The women left behind - 2

I find myself fascinated by women's history, a relatively new area of study. And so I've recently found myself reading an excellent book, 'Singled Out', which describes the triumphs and tribulations of some two million single women who lived out their lives without men post 1918. They are the forgotten victims of the war. Though some found contentment in careers and academia these were overwhelmingly the middling sorts and elites. For vast numbers of working class and middle class girls there was only sadness, loneliness, deep sexual frustration and a soul crushing inability to fulfill a desperate desire for motherhood. All at a time when the opportunities for a life away from the kitchen sink and the marital bed were few and far between.

And then there were the mothers who lost sons, their only son, or all their sons ....

The cemeteries & churchyards of South Lakes, Cumbria, Britain & Europe are peppered with mossy and largely ignored gravetones erected  when wives and parents died but bearing the name of a deceased soldier, often put in place decades after his death.

At Askam in Furness churchyard is the gravestone of  Francis & Maria Mailes. He died in 1930 aged 83, she in 1923 aged 71. Below their names is that of their son Charles, killed in action at Fampoux, France in 1917 aged 23. The stone must be post 1930.

KILLED IN ACTION.- Another Askam soldier has given his life for King and country during the great battle on the western front in the person of Private Charles Jones Mailes whose parents reside at 55, Steel-street, Askam. The sad news was received on Wednesday morning from the War Office. He met his fate on the 9th ult. He was a member of the 1/4th King’s Own Royal Lancasters, and had been abroad soon after war was declared. The flag at the Council Schools was hoisted half-mast out of respect to his memory.

 In Ulverston cemetery is a more poignant, simple gravestone of  Eleanor Dickinson who died in 1956, a 70 year old lady. Above her name is that of her husband, Edward,  killed in action near Spider House Farm, Oosttaverne, during the Third Battle of Ypres, July 1917. She had been left with two children. Odd that the family appears to have maintained the ascendancy of the husband in a marriage, putting his name first.

 

Mrs. Dickinson, 31, The Gill, Ulverston, has received official notification that her husband, Pte. Edward Dickinson, King’s Own Royal Lancasters, has been killed in action. He was 37 years of age, and the son of Mr. Matthew Dickinson, 34, Byron-street, and nephew of the late Mr. E. Dickinson, painter, etc., with whom he served his apprenticeship, and with the exception of about 12 months, when he was employed as porter in the Bank of Liverpool, at Barrow, he was in the employ of this firm all his time up to joining the army about a year ago. Pte. Dickinson was well known in the Ulverston district, and much sympathy is felt for the widow, who is left with two children, and other members of the family.

This story is much like my Gran's.

 

She was widowed in May 1918 when my Grandfather was killed and is sat on the right here, aged about 40, with my Mum! Front left is Beatrice Goodrich, happily married to an Engine Driver. Standing behind Gran is her cousin, Maggie Kenyon, whose fiancee was killed with the Accrington Pals - she was a stunningly beautiful young woman, looked like Angelina Jolie! Beside her is Betsy Waterworth, my Great Grandma, and standing on the left is Lena Westwell, Maggie's sister, whose husband, Fred, was also killed with the Accy Pals on the Somme in November 1916.

Maggie & Lena lived out their lives together as single women in Lime St, Accrington. I remember them as withered and exhausted old ladies, living in a time warp, a grey world of sadness and dusty old lady smells.

After nearly dying from overwork during the 20s and 30s Gran moved in with my parents when they got married in 1936 and lived with us till 1976 when she died, in her own bed, aged 90. A widow for 58 years. She never had another man and among her last words before she passed away was 'Dear Arthur', my grandfather.

The women left behind -- 1

The Great War of 1914 -19 changed the world forever. Kings and empires fell, new countries emerged and the balance of power shifted inexorably from the old world to the new. And there was the start of a new, sexual revolution as women stepped out of the shadows, asserting themselves and demanding recognition for the contribution they made to the war. Millions of women signed up; as nurses, auxiliaries, industrial workers and in many other roles.

For some it was an opportunity to establish careers

 

 
The handsome (Emilie) Hilda Horniblow, CBE, was born in 1886 and joined the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps..By 1918 she was Chief Controller of the Corps, later becoming Headmistress of Fair Army Auxiliary Corps; Headmistress of Fair Street LCC Women’s Evening Institute and from 1935–42 HM Staff Inspector for Women’s Subjects in Technical Institutions.
 

For ordinary working class girls and women there was little chance of reaching the higher echelons of society. They returned to where they came from, the kitchen sink.

 
Many tens of thousands of middle class girls and women became nurses.

One such was Tamar Watson of Ulverston

Tamar joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) a corps of nurses established and organised by the Red Cross & the St John's Ambulance. She died on 11th or13 November 1918. The following appeared the the 'Barrow News'.

HOSPITAL NURSE’S DEATH.- The death, from pneumonia, of Miss Tamar Watson, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Watson, of Hoad Terrace, Ulverston, occurred on Wednesday at the Roundhay Military Hospital at Leeds where the deceased young lady was doing duty as a trained nurse. Miss Watson, who was 34 years of age, was a member of the Ulverston Amateur Operatic Society, and her sudden unexpected death is mourned by a lot of friends. The circumstances are peculiarly distressing, the bereaved parents having quite recently lost, as the result of influenza, a daughter-in-law and grandchild, who resided at Lancaster.

Interment on  (Saturday), cortege leaving Ulverston Railway Station at 3.30 p.m. Friends, please accept this (the only) intimation.

Colton's lovely memorials

As I have said on this blog often, communities throughout the country went to great lengths to find and erect memorials that they considered appropriate for men and women who had served and died in the years 1914-19. And so most of the memorials that are encountered, certainly in Cumbria, exist as a consequence of this process. However, there is a case to be made for memorials being foisted on communities by social elites; gentry, vicars, weekending industrialists, etc. Askam in Furness is arguably an example.

Another, in a less conspicuous way, might be Colton.

Colton is an ancient community in the fells above the valley of the Crake. Its church, consecrated in 1575, is dedicated to All Saints. A beautiful place.

And of course it contains war memorials.

The primary object of remembrance is a lovely window on the south wall of the nave. The imagery is quite odd. It depicts Saints George and Alban but wearing Tudor costume, probably a reference to the church's origins. It was created by Abbot & Co of Lancaster.

Below are two brass plaques naming the dead of the two World Wars. 

 But there is a secondary memorial mounted on the wall at the west end of the nave. It is a triptych with a central panel bearing the names of the dead and two doors with the names of those who served and returned.

This shrine (with or without the doors?) was given to the church by Colonel Dobson of Rusland in 1919. Such objects were created by Hughes Bolckow & Co, shipbreakers & builders of Blythe, Northumberland from the timbers of HMS Britannia, formerly Prince of Wales, a line of battle ship of c1849. Hughes Bolckow acquired the ship for breaking in 1916 and took the opportunity to utilise the well seasoned exotic timbers that she provided in abundance to create all sorts of objects. Folding chairs were designed with wounded soldiers in mind - 'their high back is very restful, but does not interfere with the hat when seated' - tea trolleys appropriate for - 'hospitals and nursing homes they ease the extra work brought by the war'. Crucially for this posting there were three patterns of memorial shrine, the names could be added - 'in black at a halfpenny a letter, or in gold at a penny a letter'.

There are a number of examples of the shrine across the country.

A newspaper account of April 1923 states that Colonel Dobson had the doors added, again at his own expense.

Sale of Blawith church and its memorials

Time passes and the world changes. Over the decades the expression of Christian faith has declined and as a consequence many churches and chapels have closed. One such has been the church of St John the Baptist at Blawith, a small community at the southern end of Lake Coniston. For many years it was in the care of the Redundant Churches Trust but it has now been sold. The hope was that it would be acquired for affordable local housing but sadly it is to become a private, and no doubt, expensive residence. But it was slowly falling apart.

 
After the Great War a number of memorials were placed within the church, principally a Shrigley & Hunt window bearing stock figures of St Michael, left and St George.

 
  On the sill of the window is a brass plaque with the names of the village dead. Below this is an ornate wooden shelf with the word 'In Remembrance'. No doubt many floral tributes were placed here in the years after the war.

These memorials were installed in 1921 after money was raised in the townships of Blawith, Water Yeat & Nibthwaite by selected ladies who resolutely knocked on every door. Some gave a few shillings, one or two a few pennies. But it was at least inclusive, everyone had an input.

A further board was created by a tradesman in Nibthwaite who painted the names of all the men and boys of the community who served. A photo will appear here in a while. Both this, which last week had disappeared, and, I think, the brass plaque are to be relocated to Water Yeat village hall. And the shelf? The window is to remain in place and any new owners must get permission from the church commissioners to move or remove it. But will people be allowed to view it?

Memorials at Mansergh

There are some wonderful quiet corners in Cumbria, outside central lakeland. A particularly lovely place is Mansergh a dispersed parish on the west bank of the Lune north of Kirby Lonsdale.There is a delightful lane that runs alongside the river northwards to the Kendal - Kirby Road. The church, St Peter's, is a Paley & Austin creation of 1880 and has an unusual saddleback roof.

 The porch of the church is a memorial of the coronation of Edward VII in 1902.

The parish memorial is in the churchyard outside the east end of the nave, dedicated to 

'the lads of Mansergh who fought and died for their King and Country in the Great War'

This is clearly a memorial from a local monumental mason's stockbook.

The Second War names were added after 1945.

Inside the church is a Roll of Honour utilising a commonly encountered pre-printed format. But there is also a rather unique memorial. Indeed, it is the only example I have come across. A list of names of the village boys who died in the Great War written on the fly leaf of the church's bible.

Peace Window at Arnside

As I have suggested elsewhere there are a significant number of windows in Cumbria that were placed as memorials. The vast majority date from the time of the Great War; some are community, some commemorate individuals. However, at Arnside Methodist church there is a rather unusual Peace Window.

Unveiled by Major Reverend W Rushby, MC, Chaplain to the Forces, on July 10, 1921 it was made by Barrowclough and Sanders and cost £310. Allen Barrowclough & Joseph Newbold Sanders remain elusive characters. They have windows at Scotforth, Lancaster & Churchtown nr Southport but precisely who they were I don't know.

It has an unusual iconography. St Michael, left, is predictable but Joshua, right, is not. But then he was Moses' right hand man and conquered 'The Kingdom', Canaan, so I guess his purpose here is to signify a biblically righteous military victory. Christ the King whose feet rest on a rainbow is flanked by two angels, that on the left holding a wreath, on the right a lyre. Crouching beside a fountain, below Christ, is a dashing young knight sans arms, his work done.

The window's dedication is;

A Thanks Offering for the Restoration 

of Peace after the Great War

1914 1918

Great War Tanks in Cumbria and elsewhere

After the Great War there was some confusion as to precisely what was being commemorated. A military victory for sure, perhaps even a moral victory over dark forces judging by the rhetoric. But at a terrible cost in blood and treasure. This schizophrenia is reflected in memorialisation.

In the first flush of 1919 - 20 the celebration of an overwhelming and complete military victory prompted the acceptance by communities all over the country of redundant or captured military hardware. Cumbria was no different and in towns and villages across the county all sorts of strange objects began to appear, on village greens, in parks and indeed any open space.

Probably the most common was the Field Gun.

Thousands of these had been captured at the war's end and they were quite eagerly sought after as exciting and exotic ways for those at home to engage with the grim realities of the conflict. Many places acquired them; I am aware of examples at Sedbergh, Ulverston, Carlisle, Hawkshead and Coniston, which probably had 2! I have heard rumours of many more. At Ulverston the council accepted the offer of their Field Gun with the observation that it would '.. keep company with the German Howitzer on the school field'. At Hawkshead the gun came with a trench mortar, wire cutters and other assorted hardware.

The Coniston gun had an interesting history. It was placed outside the Ruskin Museum in the village until one dark night when Jim Hewitson, the village's VC, came out of the pub with a bellyful of Hartley's Best Bitter and together with other veterans dragged it down to the lake and chucked it in with the observation that they had seen enough of such things in France. It was raised by local divers about the 1960s and eventually ended up in the private collection of the late 'Happy' Wilks at Ulverston Drill Hall. No idea where it is now.

These guns, however, were not the most imposing items of hardware. The tanks take that place. Over two hundred were offered to those towns throughout the realm that had excelled at War Savings. Again there were probably more distributed than were officially recorded. In Cumbria they appeared at Carlisle, Windermere, Workington, Whitehaven(?), Barrow(?) & Ulverston.

Ulverston's tank arrived by train and was driven through the streets followed by dozens of hysterical kids until it reached a open space at the bottom of Market Street where it was put onto a plinth. It remained in place until about 1940 when many of those that had survived were scrapped. A dear elderly lady told me that prior to its demise it had become a very convenient convenience on Friday and Saturday nights when the pubs closed. Indeed it seems the whiff permeated the whole area. The roundabout on the A590 is still called Tank Square.

Windermere's tank was scrapped in 1937. Contrary to popular belief they were not veterans of Cambrai or the Breaking of the Hindenberg Line but training vehicles or surplus from stock.

Though I was aware of these tanks in Britain I was astonished to discover their existence in Ukraine. While surfing an amazing Russian website/blog I came across a load of images of two Great War tanks being renovated at Lugansk.

In their fully restored condition they stand as sentries below the entrance to a newly created 'Heroes of the Revolution Museum' in the town. Whether that is White or Red Heroes remains to be ascertained!

Wonderful! They even have their guns!

Mary Kynaston Watts Jones @ Winster & Beatrix Potter

The first post I put on this blog a few years ago (!!) described the memorial at Winster, probably my favourite in south Cumbria. In spring the beautiful red sandstone cross stands in a carpet of wild daffodils. Stunning! Orginally it was much taller - how imposing it must have been - though it still is.

Unusually it is signed, by Mary Kynaston Watts-Jones (nee Potter) - her grave stands immediately behind her creation.

Known in the family as 'Dot' due to her diminutive size she died in 1951 aged 73 at Bannon Hey, Windermere. In 1903 she married her first cousin, Hector Lloyd Watts-Jones, a Captain in the Royal Navy (died Jan 1933 aged 61). She is further described on her gravestone as the daughter of Edmund Potter. 

One day when I was in the churchyard a local lady informed me that she was a relation of Beatrix Potter and I questioned what the relationship was, but she did not know. However, a family tree that has appeared online clarifies the position. Mary K was the daughter of Edmund Potter who was first cousin to Rupert Potter, Beatrix's father. So Mary K & B are second cousins. The Watts-Jones, Kynastons & Potters were all engaged in the Lancashire cotton industry in some manner and which made the family fortunes.

So there we have it ...

Mary was a sculptress & miniaturist, though I find no reference to her online or anywhere else easily accessible. However, an email correspondent sent me the following pic out of the Illustrated London News of July 19 1919.

I am unaware of whether this memorial was actually erected somewhere or whether Mary K W-J has any other memorials in the country.

I imagine she was called upon to design the Winster cross because she was living within the parish during the Great War, at Bowfell and she was a woman of some status -- well connected! Her grandfather & her husband's grandfather were both MPs and industrialists so she will have been well acquainted with the Holt & Higgin-Birkett families, both of whose son's names appear on the memorial and who will in turn have had some say within the community as men of property & influence. But that is not to detract from her evident skills as a designer and artist.

Ireleth & Askam St Peter's

Grace recently asked for a pic of the memorial inside St Peter's parish church, Ireleth ... Here it is ...

Askam & Ireleth war memorial committee's initial proposals, were wildly over ambitious at a time of financial restraint (!sounds familiar!). Eventually the trustees, probably through the offices of the Reverend Ridley, approached Mowbray and Company of London, an established firm of church furnishers, requesting a design for a memorial plaque. This was produced and displayed in the window of Askam co-operative society’s shop in Duke Street through the course of September 1920. On October 4, a special parish vestry meeting was called to discuss the sanctioning ‘or otherwise’ of a faculty for the placing of the plaque on the south wall of the nave of St Peter’s parish church. In chairing the meeting the vicar noted that both the design and the suggested location of the memorial had ‘the sanction and support’ of the relatives of the named dead. The proposal for the faculty was unanimously accepted.

The memorial of cast bronze mounted on a pale cream marble slab was installed in the church by John Baxter Riley of Sea-View, Ireleth; undertaker, sexton, monumental mason, joiner and parish clerk. The plaque was formally unveiled on Sunday, March 19, 1921 by Captain J. M. Challinor, M.C., of  ‘Nether Close’, Ireleth. It cost something in excess of £150 of which £101.14s had been raised by public subscription up to that time.  Challinor was the son in law of Henry Mellon, chair of the war memorial committee.

Captain Johnson McMillan (Jack) Challinor was the son of Sam Challinor, the village doctor in the late 1800s. He had won the Military Cross serving with the King's Own Scottish Borderers at Hill 60 in 1915.

He was awarded the Military Cross for his actions during the Battle of St Julien on the 5th May, when the Battalion, part of a sorely depleted 13th Infantry Brigade, was ordered to retake a section of Hill 60 that had been retaken by the Germans. Two companies, 'C' and 'D' led the assault, but heavy fire forced them to retire to the trenches from which their attacks had been launched. However 2 platoons under the command of Lieutenant Challinor managed to gain a somewhat tenuous position, and stuck it out until only the officer and 3 men were left. This party only withdrew when the flanking forces were ordered to retire. He was promoted to Captain in May.

He  and his wife, Hilda, lost their son, Neil, to meningitis at new year 1919/20 when the boy was only 6 months old. He himself died in 1928 of heart failure, aged 41, and was buried in St Peter's churchyard.
 

Lost memorial - Rampside

I was recently trawling through the archives, looking at old newspapers. After 1918 there are almost daily entries about war memorials; meetings, fund raising, proposals and unveilings. One very short article I came across was so very poignant.

Captain Birnie was Edward D'Arcy Birnie son of Isabella and Robert Birnie of Sycamore Terrace, High Harrington, Cumberland. He died of wounds aged 26 on March 22, 1918 while serving with the 8th Bn Border Regiment. Before being commissioned in November 1915 he served as sergeant, 845, with the 5th Borders. He was in France from October 26 1914.

His father, Robert, a Scot, was a Head Gamekeeper who in 1901 was living at Winscales, the community largely obliterated by the Nuclear Industry.

Edward was clearly a fine young officer ...

On December 8 1916 the London Gazette carried a notice of the award of the Military Cross to Temp- 2nd Lt E D'A Birnie, Borders ..

For conspicuous gallantry in action. He led a successful bombing attack against an enemy strong point, himself killing at least 8 of the enemy.

Again, on July 23 1918, the London Gazette carried the report of the young acting-Captain's award of the Distinguished Service Order ...

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. When hard pressed by the enemy he led several counter attacks against their bombing parties, and for hours kept large forces of the enemy at bay. At one time he took up a position on the parapet,and (being a marksman) accounted for many of them with a rifle. Finally, when his position became untenable, he successfully withdrew his men. He displayed exceptional skill and courage in face of great odds.

So upon his death he got a memorial gate light from his young fiance, at Rampside, an isolated church above The Bay on the coast road outside Barrow in Furness.

 

Who was Miss Pollitt? There was a Pollitt family living at 85 Rampside in 1901.

Thomas, the head of the family, was a Hatter, Hosier and Gents outfitter. Although there is no young girl with a name starting 'M' living with the family at the time there is a Margaret Henrietta, born Barrow in 1894, staying with her Grandparents in Ulverston. Perhaps this is her.

Sadly there is no sign now of a gate light in the churchyard at Rampside today. And no doubt Miss Pollitt is herself long dead - as is the memory of her love of a young officer. But this post remembers it.

A matter of status at Barbon.

I have made the point in other postings that many memorials of the Great War and earlier were unequivocal statements of status. In the post war years the class divide in the shires of England was still pretty rigid. There was a degree of social mobility, through education, plain hard graft or through marriage but most people still lived and died as they were born. At Barbon there are three memorials that stand as examples of this social divide and the ways in which families bridged it. Each make very different statements about 'their man'.

St Bartholomew's church lies at the the western end of lonely Barbondale, which itself leads to Dentdale and on into The Yorkshire Dales. It is a beautiful church of 1893, the best of Paley & Austin and always closely associated with the Kay-Shuttleworth family who had a house close by.

Inside are a number of windows, all except one (by Powell) being the work of Shrigley & Hunt of Lancaster. One of these is a memorial to Claude Gifford Jeffery, Captain, 2nd Bn Princess of Wales Own Yorkshire Rgt, killed on 24 October 1914 aged 34.

Jeffery was a regular soldier, he had joined the army in 1901 and served throughout the South African War. His unit landed at Zeebrugge on the 6th October 1914 as part of the BEF, the contemptible little army that Britain put into the field at the outbreak of war.On the 22 October he was wounded in the groin leading an attack near Becelaire, Belgium and died in hospital two days later. See here for more details.

The window was provided by his wife Nellie, nee Anketell-Jones, of Coldingham, Winchfield, Hants  whom Claude had only married in the early months of 1914. It depicts two allegorical classical figures; of Fortitude with spear and shield surrounded by oak leaves, & Pax bearing a lamb beneath a canopy of laurel. Above are the figures of the crucified Christ and a Madonna and child, perhaps in reality Nellie holding her and Claude's baby daughter. Captain Jeffery was of a middle class professional family,  'the middling sorts', as academics describe them. His father, Herbert, was a Bradford solicitor and public notary. His wife's family were probably minor Irish gentry.

The window is unpretentious and, lacking armorial or Latin inscription, it does not exclude the commonality. It is a simple statement describing the virtue of the man and sentiments of loss. Its middling status is in its existence; such windows did not come cheap. Only those having some wealth could afford even a relatively small window such as this. I don't know why it is here at Barbon.

The second memorial is altogether different. In the churchyard, to the east of the church there is an enclosed garden/cemetery plot. This is the private burial ground of the Kay-Shuttleworth family. See here for their full story. The Kays were a family of no great note but in 1842 James Kay, a self made Rochdale man, married Lady Janet Shuttleworth of Gawthorpe, sole heiress of an ancient Lancashire family. James assumed his wife's name and arms. Through ambition, hard work and astute mating he was now an elite.

Within this patch of ground are a considerable number of memorials and gravestones commemorating members of the extended family. At its centre is a stone cross.

Around the side of the pedestal on which it stands are carved the names of Captain the Hon. Lawrence Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth, 'D' Battery, 11 Brigade, RFA and Temp Captain the Hon. Edward James Kay-Shuttleworth, Rifle Brigade. Lawrence married Selina Adine Bridgeman, grandaughter of the 4th Earl of Bradford and was killed near Vimy on 30 March 1917. Edward - Eton & Balliol - married Sibell Eleanor Maud, daughter of  Chas RW Adeane of Babraham Hall, Cambs, a family related by marriage to many of the higher nobility. He died at home and was buried here at Barbon. Both men were Barristers.

The memorial is quite subdued but there was no requirement for ostentation. The family effectively owned the village, their status was taken for granted and well understood. Even so the cross has its Latin, speaking only to the educated, and its position in an extensive and private family plot proclaims the exclusivity of the named dead.

Third and last is an aspirational brass plaque erected in memory of Thomas Arthur Airey. A difficult memorial to photograph even with Rod's camera!

At the top, within a border of laurel, is the cap badge of 1/14 London Regiment, London Scottish. Beneath this is the inscription;

In Loving Memory Of
T. Arthur Airey, aged 21 Years
Exhibitioner of Christ's College, Cambridge
Serving with the 1st Batt London Scottish
Killed in Action at Gommecourt July 1st 1916
Only son of Thomas and Fanny Airey of Moorthwaite, Barbon

                                          Nothing but well and fair
          And what may comfort us in a death so noble
                                                                     Milton

Mea Gloria Fides

Young Thomas Airey died in the mass slaughter of the 'diversionary attack' at Gommecourt on the First Day of The Somme. He has no known grave.

When I first discovered this memorial I read it, took notes and moved on thinking sad thoughts about this young Officer. Only later did it dawn on me that there is no mention of rank. Thomas Arthur was in fact a private soldier but the memorial with its quote from Milton, use of Latin - My glory assured - and description of scholastic achievement is that of an educated elite, an Officer. It excluded the uneducated commonality.

Thomas senior was a farmer and grain merchant. Moorthwaite is a comfortable but modestly unpretentious Edwardian family house on the edge of the village. His grandfather, however, was simply a hill farmer. The family had, through hard work, risen in the world, they had become middling sorts. Young Thomas attended Kirby Lonsdale Grammar School, where his name is on the War Memorial, and there obtained a scholarship to Cambridge. Had he survived he may have joined the Shuttleworths as a Barrister, married into the gentry or lesser nobility and have thus achieved elite status. His memorial, clearly thought thro' by proud and devastated parents, retrospectively looked forward to this.

For the rest of Barbon there is also a marble plaque in the church but I lack a decent photo of it. In the centre of the village a cross, designed by Paley, has a wonderful and uncompromising dedication!

The cross was unveiled on October 1, 1921.

East Window, Temple Sowerby, St James

No postings for weeks!

I have just treated myself to a book - like I really need more books? However, with little effort I persuaded myself that this one was indispensable! The Stained Glass in the Churches of The Anglican Diocese of Carlisle, published in 1994 by CWAAS and written by Leslie N S Smith. I get frustrated when going around churches only to find that there is no information on windows, let alone war memorials. Some are superb examples of the glaziers art, others not quite so good.

Thus when I found myself in Temple Sowerby I was forearmed with the knowledge that the great East Window, a memorial to the men who died in the Great War, was designed GP Hutchinson and made by Powell of Whitefriars, London. It bears their signature, a small representation of a cowled monk.

Gerald P Hutchinson (b1866) was the son of a clergyman, who was also a master at Rugby School. Gerald joined J Powell & son in 1889 on the manufacturing side. Although he described himself as 'an artist in Stained Glass' on the 1901 census and did indeed design windows he also took on a managerial role and by 1920 was a director. Most of his designs for the firm date from the earlier part of his career and into the 1930s. They are not highly rated by those who make such judgments.

This one seems reasonable. Reminds me of the William Morris window at Allithwaite of which I have no digital pic!

Calthwaite

As a consequence of travelling round the county of Cumbria I have acquired a considerable collection of church guides. Written by vicars or local enthusiasts they describe the origins and history of the buildings, windows, artifacts but rarely war memorials. They are seldom valued as objects of craftsmanship. Thus it was rather nice to visit Calthwaite church and discover quite a comprehensive description of the memorial in the church guide.

The church, designed by JH Martindale Diocesan surveyor for Carlisle, was only built in 1913. It is a lovely building, quiet and peaceful and contains some magnificent wood carving done by George Fendley of Warwick Rd, Carlisle.

The war memorial is another example of the work of Beattie of Carlisle. 

Close examination provides a glimpse of the way in which the rifle and helmet were drawn out of the Aberdeen granite. The sculptor drilled holes around an outline allowing the detail to be isolated and worked on.

The church guide describes the unveiling ceremony ...

58 Calthwaite men joined the armed forces of whom 12 were killed in action ... The Memorial was unveiled on Sunday afternoon, 16th January 1921, by the Earl of Carlisle, who lived at Calthwaite Hall as a boy and had no doubt known many of the men commemorated. The service, conducted by the recently instituted vicar, The Rev WW Farrer, was short, simple and impressive. ... The congregation sang the hymn 'The Saints of God' and then went outside to gather round the memorial. Lord Carlisle reverently withdrew the Union Jack which covered the inscription, and the vicar and Mr Reece offered dedicatory prayers. Two buglers from Carlisle Castle sounded the Last Post.

Charlie Foster, one of the men commemorated, was the son of the headmaster of Calthwaite School, who recorded his death in the school logbook in October 1917, adding the comment 'No singing today as master not in singing mood'.

Such grief from war. For what?

Skelton

Sometimes I am truly amazed at the number of memorials that exist in the smallest of communities. Today I had a drive up to the hidden villages lying between the Eden and the hills of Lakeland north west of Penrith; a landscape of gently rolling farmland, leafy lanes and dispersed farming communities. In amongst these is a scatter of wonderful old churches and chapels. Skelton is one such.


The church of St Michael with its 14th century tower lies at the edge of the village. It is approached through a lych gate, itself a memorial commemorating the men of the village who died in the Great War. Shame about the plastic container!

The names of the men are carved on the sandstone base.


A further memorial in the form of a stock graveyard cross can be seen to the left of the church tower interestingly using the dates 1914 - 1918. The names are again inscribed together with the dedication...
'They died in War that we might live in Peace'.


Inside the church are two hand drawn rolls of honour. The earlier one listing all from the village who served and died in the European War was drawn by Irwin Walker in March 1921. He did not serve but being the son of a farm labourer he may have been exempt.


The central detail is beautifully drawn.


The second roll, drawn by RF Allinson in September 1949, lists those from the Second World War and includes seven women, reflecting the totality of the nation's engagement in the conflict where the women's services were so central to the national effort.


At the bottom of the nave, beneath the organ, is an oak screen that appears to have no purpose. Was it originally elsewhere in the village? The central panel lists the dead of 1939-45.


On the north wall of the nave is a spectacular plaque bearing the arms of the Cowper family and dedicated to the life and Great War service of Lt Colonel Malcolm Gordon Cowper. He joined the East Yorkshires from The Buffs as a 22 year old subaltern in 1898 and led the 6th (Service) Battalion thro' all of its battles in Gallipoli, France & Flanders between 1915-18.

The places named here are long forgotten by the vast majority of people but in the post 1918 years they would have been familiar to all, dark names resonant with death and heroism.


To find so many memorials in such a small, quiet community is indicative of the huge emotional impact of the world wars of the twentieth century. It is something I can only imagine, at best emotionally reconstruct from the echoes I felt as a child. I have just been watching the 70th anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Britain on TV and an Air Marshall observed that to young people that conflict is as remote as Trafalgar or Agincourt. Perhaps so, but it is sobering to contemplate the effort that places such as Skelton made to put the memory of Great Events in the ancient continuum of English history.

Deeply moving.