Snapshots

One of the best bits of blogging is when people get in touch and provide snippets of information.

I recently received a series of snapshots dating from 1931 showing the Johnson family in and around Ireleth and Askam. The first images, below, show the family outside the Railway Inn and then standing around in Dale St. The lady holding the coat is Elizabeth Johnson, nee Holmes.

This delightful pic shows Mabel Johnson standing beside the recently unveiled War Memorial.

The darkness of the name panel suggests that the gilded letters of the names of the dead remained unweathered. It also suggests that the wreath and cross may have been partially gilded. The gold leaf was provided by the architect free gratis.

The final image is of the Johnson family on Askam Railway Station. They have put their coats on, it must have got cold!

The Peninsula War at Bassenthwaite and Backbarrow

I can only say again what a remarkable tool the internet is.
A couple of enthusiasts from Longsleddale have a website that contains a huge collection of Cumbrian maps and an increasingly large collection of photographs. Browsing through the pictures I discovered this image of a memorial in St Bega's Church, Bassenthwaite.

The memorial commemorates Walter Vane, Captain in the 1st Foot Guards (Coldstreams) who died of wounds received at the Battle of Bayonne on 14 April 1814. This action was a rather bitter affair fought 2 days after the abdication of Napoleon on April 12. As Arthur Wellesley pursued Marshall Soult into France he left a force of some 20,000 troops under Lt Gen John Hope to invest the city of Bayonne. After a leisurely six week siege the French Commander, Thouvenot, though aware of Napoleon's demise launched a column against the British lines. The Brits lost 838 men, the French 905. General Hope was captured.
Captain Vane was buried close to the village of Boucat (Boucau).

'along with many of his brother Officers who bravely fell in the service of their country'.

No mention of the common soldier there then! Indeed they were largely forgotten, only receiving a medal for their services in The Peninsula in 1848. This old veteran seen below wears his peninsula medal sometime around 1860; a wonderful image held at the V&A in London.


However, many veterans were lauded in their home communities. In Ulverston an old soldier who lost an arm at Waterloo and who lived at 'Waterloo Cottage' on the Flan reputedly never bought a pint of beer in his life, simply regaling visitors with tales of the Battle for the price of his drink! And at Haverthwaite there is a remarkable tombstone commemorating William Fell, a Light Infantry Man who fought throughout the Peninsula War.

The inscription reads:

Requiescat in Pace

William Fell, A soldier of the 52nd Light Infantry who fought in that Gallant Regiment at Pombal, Almeida, on the Plains of Cordillia, at Sabugal, Busaco, Fuentes D'Onoro, at the siege and storming of Ciudad Rodrigo (a volunteer), Badajoz (severely wounded), Salamanca, Vittoria, and Orthez (dangerously wounded).Was born at Brow Edge and buried on the 27th of June 1852 in Haverthwaite church yard.
BG to whom he left his medal of six clasps dedicates to British valour this humble stone

BG is Dr Gilpin of Ulverston.

The image here shows a Peninsula medal awarded to a man in the 52nd Foot.


Leaving the army in 1821 after more than 12 years service William Fell returned to Backbarrow to work in a paper mill and later a Cotton Mill. In 1824 when claiming a pension in Dublin Fell stated that he was 'worn out with service'. He also worked as an armed guard on the local coach and as an old man made toffee and cakes for visitors to to the lakes, meeting them at Newby Bridge while wearing his medal. There is a full biography of him in CWAAS Transactions, 3rd Series, Vol IV.


The 52nd Light Infantry became the Ox & Bucks LI who famously landed at Pegasus Bridge on the Orne at the opening of the Battle for Normandy.

Bampton - in the valley of the Lowther

Summer is a comin' in so it's days out with friends. And a wonderful clear blue sky with no contrails! Yesterday to Shap and some of the villages in the valley of the river Lowther. Bampton Grange was one, with a name like that it must have been a grange of the Premonstratensian Abbey of Shap, a favourite place of mine. Its romantic ruins nestle in the fells some miles away.

The church at Bampton, an early 18th century building replacing a pre 1170 foundation, has three memorials to 20th century conflicts. One each for the dead of two world wars and a large wooden roll listing the guys who served between 1914/18.

The two stone ones might be Beattie's of Carlisle. They certainly have a look of their work.

There is also a Memorial Hall; is this a War Memorial?

However, the most interesting memorial is in a dark corner thro' the church door at the foot of the tower. It commemorates Vice Admiral Charles Richardson KCB, a man educated at the village school who made good in Nelson's navy. The memorial seeks to inspire other callow village youths to follow his example. The Admiral fought in the battles of The Glorious 1st June, Camperdown, at Flushing, the Indies, indeed he served King and country throughout the world for decades.

Richardson entered the Navy in November 1787 as servant to Captain Richard Strachan aboard the Vestal, 28 guns. In the early 1790s he was employed on various riverboats supporting Abercromby's operations against Tippoo Saib. By 1793 he was in the Channel Fleet aboard the Alexander, 74, under Captain West and in '94 the Royal George, 100, flagship of Sir Alexander Hood, in which ship he partook in Lord Howe's action of 1st June.

In August of 1794 he was commissioned Lt in the Circe, 28, under Capt Halkett, which was heavily involved in the mutiny at the Nore. In October 1797 Richardson was at Camperdown, a battle fought against the Dutch, and famously took an open boat to Admiral De Winter's dismasted flagship, took him prisoner and personally presented him to Lord Duncan, the victorious British Commander. Richardson was rewarded with promotion to signals Lieutenant aboard Duncan's flagship, Kent, 74. In 1798 he commanded a division of seamen in the Helder, took a Dutch 58 home as a prize before sailing with Abercromby to Egypt where he fought at Aboukir on 8th March 1801.

In July 1802 he took command of Alligator in which ship he directed operations leading to the reduction of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice in 1803 and Surinam in 1804. As a consequence of these actions he raised his broad pennant in the Centaur, 74 and then the Caesar, 80. In this ship and in company with Richard Strachan, he pursued the French ships that escaped annihalation at Trafalgar, destroyed three French frigates at Sable d'Olonne, a French squadron at Aix Roads and then went on to land at the Scheldt where as senior Naval Officer he took the French surrender. During the investment of Flushing he commanded a battery of 24 pounders with sufficient effect to earn the praises of the Earl of Chatham, C in C British forces. In April 1812 Richardson commanded the frigate Semiramis and proceeded to take a significant number of prizes, among them the French privateer Grand Jean Bart, 14 guns. He continued to serve in the Channel, off Lisbon, the Cape of Good Hope and China until he was invalided out of active service in 1822.

What a career! What memories!

His prizes will have made him a wealthy man. Certainly he bought the estate of Painsthorpe Hall, East Yorkshire where he died, aged 81 in 1850. It is clearly a beautiful place.

New look at Howgill

Today was beautiful, the first really warm day after a long winter so I took off with a couple of friends for lunch and a mooch round the huge second hand bookshop at Sedbergh. Afterwards we drove up to Howgill and sat in the churchyard at Holy Trinity, soaking up the sun and reading the papers.


Going around the memorials of Cumbria it has become clear that many have suffered from the ravages of time. Rain and wind have eroded them and they have become grey and featureless. However, people still care and an increasing number seem to benefiting from the various grants that are available for their cleaning and restoration.

The church at Howgill was built in 1838 replacing an earlier foundation endowed in 1685 by John Robinson, Yeoman. It is a beautiful place. The parish covers a wide area on the west side of the rolling Howgill Fells, Alfred Wainwright's favourite place. The community's war memorial is in the churchyard. I was there early last year and it did look rather sad.

So what a pleasure it was to visit today to find it cleaned and recut looking beautiful among the spring daffodils.

Inside the church is a wooden Roll of Honour bearing the names of all who served. The listing is quite complicated. Offices are at the head of the list and the rest descend in rank order. Unusually it appears to indicate the year in which the men volunteered or were called to to colours. Some are pre-war regulars including John Sedgwick who was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal and Mons Star. Edmund Herd won the Military Medal and Bar.

Though unsigned the Roll is likely to have been made by Simpson of Kendal - a fine exponent of Arts & Crafts cabinetmaking. During and after the Great War Simpson obtained a lot of commissions to create pieces of furniture in oak and it is said that he made most of these items of American oak, keeping his precious stock of English oak for memorials.

War is a dreadful thing, the last resort of inept and bankrupt politics that plays with the lives of the young. And not only the young, but their devastated families. Thus the churchyards ad cemeteries of Cumbria are replete with gravestones bearing the names of dead children gathered into family memory. There is one such at Howgill where the grave of James Herd and his wife, Margaret, of Bantyghyll also carries the name of their youngest son, Frederick Proud Herd, Pte, 2/5th South Staffordshire Rgt, killed at Passchendaele in September 1917.


Frederick lies at Dochy Farm Cemetery near Langemark, a long way from Howgill. His mother was 94 when she died in 1958. I don't imagine many hours passed in the 41 years following her son's death that Margaret didn't grieve for him.

Death at Omdurman and a colonial war crime in the Sudan

Friend Rod has started turning up regularly with pics of war memorials he has encountered on his travels. The latest is a stack of pics from the north of the county including Lanercost.

This wonderful former Augustinian priory largely built from the stones of Hadrian's Wall & often ravaged by marauding Scots was adopted as the parish church after the reformation. It has a number of memorials two of which commemorate brothers.

On the south wall of the nave is a slate slab bearing the names of the only two sons of artist John Charlton and his wife, Kate.


Both men were killed within days of each other. Hugh Vaughan, 7th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers, aged 32 on June 24, 1916 at Whytschaete. His brother, John Macfarlane, 21st Bn Northumberland Fusiliers, was killed exactly a week later at La Boiselle on the First Day of the Somme. Beneath the memorial there is an additional plaque for John, their father, who died at the family home, Banks House, Bamburgh in 1917. When I lived in north Cumberland as a boy I was told that he died of inconsolable grief. Echoes of Kipling's terrible grief on losing his only son, Jack.

There is also a terrible irony in that John made his reputation painting pictures of, among other things, glorious scenes of Imperial Military events such as The Charge of the Light Brigade.


On the opposite wall of the nave is a further memorial containing bronze relief portraits of Hubert George Lyulph Howard & his brother Christopher Edward, two sons of 11 children born to George, 9th Earl of Carlisle and his wife, Rosalind.


Christopher, a Lieutenant in the 8th Royal Irish Hussars, died at Slaines Castle, the Scottish seat of the Hay Earls of Errol, in 1896.

His Elder brother, Hubert, was killed at the Battle of Omdurman in the Sudan on September 2nd 1898, an Imperial campaign fought to avenge the death of Chinese Gordon at Khartoum in 1885.

Herbert Kitchener, soon to be known as of Khartoum, was leading 25,000 British, Sudanese and Egyptian troops against 50,000 Dervishes or Ansar, the followers of Abdullah al-Taashi, The Mahdi.



The Brits lost 430 killed and wounded. The Ansar lost 10,000 killed, 13,000 wounded and 5,000 taken prisoner. After the battle Kitchener had the Arab wounded slaughtered.

Members of the Lincolnshire Rgt at the Battle.

Hubert Howard was not in the services but was working as a special correspondent for The Times & various other newspapers, an adventurous Churchillian aristocrat, typical of late Victorian England. He was educated at Balliol, Oxford, went to Cuba in the early stages of the rebellion against the Spanish authorities and joined the insurgents in the summer of 1895.

When the second Matabele war broke out in the spring of 1896, he travelled there to serve as a lieutenant in Robertson’s “Cape Boys”. In August, Howard was severely wounded in the leg during the attack on Secombo’s stronghold by Colonel Plumer’s column.

An African Warrior

For a time he was then Private Secretary to Earl Grey of tea fame. After his return from South Africa he was called to the Bar and worked in the legal profession for a time. Following his death he was buried in the Sudanese desert.

Omdurman was a bloodbath, a Sudanese holocaust. The battle and the memory of the Mahdi is still revered in the Sudan where the Brits are considered to be war criminals .... for more check out this link or this one.

The Earl of Carlisle lost another son in the Great War, Michael Francis Stafford died serving as a Private with the 2nd Bn Honourable Artillery Company although he had previously been a Lieutenant with the 18th Hussars and the Scots Guards. He was killed on 9 October 1917, age 37 at Passchendaele.

A glimpse of Staveley in Cartmel

I have favourite places. A seat in the corner of the churchyard of St Mary's at Staveley in Cartmel is one of them. It is a wonderful place of quiet above the busy A590. The church itself was built as a chapelry after the suppression of Cartmel Priory though it has been subject to a couple of restorations and rebuilds since the 16th century.

The churchyard is particularly interesting for the variety of grave markers and tombstones quite a few of which commemorate high status families. One of these is the Ridehalgh family grave containing the mortal remains of three generations.



The family lived at Fell Foot, a substantial house on the shores of Lake Windermere now owned by the National Trust and run as a country park. The house and estate has a colourful history and passed through a number of hands until it was bought by Colonel George John Miller Ridehalgh, Lord of the Manor of Urmston, about 1859. He was a great benefactor in the district, an obsessive yachtsman and steam-boat enthusiast. Following his death the house was eventually sold in 1907 by his cousin, Wm Smith Ridehalgh, whereupon it was immediately demolished. The family moved to Broughton Lodge, closer to Cartmel. William Smith and his wife, Ethel, had just one son, George William. Born in 1916 he was serving as a 2nd Lt with the Welsh Guards when he died in 1940 to be buried in the family vault.



At some subsequent date his grieving widowed mother and his sisters erected a window in the north aisle of the church bearing figures of the archangels, Saints Gabriel & Raphael.



Oddly his name does not appear on two Rolls in the church but it does appear on the WW2 panel in the Lych gate, the village's primary war memorial. This gate, built from village oak, was constructed by the Wren family of Newby Bridge and unveiled in 1927



I have the following from friend Howard;

I remember old Mrs Ridehalgh living on her own at Broughton Lodge. We lived at Longlands Farm as kids and I remember her, a tiny old lady, peering through the steering wheel of a Vauxhall as she drove past the drive end. Her maiden name was Ravenscroft and she was renowned as a beauty, as the picture attached clearly shows.

The Ravenscrofts were a wealthy cotton trading family from Birkenhead and lived at Wood Broughton. Her brothers all fought in the war.

This is an extract from my Field Broughton book; "The third house in the picture is Broughton Grange, then owned by the Ravenscrofts. The four sons of the household were reported by the Cartmel Parish Magazine of October 1914 to have "all gained commissions". Martin joined the 3rd West Lancs Field Artillery and gained the Military Cross in 1917. Gordon and Harold were both Lieutenants in 4th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers, which was at Barrow-in-Furness at the time. This was an Extra Reserve battalion which remained at Barrow until October 1916 when it was transferred to Barry in South Wales where it remained for the duration of hostilities. Gordon was promoted to captain in the summer of 1915 and ended the war with this rank in The King’s Own. The Ravenscroft brothers went out to France and both were in the "thick of it" during the Somme battles of 1916. Harold was reported to be home in August 1916 after being wounded in the right shoulder and Gordon was back on duty after being gassed.

The fourth brother, Trevor, was commissioned into the "Lancashire Huzzars" and joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1915. The January 1916 Cartmel Parish magazine said, "Trevor Ravenscroft of RFC has had a wonderful escape. He fell from a height of 1300 ft with his aeroplane, diving headlong into a tree near the Brooklands Aerodrome. He was roped into his seat so did not fall out. The machine went straight down through the tree, cutting off branches 6 inches thick as though they were matchwood. When the inhabitants of the house nearby rushed out they found the airman walking about with a bleeding nose. Stranger still, the house was that of Miss Egerton, St George's Hill, Byfleet, Weybridge, who was delighted to be of assistance to one from Cartmel Valley, even though his visit had been so abrupt! We are truly thankful that he is none the worse." He was later reported to have been many times over the German lines in his aeroplane."

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Memorials at Gosforth

There is still a deal of snow on the tops but it has been sunny recently, the crocus are coming through and spring is just round the corner! So today I set off with friend Al for beef and ale pie at the Wasdale Head Inn, an amazing place. On the way home we dropped by the village of Gosforth. In the churchyard here is one of England's great treasures, a superb 10th century Scandinavian cross.

In the church itself there are a number of memorials to men of the district who have died in conflict. I have already posted that of Capt Chas Parker, RM.

Of equal interest in a marble plaque, created by Wm Brown of Stonehouse, Devon, commemorating Captain Sir Humphrey Le Fleming Senhouse, KCB, KCH -[Knight Commander of the Hanoverian Order of Guelph], RN, of Seascale, who died aged 60 at Canton during the First Opium War. Having served in the Royal Navy since 1801 his end came on June 13, 1841 aboard HMS Blenheim, a Third Rate 74 built at Deptford in 1813. He had been Senior Naval Officer of the China Squadron.


Capt Senhouse was buried at the Portuguese enclave of Macau where the monument below was erected by fellow Officers. It bears the Senhouse family crest.


Sir Humphrey was a scion of the ancient family of Senhouse of Netherhall & Gosforth who had lived in the parish since the reign of Richard I. He was the third of ten children produced by William & Elizabeth Senhouse and a grandson of Sir Geo Fleming, Bishop of Carlisle.

The First Opium War was a pretty unpleasant business, a profoundly cynical exercise in Imperialism on the part of the British. The Chinese War Junks were blown out of the water by steam powered British warships. Part of the Treaty of Nanjing, drawn up at the war's end and seen here, saw Britain's acquisition of Hong Kong. The conflict also produced a long period of instability in the Chinese Empire as peasants attempted to overthrow the Quing dynasty.