With sincere thanks to Suzanne Make for taking the time during her recent trip to the Lebanese Republic​, to visit CWGC Beirut War Cemetery and see some of the casualties buried there. Included was Private George William Gill Service N°: 75412
George died aged 31 whilst attached to the 136th Coy Machine Gun Corps from the Royal Army Medical Corps, on October 23rd 1918. Son of Ruth Gill, of 57, Lowtown, Pudsey, and the late Squire Gill. Also remembered on the Pudsey Trinity Wesleyan Church Memorial Board.

Members of our churches and social societies commissioned their own Great War Memorials to remember their fallen families and friends, at the places where their names were spoken the most.
 
At the corner of Pudsey Fartown and Carlisle Road stands the fine red brick Sunday School, originally built by the Parish Church (and once again happily owned by the Parish Church) to serve as a hub to that community.
The Fartown (Parish Church) Sunday School Great War Memorial, unveiled on December 18th 1920 is the only private memorial added to the exterior of a building for all to view in the local area. Unfortunately this has left it at the mercy of the weather and defacement for over a century. Today this combination is badly affecting the stone surface of the memorial. 
This is the full inscription recorded for posterity, along with what is known about those named upon it:
 
“To the Glory of God
This stone was laid by Myers Murgatroyd
To commemorate the following Teachers and Scholars of Fartown (Parish Church) Sunday School,
​all of whom gave their lives in the Great War.
December 18th 1920”

Our amazing local craft group The Pudsey Poppy Display, have again been busy knitting and crocheting Poppies to create Remembrance displays for the Cenotaph, Greenside School, Cemetery wall and local businesses around Chapeltown.
New for this year are the stunning bollard covers and the purple poppied horse head to remember the animals of the World Wars. The leggings on the Cenotaph information panels have also been freshened up.
A great deal of pride and effort goes into the many hours of their voluntary community work.
A big thank you from us to everyone in the display group; Lisa and Brian Farrar, Kath Clough, Debbie Bragg, Marlene Harwood, Denise Hobson, Danuta Skarszewska and Mandy, Karen Heppell, The Royal Hotel and 147 Sports Bar (and everyone that contributed but not mentioned here). All photos taken by members of the group.
#Remembraceis #Lestweforget

PLEASE NOTE REARRANGED TIMINGS FOR PARADE AND SERVICE Remembrance Sunday 14th November.
The Parish Church will be OPEN TO ALL, for visiting, lighting candles, viewing the Field of Remembrance etc from
09:45 am till 12 noon, and will be serving HOT DRINKS throughout the morning.
Note the service of Remembrance will be held at the Cenotaph. 
From 10:30 am   The Parade leaves the Bus Station
10:50 am. The Parade arrives at the Cenotaph 
11:00 am    Act of Remembrance at the Cenotaph including:  wreath laying and the Two Minute Silence
11:10 am   The Parade returns to the Bus Station
All welcome including HM Forces and ex-Services

​Identified - The exact CWGC plot locations for each of the 47 German POWs previously named on the lost Moreton Banks memorial (Keighley), and now at rest in CWGC Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery. 

Thanks to the excellent "German Prisoners of the Great War" (edited by Anne Buckley, published by Pen & Sword), for having a transcript of the memorial in its original German gothic script, and Appendix II which holds the details of all the prisoners at Raikeswood - this information combined with the CWGC database has given a definite identification of each mans grave at Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery. The buried men used to receive regular visits and memorial services - hopeful they can now be honoured together again as a group.
   
47 men had all died over a few short weeks during the Spanish Flu Pandemic in early 1919 whilst being treated at Moreton Banks Hospital, Keighley. They were buried together in groups of five, placed one on top of the other at Moreton Cemetery Keighley. The graves were united by a single memorial which held the men's names, units and place of birth. 
The monument consisted of a wall made from local stone which contained a curved alcove with a bronze memorial plaque. Small trees and shrubs were planted on either side. A central lawn was surrounded on its remaining three sides by low walls.
Sadly the memorial was demolished and placed in the empty graves as the bodies were exhumed and moved to Cannock Chase (on the instruction of the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge). From that point on they could no longer be identified as a group of comrades, thankfully though they were laid to rest at Cannock Chase together on two rows (see name list and map).

It's been a unique opportunity to research a lost German memorial built on British soil, one that fellow researcher Andrew Bolt and myself have gained a lot of satisfaction from. Thanks to Andrew's site visits and painstaking archive research, we know where at Moreton Cemetery the Germans were buried in Yorkshire soil for 40 years. 
Further to this we know something about these men that were interred and died together, these are some of their surprising an eventful stories that continue to this day:

Oberleutnant zur See, Walter Eduard Alexander Schmitz of UC-75 on his third cruise in command.
His U-Boat had sunk the HMAPV Dirk off Flamborough Head in the early hours of 29th May 1918.
On 31 May 1918, while HMS Fairy was escorting an East Coast convoy, the German submarine UC-75 was sighted and rammed by the steamer SS Blaydonian. The U-boat surfaced within the convoy and was attacked and rammed by HMS Fairy. Schmitz and another submariner leapt onto the destroyer's forecastle as their submarine sank. Fairy, however, had sustained heavy damage and sank a short time later about 10 miles (16 km) south of Flamborough Head. She was awarded the battle honour "Belgian Coast 1914–17" for her service.
Schmitz was interrogated at Cromwell Gardens in London he was then sent to the POW camp at Raikeswood in Yorkshire.
There's a bit of controversy over the Fairy's actions on the sinking, Schimtz felt that they murdered most of the crew when they were incapacitated.
The propeller screws from UC75 (a war grave) were confiscated from a salvage diver 3 years ago, restored and one of the propellers has been handed back to the German Navy in Plymouth, while the other will go on display at the Royal Navy Museum in Portsmouth. 

Lieutenant Franz Schulte - German Army Flying Corps
Kampfgeschwader der Obersten Heeresleitung more commonly known as Kagohl 3 or the "English Squadron", was a renowned Gotha heavy bomber pilot - reputed to have "dropped the most bombs on London"

"December 7th 1917: A Canterbury Red Cross official was held at gunpoint yesterday by a German aviator while his comrade set fire to their Gotha bomber which had just crashed. It came down in the marshes adjacent to Broad Oak Road, injuring two of the crew who were eventually taken into custody by the Rev Philip Somerville, acting in his capacity as a special constable. Before the arrest, however, a most dramatic scene unfolded. The Gotha of Kagohl 3 was on a raid of the area when it was hit by antiaircraft fire and subsequently crash landed in a field after just missing a mill and several houses.

First on the scene was Mr J.B. Wilford of Mandeville Road, Canterbury, an orderly in the Red Cross. He noticed that two of the three German crew were injured and offered to render first aid. One of them promptly produced a revolver and held Mr Wilford at gunpoint while his comrade fired the aircraft. He is almost certainly the first man to face a German at gunpoint while on English soil. Mr Wilford was joined by the Rev Somerville, Rector of St Stephen's Church and another special, Mr G.W Haimes from Sturry who said: "The plane was alight when we arrived. 
The Germans were not hostile and one was able to understand some English. They surrendered their equipment and arms to the Rev Somerville without protest:' The Rector said when he arrived on the scene the men were standing by the wrecked aircraft which was in flames with machine gun cartridges exploding right and left. "They asked me in broken English for a policeman to whom they could surrender and I assured them I was a special constable. An ambulance waggon conveyed the men to Canterbury police station and the two who were injured were then taken to hospital where they were well treated and most profuse in their thanks to the hospital authorities for the attention they received." During the day the burnt out Gotha was inspected by thousands of people who flocked to Broad Oak. The Red Cross took full advantage of the situation and made a collection; £32 was realised."
Report compiled by Alan Roberts

Lieutenant Schulte died in hospital on the 2nd March 1919. His brother Paul was also a pilot but later joined the Catholic Church. He found a novel way to commemorate his dead brother in 1936, by diverting the Zeppelin 'Hindenburg' over Yorkshire to fly over Keighley whilst celebrating mass. Flowers and a silver crucifix from Pope Pius XI were dropped from the aircraft with a note - these were placed on Franz Schulte's grave. 

“Father Paul Schulte, of Aix-la-Chapelle, known as the “flying padre,” celebrated the first mass in the air, for which the Pope had granted special permission. Schulte erected an altar in the salon, where all the passengers gathered. The candles were not lighted because of danger of explosion. Fr. Schulte’s Mass intention was for the repose of the soul of his brother, Lieutenant Franz Schulte, who died in 1919 of influenza while a prisoner of war in England."

Pudsey & Farsley Royal British Legion Branch are walking over 11 Kilometres on Saturday 31st October, visiting the War memorials and War Grave sites associated to the Pudsey old Borough. They will pay their respects and plant Poppy Crosses to the fallen as they go. Starting 10am on Saturday 31st October, the walk is planned to last approx. 4 hours and is in lieu of our cancelled annual Parade.
We are asking for donations towards the Poppy Appeal on this Just Giving page in support as the walk, you can also follow the same route on your own "Move to Remember" - see below.
You can donate to their JustGiving page by clicking here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/pudseyandfarsleyrblbranch?utm_source=Sharethis&utm_medium=fundraising&utm_content=pudseyandfarsleyrblbranch&utm_campaign=pfp-email&utm_term=c0e32522172a405591b5ec1065b199f8.

Our good friend and Gulf War Veteran Darren Walker, and his daughter Shannon, are also joining in and separately raising funds for their 14/20th Hussars Memorial, please also support them at:
https://1420kh.uk/the-big-walk/?fbclid=IwAR28jOr2RDpzZgR5RHZqfIz9OSr3M2uVvnw2zcj_sGk0tavepofRAH4Na8s   

You can follow all, or part of our ‘Move to Remember’ route too visiting: 
START for Stage 1:
• Bramley War memorial, Moorfields Bramley
• Rodley War memorial, Town Street Rodley
• Cross Bypass at Rodley Roundabout
• Calverley Parish church yard CWGC
• Calverley War memorial, Victoria Park
• Brookfields War memorials 1&2, access via Brookfields Ave.
Stage 2
• Cross Bypass at Rodley Roundabout > turn right onto Oaklands Rd shortcut
• Springfield Mills Memorial Bagley Lane (in-between the main buildings)  
• Farsley Boer War memorial Bagley Lane
• Farsley War Memorial Bagley Lane 
Stage 3 
• Farsley Methodists memorial (building behind the Village wine bar)
• St Johns Farsley CWGC Town Street
• Pudsey Cemetery CWGC, Cemetery Road
• Pudsey Parish Church Field of Remembrance, Radcliffe Lane 
• Pudsey Cenotaph, Chapeltown
• Pudsey Cenotaph missing names
• The Royal Hotel Remembrance mural, Station St Pudsey
• Pudsey Bowling, Running & Table Tennis Club WW1 Memorial, Windmill Hill, off Smalewell Rd

Recent updates from a wider search from the same Battalion, has yielded new information to the record of Private William Emsley. His details have been corrected on our Great War list, with his age and next of kin now confirmed.
Hopeful to make further announcements soon that 3 “lost” lads from Leeds, currently only named at Thiepval, are beginning the long journey out of obscurity - all thanks to a single spoon engraved with its owners service number.

​​Private William Emsley. Service N°: 17/1593
​Aged 30 of the 17th Bn. 2nd Leeds (Bantams) West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own), died on Jul 17, 1916.
Remembered at Thiepval Memorial Pier and Face 2 A 2 C and 2 D. France. Believed to be interred in an unmarked grave at Delville Wood Cemetery alongside 3 comrades who died on the same day.
Son of William and Nancy Emsley, brother of Joseph (also served) of Watson's Square, Stanningley. Named at Trinity Wesleyan Church Memorial Board @ the Manor Hall.

Private George Mason 18/58 of the 18th Battalion. 2nd Bradford Pals West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince Of Wales's Own) - from an unidentified name on Wednesday to service researched, located locally on our doorstep and amazing photos kept as keepsakes by his grieving fiancee found, all before Saturday lunchtime. Thankyou to everyone that helped, we now have another Bradford Pals life remembered for the future. ​Photos and family history kindly supplied by Gwyneth Wainwright. Archive research by Damon Sugden, The Friends of Pudsey Cemetery & Chapel, and Bus to Bradford.

Buried at Pudsey Cemetery A479 General Section - note headstone is face down
Son of Jabez Stead Mason, tailor of Fartown and his wife Elizabeth Mason. In 1911 when he was 17 George was employed as a joiners labourer. He was an early volunteer of the Second Bradford Pals and wounded in service. George Mason joined up 10th February 1915 and died after discharge (released 25th March 1919), probably from the effects of his wounds on the 10th Sept, buried 13 Sept 1919 aged 25. A member of the Mt Zion Chapel congregation, he was named on their Roll Of Honour.
Gwyneth Wainwright: ”George Mason was engaged to my Great Aunt Lillian Balmforth. She never married and died 30/1/1979 and often spoke to us about George and their courting days promenading with her sister Betty as chaperone. I have looked for his grave but could never find it. She always said she wanted to be buried near him and is quite near in our family plot near the top gate. I have some letters he sent her during the war which she also kept. She was nearly 83 when she died and lived on Westroyd with her sister Betty, they had a small chicken farm, and latterly Claremont Grove.”