

When the exemption system was introduced some<br />

tribunals refused to allow the press and public<br />

into their proceedings, fearing that men would be<br />

deterred from appealing or be subject to ridicule<br />

if their identity was made known to the public.<br />

Even when they were given access, some editors<br />

refused to give names and addresses for similar<br />

reasons. However, other newspapers published<br />

full details from the start, and this became<br />

commonplace in the final two years of the war<br />

when the stigma of appealing had diminished.<br />

Even where names are not given in the press<br />

reports, if there is a register entry or an appeal<br />

form it will often be apparent from the stated<br />

facts which case is which. The primary value of<br />

the newspaper coverage lies in the fact that the<br />

burden of proof in any claim to exemption fell on<br />

the appellant. This meant that their testimony often<br />

contained rich descriptions of domestic, business<br />

and occupational circumstances and how these<br />

had been affected by the war. Frequently, appellants<br />

went on to describe the situations of their relatives<br />

or the conditions at their workplace, thereby<br />

providing a glimpse into the wider community.<br />

The final utility of the reports is in detailing the<br />

tribunal’s verdict. Clearly this was a seminal<br />

moment for the eligible man, as it meant the<br />

4 •<br />


difference between remaining at home in relative<br />

safety, or being sent to the front to face the very<br />

real prospect of injury or death. Having a sense of<br />

how the decision was reached would, therefore,<br />

be particularly poignant for the family historian.<br />

From research carried out into my own family<br />

it is apparent that despite the system of<br />

conscription none of my forebears saw any<br />

service with the military. My great-grandfather<br />

was an engineer and so exempt from military<br />

service; tracing his ancestry back to a long line<br />

of wire drawers operating from the Eyton &<br />

Littlewood works in Gwersyllt, near Wrexham.<br />

It is hoped that this article and the ongoing<br />

digitisation of Tribunal records will stimulate<br />

others without a military past to explore another<br />

fascinating avenue of family history research.<br />

1932), p. 152; A.J.P. Taylor, Politics in Wartime and<br />

Other Essays (London, Hamilton, 1964), p. 24.<br />

14<br />

James G.M. Cranstoun, ‘The Impact of the Great War on a<br />

Local Community: The Case of East Lothian’, PhD Thesis,<br />

Open University, 1992, p. 117; Keith Grieves, ‘Military Tribunal<br />

Papers: The Case of Leek Local Tribunal in the First World<br />

War’, Archives: The Journal of the British Record Association<br />

XVI (1983), p. 146; Christine Housden, ‘Researching Kingston’s<br />

Military Tribunal, 1916-1918’, Occasional Papers in Local<br />

History II (2004), p. 6; James McDermott, ‘Conscience and<br />

the Military Service Tribunals during the First World War:<br />

Experiences in Northamptonshire’, War in History XVII (2010),<br />

p. 68; K.W. Mitchinson, Saddleworth 1914-1919:<br />

The Experience of a Pennine Community during the Great War<br />

(Saddleworth: Saddleworth Historical Society, 1995), p. 65;<br />

A.J. Peacock, York in the Great War: 1914-1918 (York: York<br />

Settlement Trust, 1993), p. 511; Ivor Slocombe, ‘Recruitment<br />

into the Armed Forces during the First World War: The Work<br />

of the Military Tribunals in Wiltshire, 1915-1918’, The Local<br />

Historian XXX (2000), p. 111; Philip Spinks ‘‘The War Courts’:<br />

The Stratford-upon-Avon Borough Tribunal, 1916-1918’,<br />

The Local Historian XXXII (2000), p. 214.<br />

David Littlewood<br />

1<br />

HMSO, Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire<br />

during the Great War, 1914-1920 London: HMSO, 1922, p. 364.<br />

2<br />

HMSO, Statistics of the Military Effort, p. 364.<br />

3<br />

R.J.Q. Adams and Philip P. Poirier, The Conscription Controversy<br />

in Great Britain, 1900-18 (Ohio, Ohio State University Press,<br />

1987), pp. 115-8.<br />

4<br />

Local Government Board Circular R. 1, 26 October 1915,<br />

MH 47/142, The National Archives (TNA).<br />

5<br />

Memorandum by Lord Derby on the Results of the Derby<br />

Scheme, 20 December 1915, Asquith Papers 82, Bodleian<br />

Library.<br />

6<br />

Military Service Act 1916, Section 2 (1).<br />

7<br />

Local Government Board Circular R. 36, 3 February 1916,<br />

MH 47/142, TNA; Military Service Act 1916, Section 2 (3).<br />

8<br />

Military Service Act, 1916, Second Schedule.<br />

9<br />

Statement for the War Committee, 24 October 1916,<br />

CAB 17/158, TNA.<br />

10<br />

Ministry of Health Circular No. 293, 27 March 1922,<br />

MH 47/5, TNA.<br />

11<br />

The Lothian and Peebles holdings can be found at http://<br />

www.nas.gov.uk/about/081103.asp, while information on the<br />

digitalisation of the Middlesex and Central Tribunal records is<br />

available at http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/conscriptionappeals/<br />

12<br />

See for example: David Boulton, Objection Overruled<br />

(London, MacGibbon & Kee, 1967); John Rae, Conscience<br />

and Politics: The British Government and the Conscientious<br />

Objector to Military Service, 1916-1919 (London, Oxford<br />

University Press, 1970); Thomas C. Kennedy, The Hound of<br />

Conscience: A History of the No-Conscription Fellowship,<br />

1914-1919 (Fayetteville, University of Arkansas Press, 1981);<br />

Martin Ceadel, Semi-Detached Idealists: The British Peace<br />

Movement and International Relations, 1854-1945 (Oxford,<br />

Oxford University Press, 2000).<br />

13<br />

Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, Military Operations:<br />

France and Belgium, 1916: Sir Douglas Haig’s Command to<br />

the 1st July: Battle of the Somme (London, MacMillan and Co.,<br />

The British Secretary of State for War,<br />

Lord Kitchener was killed on <strong>June</strong> 5,<br />

1916 when the ship he was on struck<br />

a German mine and sank off the<br />

coast of the Orkney Islands.<br />

Lord Kitchener had become a familiar face<br />

through his pointing recruitment posters.<br />

The <strong>Doncaster</strong> press described his death as<br />

a ‘national calamity’. A large service was held<br />

at <strong>Doncaster</strong> Minster in his memory attended<br />

by the Mayor, councillors, wounded soldiers<br />

from local hospitals and their nurses.<br />

•<br />

5 •


<strong>Doncaster</strong> Heritage Services<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> and<br />

Conscription<br />

‘TO THE UNATTESTED’<br />

…Come to the colours and<br />

cheat the Compulsionist<br />

Prove that it’s humour that’s<br />

kept you so long away<br />

Come in your thousands and<br />

help the expulsionist<br />

Throw out a Bill that proposes<br />

so wrong a way.<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Gazette, January 7 1916, pg 7<br />

Opinion pieces, letters and even poems<br />

ran in local newspapers early in 1916,<br />

urging men to enlist so conscription<br />

could be avoided. The <strong>Doncaster</strong> tribunal<br />

system operated from the Mansion House.<br />

Throughout 1916, the ‘tales told to the tribunals’<br />

were the talk of the town and the local press.<br />

A well-known local conscientious objector,<br />

whose case was heard at the tribunal, was<br />

John Hubert Brocklesby from Conisbrough.<br />

John Hubert, known as Bert,was a Methodist<br />

preacher and a teacher. He refused to do any<br />

war work on religious and moral grounds.<br />

After his appearance at a <strong>Doncaster</strong> tribunal in<br />

February 1916, he was arrested and imprisoned in<br />

Richmond Castle. Later in 1916, he and 15 others<br />

were sent to France and sentenced to death. His<br />

sentence was reduced to 10 years imprisonment<br />

and he was moved back to the UK. Many<br />

conscientious objectors received poor treatment<br />

from the military and their community alike<br />

In <strong>Doncaster</strong>, as well as the small minority<br />

objecting to conscription on moral and religious<br />

•<br />

6 •


grounds, there were also men seeking exemption<br />

for business and family reasons. Butchers,<br />

hairdressers, bakers, grocers, men with widowed<br />

mothers, ill children, and eligible men in families<br />

where all their brothers had been killed sought<br />

exemption to protect their businesses and<br />

families. Many of them were unsuccessful.<br />

In March 1916, six King’s Own Yorkshire Light<br />

Infantry (K.O.Y.L.I.) soldiers wrote to the <strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

Chronicle calling for conscientious objectors<br />

to take on the job of ‘wireman’. These men<br />

believed that offering conscientious objectors<br />

such a dangerous role, but which did not involve<br />

front-line fighting would force them to join an<br />

ordinary branch of the army. The tone of their<br />

letter seems harsh to modern audiences, but<br />

as the war raged and casualties rose, tensions<br />

ran high. Three of these six soldiers would die<br />

on the first day of the battle of the Somme.<br />

Many people agreed with the K.O.Y.L.I. soldiers<br />

declaration that those who did not serve were<br />

‘wash-outs’ but many disagreed. Even John<br />

Hubert Brocklesby’s brother, himself an active<br />

soldier, supported his brother’s convictions.<br />

Do you have a conscientious objector, a man<br />

in a protected occupation or a successful<br />

exemption case in your family? <strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

1914-18 is looking for your conscription related<br />

stories. To add your story to our online community<br />

archive visit: www.doncaster1914-18.org.uk<br />

or email: info@doncaster1914-18.org.uk<br />

Lynsey Slater<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18 Project Researcher<br />

Dear Editor<br />

[We] would suggest the following method<br />

of dealing with men who plead ‘Thou<br />

Shalt Not Kill’ – In front of our trenches.<br />

There are miles of barbed wire, and<br />

men are always required to repair<br />

gaps made by enemy bombardment...<br />

Such work has to be done at night and<br />

men do not carry rifles, so there is no<br />

reason why our conscientious objectors<br />

should not be trained as wiremen and<br />

sent out here for that purpose only.<br />

What could they plead against that? …<br />

We, the undersigned, are all <strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

lads, who have had charge of platoons<br />

out here for the last six months.. so many<br />

wash-outs are left in the old town.<br />

Sergeant Edward Ellis - 20059<br />

Sergeant Walter Gibbons - 17232<br />

Sergeant (H)Oriel Marsden - 16502<br />

Sergeant Edward Poppleton - 16506<br />

Acting Lance Sergeant George<br />

Scholey - 17570<br />

Company Sergeant Major Harry<br />

Winwood - 16446<br />

•<br />

7 •


Poster: Military Service Act, 1916<br />

•<br />

8 •


S p otlight<br />

Can you identify<br />

the location?<br />

Below are two postcards taken during the<br />

First World War, probably in the <strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

area. However, their location is unknown.<br />

Can you help us identify the location and<br />

give us any more information about what<br />

is happening in the pictures?<br />

The original postcards have no message, address<br />

or stamp on the back but they were both published<br />

by The Regina Company Press Photographers, based<br />

in <strong>Doncaster</strong>. Regina photographed various events<br />

and activities in the South Yorkshire area and their<br />

images were published as postcards and in<br />

contemporary newspapers.<br />

Military personnel<br />

with carriages outside<br />

what looks to be a<br />

railway station with<br />

the photograph<br />

possibly being taken<br />

from a bridge over<br />

the road. A rural<br />

scene, possibly in<br />

one of the villages<br />

around <strong>Doncaster</strong>?<br />

Soldiers outside<br />

Simpson (& Sons?)<br />

Motors and Cycles.<br />

Possibly located<br />

on the Great North<br />

Road, maybe in<br />

Bawtry or the<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Race<br />

Course areas?<br />

If you can help, please contact Helen Wallder at <strong>Doncaster</strong> Local Studies Library<br />

on: 01302 734307 or email: central.localhistory@doncaster.gov.uk<br />

•<br />

9 •


Daughters of<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

The Mystery Miss Hooper<br />

which opens at Cusworth Hall on 16 July <strong>2016</strong>.<br />

Within a collection loaned to the project for the<br />

exhibition were two photographs of Miss Freda<br />

Hooper. These photographs had been given<br />

to Julia, the commandant of Hooton Pagnell<br />

Auxiliary Hospital, after Freda entertained the<br />

troops there. Enclosed was a business card with<br />

Freda’s address listed as 137 St Sepulchre Gate.<br />

While selecting objects for <strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

1914-18’s current exhibition From Don to<br />

Somme: the King’s Own Yorkshire Light<br />

Infantry at War; 1916, I came across a framed letter<br />

to a Miss Hooper. The letter thanks this mysterious<br />

woman for providing the 5th Battalion of the King’s<br />

Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (K.O.Y.L.I.) with 1000<br />

cigarettes and 3lbs of tobacco. She raised the funds<br />

for these goods through the sale of her photograph.<br />

The letter was then signed by many soldiers from<br />

the 5th Battalion, most of them from <strong>Doncaster</strong>.<br />

It’s not uncommon to find support for soldiers<br />

like this, as the connection with the K.O.Y.L.I. in<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> was strong. Organisations, including the<br />

Great Northern Railway, churches and local groups<br />

sent out ‘comfort packs’ to soldiers at the Front<br />

containing clothing and tobacco. Other events,<br />

such as an American Tea at the Mansion House<br />

in May 1916 were held to raise funds to support<br />

this local regiment. However, what set this letter<br />

apart was that it was addressed directly to Miss<br />

Hooper and thanked her for her hard work<br />

in selling her photograph. With no additional<br />

information about the identity of Miss Hooper,<br />

we opted to include the letter in the exhibition<br />

with an appeal for additional information.<br />

Through research for a different exhibition I<br />

came across a mention of a Miss Freda Hooper<br />

contributing to a concert entertaining inmates<br />

and troops at Balby Workhouse. This provided<br />

a lead, but wasn’t a sure confirmation of Miss<br />

Hooper’s identity. I then found a Freda Winifred<br />

Hooper on the 1911 census. She was 8 years old<br />

and living at 137 St Sepulchre Gate with her family.<br />

Her father Albert was a master butcher and the<br />

family had a domestic servant, Florence Sarah<br />

Ashworth, living at the address with them. It would<br />

seem Freda married Arthur Clifford Cooper at<br />

St James Church, <strong>Doncaster</strong> in July 1928. The<br />

couple appear to have had three children; Peter,<br />

Albert and Julie. A death was registered for a<br />

Freda Winifred Cooper in <strong>Doncaster</strong> in March 1971.<br />

Then, a real breakthrough came during the<br />

development stage of the Estate of War:<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong>’s Country Houses 1914-18 exhibition,<br />

Images by kind permission of Mark Warde-Norbury<br />

So the focus returns to the K.O.Y.L.I. letter. While<br />

we can now tie these photographs to the butcher’s<br />

daughter and troop entertainer Miss Hooper, we’re<br />

still not able to definitively tie them to the letter from<br />

the K.O.Y.L.I. soldiers, though it seems likely that<br />

the author of the letter was the same Miss Hooper.<br />

Do you have any more information about<br />

Miss Hooper? Are you related to her?<br />

If so, the project would love to hear from<br />

you. If you can shed any light on this mystery<br />

woman, please contact <strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18<br />

by emailing: info@doncaster1914-18.org.uk<br />

Lynsey Slater<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18 Project Researcher<br />

•<br />

10 •


By kind permission of Mark Warde-Norbury<br />

•<br />

11 •


Hickleton<br />

Hall and the<br />

Great War<br />

During the summer of 1914 dark clouds were<br />

gathering across the whole of Europe and at<br />

Hickleton in those long hot sunny days, life<br />

at the Hall was about to be disturbed in a way it had<br />

never seen before, for talk of an impending war was<br />

on everyone’s lips. Lord Halifax of the Hall was at<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Mansion House on the 15 August<br />

speaking on the ‘looming crisis of war’. War had<br />

been declared on the 4 August and by 12 September<br />

Halifax had sprung into further action, holding<br />

a series of meetings around the area at Boltonupon-Dearne,<br />

Wath-upon-Dearne and Goldthorpe<br />

where it was reported in the press that the call<br />

to colours ‘had been a bit slow’. The response<br />

to Halifax’s encouragement of local men to<br />

enlist was enormous as the newspaper reports<br />

huge lists of recruits from all over the district.<br />

These recruiting reports were followed almost<br />

immediately by lists of soldiers wounded and killed.<br />

As the Germans marched into Belgium, refugees<br />

displaced by war began fleeing to Britain.<br />

‘Consignment of Belgians reach Hickleton’ records<br />

Halifax’s biographer. The newspaper however,<br />

offers more detail, for on 17 October tucked away<br />

on the back page is the following information;<br />

‘Belgian refugees’ new home – Guests of Lord<br />

Halifax’. The article states that a family of Belgium<br />

Refugees had been given temporary residence in<br />

the Reading Room at Hickleton where they ‘had<br />

succeeded in establishing themselves in enviable<br />

cosiness.’ By 24 October, a photograph shows<br />

another group of Belgian Refugees at Thrybergh<br />

to help a ‘great deal of fundraising’ to make their<br />

stay more comfortable. One month later on 21<br />

November, wounded soldiers were arriving at<br />

Hooton Pagnell Hall, in the next village to Hickleton.<br />

Lord Halifax’s diary shows his considerable<br />

involvement in the war effort. On 23 September<br />

1914, he records that he ‘talked with the people of<br />

the village about the War’ and ‘the Reading Room<br />

was full’. The following year on 24 April 1915, he<br />

records ‘Soldiers from the hospital in <strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

came to spend the afternoon and have tea – took<br />

them round the gardens at 6:30 pm’. Again on<br />

29 July he writes that ‘Soldiers from hospital in<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> came to tea’. By 17 January 1916 he<br />

records 175th Durham Light Infantry and eleven<br />

officers arrived – the latter to be in the house,<br />

•<br />

12 •


the former in the Stables for a ‘fight’ tomorrow’.’<br />

On 16 July 1917 he writes, ‘The Australian Officer<br />

Major Pedlar arrived – wounded in the foot on the<br />

Somme’. Hickleton Hall isn’t recorded as being<br />

a military hospital but it seems it took in some<br />

officers who had been wounded and opened the<br />

house and grounds, with refreshments to many<br />

soldiers. Major Pedlar was being shown the delights<br />

of Bella Wood by 21 July, probably in the donkey and<br />

cart generally used by Lady Halifax to get around<br />

her estate. Soldiers from Barnsley Hospital spent<br />

the afternoon at Hickleton Hall on the 31 August.<br />

The Lady of Hickleton Hall, Dorothy Wood, wife of<br />

Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, later Baron Irwin<br />

(1925), Third Viscount Halifax (1934), and finally<br />

First Earl Halifax (1944) was involved in nursing<br />

during the First World War. Temple Newsam, one of<br />

their houses, was converted into a military hospital.<br />

On her visits to Hickleton, she also nursed soldiers<br />

coming there as an aid to recuperation. ‘On the<br />

night of the 24 September 1917’, writes Halifax,<br />

‘excitement in the night, woken by terrific noise of<br />

bombs – all maids and the children assembled in<br />

the basement [as planned]!’ The next entry reveals<br />

where the bombs dropped – Bolton-upon-Dearne –<br />

for he records ‘windows broken and frames torn out<br />

in a long row’. Two months later he is at the Vicarage<br />

again in Bolton-upon-Dearne where he writes<br />

‘saw Mr Wilkins – everything in great disorder’<br />

whether this was another bombing he doesn’t say.<br />

Men from the village, the estate and the Hall played<br />

a huge role in the War. Five of them paid the ultimate<br />

sacrifice. They are remembered on the village war<br />

memorial. Lord Halifax chose to erect this edifice<br />

before the end of the war, moving a monument<br />

already there further down the village street and<br />

erecting a crucifix bearing the following inscription:<br />

The inscription then concludes with a quotation<br />

from the Te deum, an ancient Christian hymn of<br />

praise believed to have been written by St Niketas<br />

in the fourth century AD, and reads, ‘Make them to<br />

be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting.’<br />

John Dabell<br />

‘In remembrance of those who enlisted from this place.<br />

Most of whom went overseas to fight for their<br />

King and country in the Great War 1914-1918.’<br />

Hon. Edward Wood<br />

John Cyril Dalton<br />

Paul Dalton<br />

Lawrence Heppenstall<br />

Harry Heppenstall<br />

Frank Ball (killed)<br />

George Ball<br />

Arthur Ball<br />

Arthur Wenman<br />

John Wenman<br />

William Wenman<br />

Herbert Teale (killed)<br />

William Teale<br />

George Stables<br />

Herbert Atkinson<br />

George Benjamin Wood<br />

Percy Rogers<br />

Sidney Walters (killed)<br />

Harry Salkeld<br />

Archie Acomb<br />

Frank Turner<br />

Albert Smeaton<br />

Frederick Andrews<br />

Ernest Stoneham<br />

Wilfred Parker<br />

George Cocking<br />

Jack Linton<br />

George Linton<br />

Harry Johnstone<br />

George Ford<br />

Ernest Stewart<br />

Claude Harker<br />

John William Sykes<br />

James Sykes (killed)<br />

Charles Lockwood<br />

John William Garbutt<br />

John Henry Wordsworth<br />

Reginald Gould<br />

Ralph Leslie Mackeridge (killed)<br />

Charles Kent<br />

Joseph Ernest Smith<br />

James Dixon<br />

Herbert Hibbird<br />

Thomas Hunt<br />

•<br />

13 •


Estate of War<br />

for socks, shirts and other comforts to be made by<br />

local people and sent out to troops on the front line.<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong>’s Country Houses<br />

1914-18<br />

In the years before the First World War,<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong>’s country houses were experiencing<br />

a ‘golden age.’ The rigid social hierarchy of the<br />

country house represented a miniature society<br />

within the estate. Local estates were known for<br />

their lavish events of local and national importance<br />

and the families of these Halls were well known in<br />

the town as charitable citizens. However, with the<br />

outbreak of the First World War in August 1914,<br />

these estates were shaken to their core. Halls were<br />

used as hospitals and fundraising centres and the<br />

men of the estates, workers and tenants as well<br />

as the heirs, were called up.<br />

Hooton Pagnell Hall was opened by Julia Warde-<br />

Aldam as a hospital for wounded soldiers soon after<br />

the outbreak of war. Traditionally, the matriarchs<br />

of country houses given over to use as hospitals<br />

during the war would serve as the commandant,<br />

overseeing the running of the hospital. However,<br />

Julia also served as a matron and general<br />

administrator. Patients at the hospital played<br />

billiards, took walks around the grounds, made bead<br />

necklaces, painted, wrote poems and went fishing<br />

as part of their convalescence. However, there<br />

were strict rules laid down by Julia that were to be<br />

observed by patients at all times, including a rather<br />

odd rule of no bicycle riding at any time. Despite<br />

these rules the patients leaving the Hall, many to<br />

return to the Front, were fond of Julia and enjoyed<br />

their stay. They wrote messages of praise and<br />

thanks in the hospital’s visitor books. The soldiers<br />

expressed their thanks for the genuine kindness<br />

and care shown to them by Julia and the nurses<br />

at the Hall, with some of them writing poems<br />

or sticking post cards into these books. As well<br />

as overseeing the running of the hospital, Julia<br />

maintained regular contact with her ex-patients,<br />

sending hundreds of letters and gifts to those who<br />

had passed through the doors of the Hall. Topics<br />

in these letters ranged from goings-on at the Hall,<br />

the men’s families, their experiences on the front<br />

line and even a request for Julia to send musical<br />

instruments out to bored soldiers in the trenches.<br />

Julia also administered two war working parties<br />

for Hooton Pagnell and South Elmsall, organising<br />

Julia Warde-Aldam and nurses outside Hooton Pagnell<br />

by kind permission of Mark Warde-Norbury<br />

Another <strong>Doncaster</strong> matriarch, Flora Skipwith of<br />

Loversal, (later called Loversall) Hall, opened her<br />

home as a hospital for wounded soldiers in late<br />

1914. At Loversal Hall, the whole family became<br />

involved in the war effort. Flora served as the<br />

commandant of the hospital, with her twin<br />

daughters Blanche and Helen working for<br />

her, serving interchangeably as nurses and<br />

quartermasters, looking after the hospital stores.<br />

Even Flora’s step-daughter Mary Effie, her<br />

husband Grey’s daughter from a previous<br />

marriage, served at Loversal, assisting the nurses<br />

and doing pantry work. Flora’s son Granville<br />

served with the Royal Field Artillery on the front<br />

line. It was not just the Skipwith family who<br />

supported the hospital at Loversal. Other notable<br />

families around the <strong>Doncaster</strong> area pitched in to<br />

help. Two of the Ross sisters from Wadworth Hall<br />

and Albreda Bewicke-Copley from Sprotbrough<br />

Hall worked at Loversal in various roles.<br />

Brodsworth Hall was not used as a hospital, but<br />

was home to a branch of the Queen Mary’s<br />

Needlework Guild. The Guild was supported by<br />

the Thelluson family who lived at the Hall and<br />

coordinated the women of the estate and village<br />

to knit and sew garments to send out to troops at<br />

the Front, with Mrs Thelluson keeping an eye on<br />

proceedings. Within the collections at Brodsworth<br />

Hall is a notebook from 1915-16 which details 129<br />

local women and men who contributed to the<br />

scheme and lists over 2,000 garments made by<br />

them, mostly socks and shirts. A young girl named<br />

Amy Tyreman, along with her sisters, sent many<br />

comforts from Brodsworth to soldiers around<br />

•<br />

14 •


Top and right: images by kind permission<br />

of Joanna Skipwith<br />

the world. Amy included her name and<br />

address with the packages she sent, and<br />

began ‘pen-pal’ friendships with many<br />

of the soldiers and sailors who received<br />

socks and scarfs from her. The letters<br />

these men sent to Amy range in date<br />

from 1915-1919, and come from men<br />

serving in France, guarding the coast<br />

of England, undertaking training and<br />

on ships in the Mediterranean. One of<br />

these men, Able Seaman James Henry<br />

Norman of the Royal Naval Division<br />

received socks from Amy and sent her<br />

a warm thank you letter. Even Norman’s wife<br />

wrote a letter to Amy thanking her for her kindness,<br />

enclosing a brooch as a token of her thanks.<br />

Amy treasured these letters and kept them safe<br />

before they were passed onto English Heritage.<br />

Unfortunately, the wartime contribution of many<br />

of <strong>Doncaster</strong>’s country houses was the lives of<br />

their sons. Redvers Bewicke-Copley, the heir to<br />

Sprotbrough Hall, shared an officer’s mess with<br />

Raymond Peake of Bawtry Hall while they served in<br />

the Coldstream Guards. Raymond died of wounds<br />

in September 1916, and Redvers was killed in<br />

action, shot by a stray bullet, a few months later in<br />

December 1916. Flora<br />

Skipwith of Loversal lost her son Granville to the<br />

war when he was killed in action in <strong>June</strong> 1915<br />

while serving with the Royal Field Artillery.<br />

For the most part, these houses were never to return<br />

to the grandeur of the pre-war period. The end of<br />

the war marked the beginning of a period of decline<br />

for most of <strong>Doncaster</strong>’s country houses. From the<br />

beginning of the First World War in 1914 a myriad of<br />

factors came together to contribute to the decline of<br />

the country estate; changing social structure, heavy<br />

taxation and death duties, a lack of staff due to war<br />

•<br />

15 •


Loversal Hall by kind permission of Joanna Skipwith<br />

time casualties and general economic pressures<br />

were a potent combination. In <strong>Doncaster</strong>, the<br />

contents of Sprotbrough Hall were sold at auction<br />

in 1925, and the shell of the Hall sold for demolition<br />

as part of the sale. Sprotbrough was to become<br />

one of the first of many. This trend continued, and<br />

many of <strong>Doncaster</strong>’s country houses were sold off<br />

from the 1920s onwards. Some were converted<br />

into care homes, hotels, luxury flats, or in the<br />

case of Brodsworth Hall and Cusworth Hall, into<br />

heritage sites. Some of the houses in the area<br />

remain in private ownership, but very few remain<br />

as residences for the descendants of the families<br />

who owned them at the turn of the 20th century.<br />

An exhibition exploring the fortunes of these<br />

country houses Estate of War: <strong>Doncaster</strong>’s Country<br />

Houses 1914-18 opens at Cusworth Hall on<br />

16 July <strong>2016</strong>. Through original objects and<br />

photographs, discover how the First World War<br />

changed the lives of those upstairs and downstairs.<br />

Lynsey Slater<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18 Project Researcher<br />

Nicola Fox<br />

Assistant Museums Officer (Human History)<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Heritage Services<br />

The Tyreman family from a Private Collection.<br />

Copyright Historic England Archive<br />

•<br />

16 •


James<br />

Crampton<br />

From Private to Major<br />

As part of the <strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18 project,<br />

Dr Charles Kelham, Borough Archivist for<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong>, asked if I would look through<br />

the school log books at <strong>Doncaster</strong> Archives to<br />

check the physical condition of the books, and<br />

to explore the content relating to the First World<br />

War, and how it affected the pupils, teachers and<br />

everyday life in <strong>Doncaster</strong>. This research project<br />

proved to be fascinating; some schools barely<br />

mentioned the war, apart from losing teachers<br />

to the war effort and ‘having’ to employ married<br />

women, whilst others gave detailed accounts<br />

on how the schools were affected. The central<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> schools were commandeered by the<br />

army for troops, and the children were moved into<br />

church halls and other buildings. In the outlying<br />

areas, children assisted the war effort by growing<br />

vegetables and collecting berries to make jam.<br />

This was how I first came across James<br />

Crampton, in the Hexthorpe Middle School log<br />

book. His head teacher, Mr W S Willing, B.A.,<br />

expressed how proud he was of James.<br />

“It has been a red letter day in the history of the<br />

school. The Mayor, Councillor G Raithby, the<br />

Chairman of the Education Committee, Alderman<br />

C Smith, Alderman Cole, Councillors Morris and<br />

Sutton, the Education Secretary and others visited<br />

the school to honour an old boy, James Crampton,<br />

who has been awarded the Military Cross for<br />

valour at the Battle of Messines, Hill 60 and has<br />

been promoted to the rank of Captain, 8th York<br />

and Lancaster. The school rooms were suitably<br />

decorated, complimentary speeches were made<br />

by the Mayor and Alderman Smith, the headmaster<br />

gave a report on the school record during the war,<br />

and then a presentation solid silver cigarette case<br />

was handed to the gallant captain, who replied<br />

in an “apt and suitable manner”. National songs<br />

were rendered and the whole James Crampton<br />

proceedings, interspersed with cheering and<br />

applause were most enthusiastic. A half day holiday<br />

was granted in honour of Captain Crampton”.<br />

By kind permission of Janet Farrar<br />

This was only the beginning, and I was intrigued. My<br />

curiosity inspired me to check for more information<br />

from Wyn’s Military Index to <strong>Doncaster</strong> Newspapers<br />

1914-1919. Over the last ten years Wyn Bulmer, a<br />

Local Studies project volunteer, has spent almost<br />

every Saturday morning in the Local Studies Library<br />

trawling the newspapers for information on serving<br />

military personnel and their families and indexing<br />

the material found. This wonderful resource is<br />

available as part of the <strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18 project<br />

online and as a CD. There were several entries for<br />

James Crampton, and his brother Thomas, which<br />

also gave information on other members of the<br />

family helping me to construct a family tree. Their<br />

father, Thomas had fought in South Africa and<br />

both James and Thomas junior had joined the<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Territorials before the outbreak of war.<br />

Armed with this information, I began to build up a<br />

picture of James’ war service; from his promotion<br />

to 2nd Lieutenant in the York & Lancaster regiment,<br />

receiving the Military Cross at the battle of<br />

Messines, Hill 60 and promotion to Captain four<br />

days later, on his 21st birthday. He also won the<br />

Belgian Croix de Guerre, the Belgian War Cross, the<br />

honour being conferred on him by King Albert I for<br />

‘most daring and conspicuous gallantry in action in<br />

Belgium’. On the 1 July 1918, he was promoted to<br />

Major at the considerably young age of 22 years.<br />

Whilst serving in Italy on 31 October 1918, he was<br />

awarded the Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O) for<br />

conspicuous ability and gallantry at the Piave Battle,<br />

during a crossing of the River Livenza into Sacile.<br />

After several unsuccessful attempts to improve<br />

•<br />

17 •


the bridge and make a crossing, he organised a<br />

party of pioneers, constructed a bridge, brought<br />

up mortars and machine guns, and succeeded<br />

in getting three companies across the river. His<br />

determination, resourcefulness and complete<br />

disregard of his own personal safety were praised.’<br />

Finding out more about James led me to research<br />

his brother, Thomas Crampton’s war service. He<br />

turned out to be another brave soldier, as a local<br />

newspaper headline illustrated ‘Wounded seven<br />

times, gassed and survived’. Thomas joined the<br />

Scots Fusiliers on the first day of the war, having<br />

spent 4 years in the Old Volunteers and as a<br />

member of the National Reserve. He was sent out<br />

to France at Easter 1915 and gained promotion<br />

to Corporal in January 1916. Thomas was<br />

recommended for the Military Cross for bravery at<br />

Loos, but unfortunately did not receive this honour.<br />

In July 1916 he was in hospital in Glasgow with a<br />

bullet wound to the neck, received on 14 July 1916.<br />

He was severely wounded in his right arm on 18th<br />

September 1918 in action at Etaples. He survived<br />

the war and was promoted to Sergeant Major.<br />

As part of the <strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18 project this<br />

information was then entered up on their website,<br />

www.doncaster1914-18.org.uk, promoting<br />

much interest, including from abroad. I have<br />

been in correspondence with Mathais Aerts<br />

from Belgium, who is also carrying out his<br />

own research on James Crampton, working on<br />

the York & Lancaster regiment war diaries.<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> holds an annual Heritage Festival, and<br />

this year’s is the sixth festival to be held but the<br />

first time that there has been a bespoke Heritage<br />

Festival beer created. Ian and Alison Blaylock<br />

of the <strong>Doncaster</strong> Brewery Tap, Young Street are<br />

known for creating beers with names that have a<br />

local connection, so when they created the first<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Heritage Festival beer it seemed very<br />

appropriate to honour one of <strong>Doncaster</strong>’s brave<br />

First World War soldiers. It was a remarkable<br />

Many of the resources used in tracing your<br />

First World War ancestors are available in<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Archives and Local Studies, including<br />

parish registers, <strong>Doncaster</strong> newspapers<br />

(<strong>Doncaster</strong> Gazette & Chronicle and the South<br />

Yorkshire <strong>Times</strong>), census returns and access<br />

to both Ancestry and Findmypast websites.<br />

Local Studies Library, Central Library,<br />

Waterdale, <strong>Doncaster</strong>, DN1 3JE<br />

Telephone: 01302 734307<br />

Email: central.localhistory@doncaster.gov.uk<br />

By kind permission of Janet Farrar<br />

achievement to rise from a Private to a Major, and<br />

apparently James Crampton enjoyed a pint or<br />

two, so it was decided to name the beer after him.<br />

A relative of James Crampton was traced; Janet<br />

(his great niece) and she became involved in this<br />

project. Images of James had been found in the<br />

local newspapers but Janet was able to provide a<br />

wonderful series of family photographs including<br />

photographs of James and Thomas. The festival<br />

beer was launched at the <strong>Doncaster</strong> Brewery Tap<br />

on Wednesday 4 May <strong>2016</strong>. The event and the beer<br />

(a bitter, brewed from an old style recipe) was a<br />

great success and it was felt that James would<br />

have approved of having a beer named after him.<br />

Liz Astin<br />

Library Assistant, <strong>Doncaster</strong> Local Studies<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Archives, King Edward Road,<br />

Balby, <strong>Doncaster</strong>, DN4 0NA<br />

Telephone: 01302 859811<br />

Email: doncaster.archives@doncaster.gov.uk<br />

James’ story together with many more local<br />

soldiers can be found on the <strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18<br />

website at www.doncaster1914-18.org.uk.<br />

If you have a family story to tell please<br />

contact the <strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18 project<br />

team at info@doncaster1914-18.org.uk<br />

•<br />

18 •


The Battle of the Somme<br />

documentary, 1916<br />

Almost 100 years after it began, The Battle<br />

of the Somme remains one of the most<br />

controversial and hotly debated battles of<br />

the First World War. In theory, a preliminary artillery<br />

bombardment had cleared away barbed wire<br />

and killed the German soldiers in their trenches<br />

ready for the beginning of the battle on the 1 July<br />

1916. However, the German dugouts were deeper<br />

and stronger than anticipated and survived the<br />

bombardment. When the British troops advanced<br />

over no-mans-land, the German machine gun fire<br />

began. The losses on 1 July marked the worst day<br />

of losses for the British Army during the war.<br />

There were almost 60,000 casualties, of which<br />

almost 20,000 were killed. Before the Battle began,<br />

it was anticipated that the Somme would be a huge<br />

victory worth documenting. Two cameramen began<br />

filming on 25 <strong>June</strong> 1916 and created what would<br />

eventually be known as the Battle of the Somme<br />

film. The film was intended to make a record of this<br />

success, show British soldiers as comfortable and<br />

well equipped, encourage civilian support of the<br />

war effort and inspire men who had been<br />

called-up to respond.<br />

Image ©IWM Q 079501<br />

•<br />

19 •


The film covers the Battle from the build-up,<br />

through to the beginning on the 1 July 1916, and<br />

closes with the aftermath of this early action.<br />

Although filmed as a documentary, the film is<br />

generally accepted to be a form of propaganda,<br />

including staged scenes. However, it is estimated<br />

that the majority of footage is real, with slightly<br />

over a minute consisting of staged scenes. The<br />

film was released to the public in August 1916.<br />

As soon as it was released, debates began to rage<br />

about the content of the film. Featuring scenes<br />

of wounded or dead British soldiers, including<br />

scenes of communal graves, many argue that<br />

it was disrespectful and macabre to show the<br />

soldiers deaths on film. The shock of seeing<br />

real life battle scenes features heavily in the<br />

reviews of the film in the local <strong>Doncaster</strong> press:<br />

“To see a man shot dead and fall stiff right in<br />

front of you is a weird experience, it is true,<br />

but it occurred to us that half the audience did<br />

not at that moment realise that the man was<br />

actually dead. They are so used to the pictures<br />

showing feats of all kinds that the spectacle<br />

of a man falling is quite common-place. It was<br />

when the film went on and the fallen soldier<br />

never rose that the truth flashed into the<br />

mind. ‘He’s dead!’ burst from several lips.”<br />

However, the film was wildly popular and was what<br />

would now be called a ‘box office success’. There<br />

were around 20 million admissions to the film, out<br />

of a total UK population of 43 million. Through the<br />

film, the audience forged a personal connection with<br />

the actions at the Front. Audience members saw<br />

their loved ones, as men were encouraged to show<br />

their faces to the camera. In describing a screening<br />

of the film at the Picture House on <strong>Doncaster</strong> High<br />

Street, the <strong>Doncaster</strong> Gazette reported that;<br />

“The audience sat in absorbed silence<br />

broken by occasional but emphatic bursts<br />

of applause as the great drama of the<br />

July “push” was unfolded in a wonderful<br />

series of pictures - surely the most<br />

wonderful pictures of human effort and<br />

heroism ever presented by the camera.”<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Gazette, 20 October 1916<br />

Lynsey Slater<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> 1914-18 Project Researcher<br />

Kate McAleese<br />

Research Volunteer<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Chronicle, 20 October 1916<br />

As part of the Imperial War Museum’s<br />

Centenary commemorations, <strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

1914-18 is working with Mexborough’s<br />

Cozy Cinema, and supported by Phantom<br />

Cinema, to put on four screenings of the<br />

film across the borough between July<br />

and November <strong>2016</strong>. Each screening<br />

will feature music and poetry inspired<br />

by the First World War by the Read to<br />

Write Group Mexborough, based on<br />

original research from the Mexborough<br />

and District Heritage Society.<br />

Dates:<br />

Thursday 14 July Concertina Club, Mexborough<br />

Monday 19 September Coulman Pavilion, Thorne<br />

Thursday 13 October <strong>Doncaster</strong> Little Theatre<br />

Wednesday 2 November Woodfield Club, Balby<br />

Film starts at 7.30pm.<br />

The Imperial War Museum (IWM)<br />

took ownership of the Battle of<br />

the Somme film in 1920. The wild<br />

popularity of the film had caused<br />

the original negative to became<br />

so damaged it was completely<br />

irretrievable.<br />

Luckily, a copy was made by IWM in 1931.<br />

This version has been restored and preserved<br />

by IWM to be shown this year<br />

to mark the centenary<br />

of the Battle.<br />

For more details, see:<br />

www.doncaster1914-18.org.uk<br />

•<br />

20 •


<strong>Doncaster</strong> Musical Experiences<br />

during the Great War<br />

Compared with the second war of 1939-45,<br />

the First World War presents a striking<br />

contrast in its musical provision in<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong>. For much of the years 1939-41, little of<br />

significance took place on the musical side. Even<br />

the <strong>Doncaster</strong> Musical Society wound down and<br />

eventually disbanded altogether. However, before<br />

it did, the present <strong>Doncaster</strong> Choral Society had<br />

appeared, as it traces its origins to 1943 and many<br />

noteworthy solo musicians came in 1941-45 to<br />

give recitals. As far as professional orchestral<br />

concerts went, in those years and for some years<br />

after 1945, <strong>Doncaster</strong> has never had it so good.<br />

Things worked out differently in 1914-18. At first<br />

there seemed to be a need, almost an obsession,<br />

to keep to “business as usual”. True, George and<br />

Bromley Booth who had organised a series of high<br />

class celebrity concerts since 1900 abandoned<br />

their projected 1914-15 season and these never<br />

restarted. Yet <strong>Doncaster</strong> Musical Society, which<br />

had for quarter of a century been the town’s leading<br />

musical institution, carried on for a season and a<br />

bit, and at first it even enrolled new members.<br />

On 26 November 1914, a three hour concert,<br />

whose proceeds were partly given to the local<br />

War Fund and for which soldiers were charged<br />

half price, had as its main course Sullivan’s cantata,<br />

The Golden Legend. Its supporting programme<br />

included the Allied National Anthems (not many at<br />

that stage of the war, only Britain, France, Belgium,<br />

Russia, Serbia and maybe Japan by my count)<br />

Tchaikovsky’s Solemar Overture 1812, Saint-<br />

Saens Fantaisie for harp, played by Hubert Van<br />

Kerkhove from the Kursaal, Ostend and two songs<br />

by the D.M.S’s Conductor, Wilfred Sanderson, one<br />

of the greatest of all British ballad composers,<br />

including the obviously recent England’s Call;<br />

“O men and boys of England,<br />

O sons of all her sons,<br />

What call was ever clear<br />

In darkest days like these?”<br />

After a performance for local war funds of Handel’s<br />

Messiah on New Year’s Eve by the D.M.S, it<br />

progressed in March 1915 to Elgar’s The Dream of<br />

Gerontius with Gervase Elwes, one of the greatest<br />

of all exponents of the title role. It was preceded by<br />

the Overture to The Mastersingers of Nurenberg,<br />

showing, happily, that <strong>Doncaster</strong> refused to entertain<br />

the anti-German feeling then current in English<br />

attitudes in artistic matters, which I have always<br />

found rather pathetic. Two ballad concerts later<br />

took place with Sanderson songs again prominent.<br />

But The Society, strapped for cash, suspended<br />

activities “for the duration” in November 1915.<br />

Belgian musicians, evacuated from their homeland,<br />

continued to contribute to the town’s music.<br />

M. Firmin Swinnen, Organist of Antwerp Cathedral,<br />

gave two recitals at the Parish Church in 1915; in the<br />

same year, also at the church, there was a concert<br />

by the Belgian National Band, conducted by M Jules<br />

Ardennois also of Antwerp; the twenty six players<br />

were drawn from the Antwerp and Brussels Opera<br />

Houses and the King of the Belgians’ orchestra.<br />

The D.M.S and celebrity concerts may have gone by<br />

the beginning of 1916, but plenty of charity concerts<br />

were arranged, for the Red Cross, the <strong>Doncaster</strong><br />

Infirmary and the Arnold Military Hospital on Thorne<br />

Road, some given by the Bentley Orpheus Choirs.<br />

Professional opera companies visited as in time<br />

of peace.<br />

Wilfred Sanderson left <strong>Doncaster</strong> on war service<br />

in 1917 and his place as Organist of the Parish<br />

Church was taken by A.C.G. Jellicoe, a cousin of the<br />

admiral. Another wartime visitor was Private Rutland<br />

Boughton who played the piano in several concerts<br />

at Priory Methodist Church. The then Organist of<br />

Christ Church, Urquhart Cawley, played his own<br />

Romance, and also performed Elgar’s Carillon,<br />

composed for Belgian war charities, with his wife<br />

speaking Cammaerts’ recitation. Cawley gave a<br />

recital illustrating a talk by Lena Ashwell telling<br />

about her concerts entertaining soldiers at the front.<br />

Victory was celebrated musically. Sanderson<br />

returned to direct a Thanksgiving Service in 1919<br />

at the Parish Church to conduct the renowned DMS<br />

in Coleridge-Taylor’s Hiawatha and to accompany<br />

a ballad concert in which six of his own songs<br />

were aired.<br />

A final thought. Pre-war and for a few years after,<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> Grammar School gave a July concert<br />

including scenes from Shakespeare and ballads<br />

and songs from Sanderson’s choral class in the<br />

•<br />

21 •


By kind permission of Malcolm Johnson<br />

•<br />

22 •


school. On 29 July 1914, six days before Britain<br />

went to war, the concert featured ballads sung<br />

by Sanderson’s pupil, baritone Topless Green.<br />

He was to be gassed on the Western Front but<br />

survived to be Director of Singing Studies at the<br />

Royal College of Music and to build a respected<br />

career as concert singer and recording artist. The<br />

Shakespeare in 1914 was a Midsummer Nights’<br />

Dream with some of Mendelssohn’s music and<br />

Sanderson’s specially composed ‘the Ouzel Cock’.<br />

Philip L Scowcroft<br />

In <strong>June</strong> 1916, the students of the Girls<br />

High School sent 300 eggs to the<br />

Arnold Hospital, Thorne Road<br />

for the wounded soldiers<br />

recovering there.<br />

The girls regularly supported<br />

the hospitals of <strong>Doncaster</strong> as<br />

well as sending packages out<br />

to Prisoners of War and raising<br />

money for various funds.<br />

By kind permission of Malcolm Johnson<br />

•<br />

23 •


Uncover the past that shaped our future<br />

WWW.DONCASTER1914-18.ORG.UK<br />

ESTATE OF WAR<br />

DONCASTER’S COUNTRY HOUSES 1914–18<br />

FREE ADMISSION<br />

TO EXHIBITION<br />

Cusworth Hall<br />

signposted off A638, DN5 7TU<br />

from 16 July <strong>2016</strong><br />

A new exhibition going behind the scenes of the<br />

area’s country houses, to discover how life changed for<br />

families and those below stairs during the First World War.<br />

OPEN: Mon – Wed, 10am – 4.30pm and Sat – Sun, 10.30am - 4.15pm.<br />

Last admission 15 minutes before closing


<strong>Doncaster</strong> <strong>Times</strong> is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.<br />

The publication was also produced in conjunction with the<br />

<strong>Doncaster</strong> and District Heritage Association, whose support<br />

has been invaluable.<br />

Front cover image by kind permission of Joanna Skipwith. Back cover image by kind permission of Mark Warde-Norbury.

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