The 11th of November 2018 marks the centenary of the end of World War One and is an opportune moment to pause and reflect on the events of a century ago.

Many Kingsley men would begin to return from the war, indeed a few had already returned due to injuries and illness. Ernest Capewell, Arthur Carr, and  Harry Carr were among those invalided out of the service.

Those who came back brought with them both physical and mental scars and of course 25 men did not return having been killed during the war. The last two men to die in 1918, John Salt and Kenneth Lovatt did so after the Armistice.

In the years after the war, four more men were to die as a result of their service.

In recent years the sacrifice and suffering of our servicemen and women have come to the fore and now as we near this auspicious centenary it is only right we pay our collective respects to those who served all those years ago and still do to this day.

The Kingsley Remembers Project has joined forces with the Parish Council, St Werburgh’s Church and The British Legion to host a series of events in the run-up to the 11th November and on the day itself.

We are grateful that the Parish and District Councils have donated over £400 to ensure we can do justice to the events we are holding.

The images below are from   a flyer that has been delivered in the Kingsley Holt News and will be delivered in Kingsley in the next few days. Do take time to see what’s on and where and do make an effort to attend.

The British Legion in the run up to the 11th will have a display of Poppies at the Methodist Chapel in Kingsley Holt and outside the old Wesleyan Chapel on High Street Kingsley. At the War Memorial there will be another display of Poppies, 29, one for each man who died as a result as well as 9 blue or violet Poppies, one for each type of animal that was used in the war effort.

On 11th November there will be a series of events from dawn until dusk involving the Battles Over national tribute to those who served.

6 am – a Scottish Piper will play at the War Memorial. There will be free refreshments to ward off the autumnal cold.

10.55 am – traditional Act of Remembrance at the War Memorial (be in place for 10.50am) followed by a service at St Werburgh’s Church.

After the service there will be a display of the research undertaken by the project team, free refreshments and the launch of a limited edition of the All the Kingsley Men (50 copies) which includes 22 more men who served, extra pictures and more on those from the first edition.

An online version of the book will also be launched as a free download.

6.55pm – at the War Memorial there will be the playing  of the Last Post (we are after a trumpet or cornet player to play live – get in touch if you know of someone) At 7pm a Beacon designed and made by local man Dan Lucas will be lit (again as part of a national series of beacons).

Following the reading  of the names of the 29 men who lost their lives at 7.05pm the bells of St Werburgh’s will ring out for peace as they did in 1918.

All are then invited to return to St Werburgh’s for hot soup and refreshments free  of charge. The displays will still be there and the book on sale.

Vis-en-Artois CWWG Cemetary

The 5th October 1918 saw the death of Private Moses Holland who had links to Kingsley Holt, Consall and Whiston.

At the time of his death, he was just 18 years old. Tragically he has no known grave but is commemorated at the beautiful Vis-en-Artois Commonwealth War Graves Cemetary in France. He is one of around 10,000 men remembered their who have no known grave.

To read about Moses Holland click HERE

The Kingsley Remembers Project is nearing its conclusion after over 4 years which has seen some notable achievements. As well as works around the War Memorial and the book All The Kingsley Men the project team have visited the graves and memorials to 23 of the 29 men lost in WW1 and placed a Poppy Cross on each.

The last three to be visited this last summer were Robert Miles Heywood, Jim Beech, and James Meakin.In respect of James Meakin an extra cross was placed on behalf of a relative Cathy Thompson. Pictured are their graves from the visits.

Finally, the project in conjunction with the local Britsh Legion branch, the Parish Council and St Werburgh’s Church are planning a series of events from dawn until dusk on 11th November with funds provided by the Parish and District Council. More to follow.

Robert Myles Heywood grave

The grave of Jim Beech

The last resting place of James Meakin

George Ramsell was serving with the Tank Corps and had been in the army and serving in France for almost three years when he was killed.

His story is HERE

He still has family living locally who keep his memory alive.

George is buried at the Hangard Community Cemetery Extension in France which is pictured above. The project visited his grave in August 2016.

The 26th May this year marked the centenary of the death of Colin Capwell who died as the result of gas poisoning whilst serving with the North Staffordshire Regiment in France.

His two brothers also served, Frederick was taken a prisoner and Ernest was wounded. The family came from Kingsley Moor and Colin joined up within weeks of the outbreak of the war and was trained as a Lewis Mchine Gunner.

Colin’s nephew Peter Capewell, son of Ernest, has been a great source of information to the project providing a wealth of information in relation to the men and families from Kingsley Moor.

Colin’s story can be read here with more information about him and his two brothers here

James Henry Wildgoose has been one of the projects most fascinating characters. A man whose surname does not appear to be local, who has no relatives in the area but appears on both St Werburgh’s memorial and also on the wayside cross memorial on Dovedale Road.

Our initial enquiries four and a half years ago led to a man from Matlock who was a plumber, we then found references to him and his wife in Kingsley from late 1916 and early 1917.

James who seems to have come to the village in 1916 /17 quickly became active in village life, taking part in farewell parties to men off to the forces, hosting whist drives at the Reading Room (now village hall) and other activities.

At our project launch event, we were told of a local residents mother who as a young girl recalled that her mother as saying how sorry she was for the families two young boys as their father was called up and never came back. We discovered that they lived at Hallcroft on Hazles Cross Road but after James was killed the family moved back to Matlock but clearly some three years after the war he was still remembered and recorded on our war memorials.

Determined to find out more about him, the regimental history of his Tank Regiment was purchased and searches done to track down his family. Finally in 2016 his grandson Stephen was traced to Sheffield and through him another grandson Michael who lives in California.

As a result, we learned how he may have died, why he was in Kingsley and what he looked like.

James died it seems early in the morning when he exited his tank to have a smoke and was shot by a sniper. Why he was in Kingsley is still not 100% clear but what is known is he was not really a plumber. The Wildgoose family owned and ran a large-scale building and plumbing business and its highly likely James was in the village overseeing work as Bolton’s where there was an expansion at the factory to deal with the war work coming their way. Its only a presumption but may well be correct.

The date of James’ death is unclear, both 8th and 9th May are given from various sources. To read more about James click this link HERE

The Shrouds of the Somme is a long-running project to commemorate those lost on the Somme in 1916.

Initially, it commemorated the almost 20,000 men killed on the first day of the battle a figure never surpassed before or since in terms of the loss of men killed in one day. The overall casualty figures were in excess of 57,000.

This took the form of miniature figures wrapped in a white shroud that were displayed in Bath and elsewhere around the country.

It has now developed to commemorate the some 72,000 men on the Thiepval Memorial who have no known grave – the ‘Missing of the Somme’

To read more of the project click the image here –

The Shrouds project has now joined forces with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to gather as many stories as possible of the men who died and have no known grave. Kingsley has four such men and we have previously supplied their stories to the Missing of the Somme project and have now done the same to the Shrouds of the Somme.

The men are Charles Allen, George Price Bevans, Isaac Hammond and Arthur Keene.

To read each man’s story click on the links and you will be taken to the CWGC site where you can put the men’s name in and search – sadly at present there is not a unique web address for each man.

CWGC Shrouds Site 

As the war drew into its final year so the casualty rate increased as more and more men from the parish found themselves in the armed forces.

Indeed between the early part of 1918 and the wars end at least 20 more men joined up. Many did not see active service and were soon demobbed back to civilian life.

From December 1917 when Roland Burston died and the end of the war in November 1918 8 men died as a result of their service and a further 4 at least would die in the years after.

James was 22 years old when he signed up in 1915 and was mobilised in May 1916. Prior to this he was a farm worker and following the death of his mother and grandmother his next of kin was his uncle James Thompson and aunt May who lived at 12 Church Street Kingsley.

The Thompson’s had 9 sons and one John served in the latter stages of the war.

James was posted to a siege battery unit and in May 1917 he was wounded suffering a severe chest wound. Remarkably he was back fit for action in 3 weeks and allocated to the 154th Siege Battery.

He had leave over Christmas and it is assumed returned home to Kingsley before returning to his unit in the New Year. On 19th January 1918 he had fallen ill and  was taken to a Casualty Clearing Station where he died at 1050am on the following day due to septicemia.

Such was the slow pace of news reaching home, on 8th February the local papers were reporting he was very ill.

Recently the project has been contacted by Cathy Thompson who’s grandfather was Leonard Thompson born the year after James and of course his cousin. Cathy knew little of her wider family let alone James and we are delighted that our work had shed some light on their history.

She lives in Scotland and placed a Poppy Cross at her local war memorial at Tarbolton in South Ayrshire on the last Remembrance Day. She also placed crosses in remembrance of another relative Rupert Birch from Foxt who died in WW1 and a relative of her partner, Phil Allen who lost his life in Afghanistan.

To read James’ story click HERE

Roland Burston died through illness on this date in 1917.

His family was in the employ of the Beech family and Roland and his wife traveled widely through his work as a gamekeeper.

He was living near to Newmarket in Suffolk when he joined up and is remembered on the war memorial in his local village at Eriswell and also at a site in Weather Heath.

Roland served in Royal Army Medical Corp’s as a Private. His unit the 68th Field Ambulance went to France in September 1915 (however he was not awarded the 1914-15 Star) and then went to Salonika in late 1916.

Salonika is in modern day Greece but it was no holiday for men serving there. Disease was rife and more men died there from illness than from fighting the Bulgarian and Turkish forces opposing the British troops.

How a field ambulance worked can be found HERE

Also, Rolands story in more detail can be found HERE 

Last month saw the final donation of monies raised from ‘sales’ of the book when authors Ken Unwin and Martyn Hordern handed over a cheque for £301 to the Reverend Andrew Farrington at the chapel. The book has now all but sold out with just two copies left out of a print run of 300.

It was somewhat fitting that the donation took place during the chapels 80^th  year celebrations. However, the event was significant for more than one reason as Martyn Hordern’s great, great grandfather was a member at the old Chapel from 1870 to his death in 1918 and performed numerous roles including steward, Sundays School Superintendent, and caretaker. His funeral was held at the chapel and his former home was up the lane off Shawe Park Road.

The winter will see further research on some 20 men who have been identified as having served in the latter stages of the war as well as developing further information obtained the book launch. Whilst there will be an Ebook published next year that will in effect be a second edition it’s unclear if there will be a further print run at this time.

Pictured are Ken, Martyn, Andrew Farrington and members of the church. A picture of the old chapel is also attached.

Saturday 26th October saw the latest donation of monies raised from donations given for the book when a cheque was presented to Reverend Carole Richardson. It was quite fitting as  it was one of Carole’s last days as the Vicar of St Werburgh’s prior to her retirement.

We wish her well.

We also recently referred to the son of survivor Jim Flanagan being killed at Dieppe in 1942. George’s story is a fascinating one and we are delighted it has received recognition being selected as the letter of the month in the Britain at War magazine. Click on the image to the left to open it in a separate tab.

We are currently down to around 5 books or so left.

Our second copy to the United States arrived the other day and we are once again delighted to receive positive feedback for the book this time from a relative of Basil and Thomas Ferriday who’s father Moses, was both the Headmaster of St Werburgh’s and also the organist at the church.

‘The book arrived safely yesterday and I’m so pleased I asked you to send me a copy. I’ve only had opportunity for a quick look so far but I am very impressed …it’s attractive, easy to read and you have obviously researched thoroughly and reported accurately!

I was intrigued by the mysterious James Moss and my brief research so far has confirmed what a good job you’ve done….I thought he might be connected with the Moss-Simpson and Mycock folk who moved to Buglawton, Cheshire but I found a lot of James Mosses and little to draw any conclusions from. This brief exploration has shown me just how much work you must have done!’

Congratulations!