PastToPresentGenealogy

St Mary of the Angels, Batley: One-Place Study Update – 1 to 31 March 2024 Additions

Posted on April 1, 2024 | Leave a comment

This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. This update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts published up to the end of March 2024 , including links to them, with March’s new and updated posts signposted.

If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.

Seven posts were added during March 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 309. Three other posts were updated.

These additions and updates included a new War Memorial biography, that of John William Callaghan. Robert Randerson’s biography was updated. There are five new weekly newspaper pages for March 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family. I have also added a new subject heading, a parish history section which will contain the snippets of parish history I produce each week for the weekly bulletin for Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick. The first piece here is the history snippets included in the March 2024 bulletins. The final updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more men being identified during March.

Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.

Finally, if you do have any information about, or photos of, parishioners from the period of the First World War please do get in touch. It does not have to be War Memorial men. It could be those who served and survived, or indeed any other men, women and children from the parish.

I would also be interested in information about, and photos of, those parishioners who were killed in World War Two, or others from the parish who undertook any war service and survived. This can be as broad as serving in the military, or work in munitions factories, the Land Army, even taking in refugees. This is an area I’m looking to develop in the future.

I can be contacted at: pasttopresentgenealogy@btinternet.com

Postscript:
I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.

The website has always been free to use, and I want to continue this policy in the future. However, it does cost me money to operate – from undertaking the research to website hosting costs. In the current difficult economic climate I do have to regularly consider if I can afford to continue running it as a free resource.

If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.

Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.

Thank you.

1. About my St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church War Memorial One-Place Study;

Batley St Mary’s Population, Health, Mortality and Fertility Information and Comparisons
2. 1914: The Health of Batley School Children Generally, with a Particular Focus on St Mary’s School Children

Batley Statistics and Descriptions – Population, Health, Mortality, Fertility etc.
3. 1914: Borough of Batley – Town Information from the Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
4. Batley and the 1921 Census
5. Batley Population Statistics 1801-1939

Biographies: Men Associated with St Mary’s Who Died but Who Are Not on the Memorial
6. Thomas Gannon
7. Reginald Roberts
8. William Frederick Townsend

Biographies: The War Memorial Men
9. Edward Barber
10. William Barber (Memorial name spelling)
11. Herbert Booth
12. Edmund Battye
13. Dominick (aka George) Brannan
14. Michael Brannan
15. John Brooks
16. Michael Cafferty
17. Patrick Cafferty
18. John William Callaghan *NEW*
19. Lawrence Carney
20. Martin Carney
21. Thomas William Chappell
22. William Colbeck
23. Michael Cunningham
24. Thomas Curley
25. Peter Doherty
26. Thomas Donlan
27. John W. Enright
28. Mathew Farrer
29. Thomas Finneran
30. Michael Flynn
31. Thomas Foley D.C.M.
32. Martin Gallagher
33. James Garner
34. Thomas Gavaghan
35. Henry Groark
36. James Groark
37. Michael Groark (also known as Rourke)
38. James Griffin
39. William Hargreaves
40. Patrick Hopkins
41. Michael Horan
42. Lawrence Judge
43. John Leech
44. Michael Lydon
45. Patrick Lyons
William McManus – See William Townsend below
46. Thomas McNamara
47. Patrick Naifsey
48. Austin Nolan
49. Robert Randerson *UPDATED*
50. James Rush
51. Moses Stubley
52. William Townsend, also known as McManus
53. James Trainor
54. Richard Carroll Walsh
55. Arthur William Bayldon Woodhead

Biographies: Those who Served and Survived (this includes a list of those identified to date and who will later have dedicated biographical pages) *UPDATED*
56. Patrick Cassidy
57. James Delaney
58. Thomas Donlan (senior)
59. Thomas Gannon
60. Michael Rush

Burials, Cemeteries, Headstones and MIs
61. Cemetery and Memorial Details
62. War Memorial Chronology of Deaths

Electoral Registers 1918-1921
255. 1918 Batley Electoral Register, North Ward, Polling Districts A and B – Naval and Military Voters

Miscellany of Information
256. A Colliery Accident with Tragic Consequences
257. A Grave Disturbance in Batley
258. A Part of St Mary of the Angels in Batley Cemetery
259. A “Peace” of Batley History
260. An Appeal to Ireland to Build a Catholic Church in Batley
261. A Potted Early History of the Irish in Batley, the Building of St Mary of the Angels Church, and the Parish Priest’s Fatal Accident
262. A St Mary’s School Sensation
263. Batley’s Secret Irish Society and the Ammunition Seizure
264. Heritage Impact Assessment: St Mary’s Catholic Primary School and Convent, Batley
265. Hot-Cross Buns and the Yorkshire Tea-Cake Dilemma. Plus A Suggested Meal Planner for Batley Families in 1917
266. St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church – 1929 Consecration Service
267. The Controversial Role Played by St Mary’s Schoolchildren in the 1907 Batley Pageant
268. The Great War: A Brief Overview of What Led Britain into the War
269. Willie and Edward Barber – Poems

Occupations and Employment Information
270. Occupations: Colliery Byeworker/Byeworkman/Byworker/Bye-Worker/By-Worker
271. Occupations: Confidential Clerk
272. Occupations: Lamp Cleaner
273. Occupations: Limelight Operator
274. Occupations: Mason’s Labourer
275. Occupations: Office Boy/Girl
276. Occupations: Piecer/Piecener
277. Occupations: Rag Grinder
278. Occupations: Willeyer

The Bulletin of St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick – Parish History Section *NEW*
303. March 2024 Bulletin History Pieces *NEW*

The Families
304. A Death in the Church
305. St Mary’s Schoolboys Wreak Havoc in a Batley Graveyard

World War Two
306. World War Two Chronology of Deaths
307. Thomas Egan
308. Michael Flatley
309. William Smith

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Posted in 19th Century, 20th Century, Ancestry, Batley, Catholic, County Mayo, Family History, Genealogy, Great War, History, Home Front, In Memoriam, Ireland, Local History, Occupations, One-Place Study, Remembrance, Roll of Honour, St Mary's RC Church, The Great War, War Memorial, WW1, WW2, Yorkshire

Tagged Ancestry, Batley, Catholic, County Mayo, family history, genealogy, Great War, History, Home Front, Local History, Occupations, One-Place Study, St Mary's RC Church, The Great War, War Memorial, WW1, WW2, Yorkshire

St Mary of the Angels, Batley: One-Place Study Update – 1 to 29 February 2024 Additions

Posted on March 1, 2024 | Leave a comment

This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. The February 2024 monthly update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts to date, including links to them, with February’s new and updated posts signposted.

If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.

Seven posts were added during February 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 302. Two other posts were updated.

The additions included a new War Memorial biography, that of John William En(w)right. There was a new school Log Book for 1920. I also added some school history details. There were also four weekly newspaper pages for February 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family. The other updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more being identified during February.

Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.

I can be contacted at: pasttopresentgenealogy@btinternet.com

Postscript:
I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.

If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.

Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.

Thank you.

1. About my St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church War Memorial One-Place Study;

Biographies: Men Associated with St Mary’s Who Died but Who Are Not on the Memorial
6. Thomas Gannon
7. Reginald Roberts
8. William Frederick Townsend

Biographies: The War Memorial Men
9. Edward Barber
10. William Barber (Memorial name spelling)
11. Herbert Booth
12. Edmund Battye
13. Dominick (aka George) Brannan
14. Michael Brannan
15. John Brooks
16. Michael Cafferty
17. Patrick Cafferty
18. Lawrence Carney
19. Martin Carney
20. Thomas William Chappell
21. William Colbeck
22. Michael Cunningham
23. Thomas Curley
24. Peter Doherty
25. Thomas Donlan
26. John W. Enright *NEW*
27. Mathew Farrer
28. Thomas Finneran
29. Michael Flynn
30. Thomas Foley D.C.M.
31. Martin Gallagher
32. James Garner
33. Thomas Gavaghan
34. Henry Groark
35. James Groark
36. Michael Groark (also known as Rourke)
37. James Griffin
38. William Hargreaves
39. Patrick Hopkins
40. Michael Horan
41. Lawrence Judge
42. John Leech
43. Michael Lydon
44. Patrick Lyons
William McManus – See William Townsend below
45. Thomas McNamara
46. Patrick Naifsey
47. Austin Nolan
48. Robert Randerson
49. James Rush
50. Moses Stubley
51. William Townsend, also known as McManus
52. James Trainor
53. Richard Carroll Walsh
54. Arthur William Bayldon Woodhead

Biographies: Those who Served and Survived (this includes a list of those identified to date and who will later have dedicated biographical pages) *UPDATED*
55. Patrick Cassidy
56. James Delaney
57. Thomas Donlan (senior)
58. Thomas Gannon
59. Michael Rush

Burials, Cemeteries, Headstones and MIs
60. Cemetery and Memorial Details
61. War Memorial Chronology of Deaths

Electoral Registers 1918-1921
249. 1918 Batley Electoral Register, North Ward, Polling Districts A and B – Naval and Military Voters

Miscellany of Information
250. A Colliery Accident with Tragic Consequences
251. A Grave Disturbance in Batley
252. A Part of St Mary of the Angels in Batley Cemetery
253. A “Peace” of Batley History
254. An Appeal to Ireland to Build a Catholic Church in Batley
255. A Potted Early History of the Irish in Batley, the Building of St Mary of the Angels Church, and the Parish Priest’s Fatal Accident
256. A St Mary’s School Sensation
257. Batley’s Secret Irish Society and the Ammunition Seizure
258. Heritage Impact Assessment: St Mary’s Catholic Primary School and Convent, Batley *NEW*
259. Hot-Cross Buns and the Yorkshire Tea-Cake Dilemma. Plus A Suggested Meal Planner for Batley Families in 1917
260. St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church – 1929 Consecration Service
261. The Controversial Role Played by St Mary’s Schoolchildren in the 1907 Batley Pageant
262. The Great War: A Brief Overview of What Led Britain into the War
263. Willie and Edward Barber – Poems

Occupations and Employment Information
264. Occupations: Colliery Byeworker/Byeworkman/Byworker/Bye-Worker/By-Worker
265. Occupations: Confidential Clerk
266. Occupations: Lamp Cleaner
267. Occupations: Limelight Operator
268. Occupations: Mason’s Labourer
269. Occupations: Office Boy/Girl
270. Occupations: Piecer/Piecener
271. Occupations: Rag Grinder
272. Occupations: Willeyer

The Families
273. A Death in the Church
274. St Mary’s Schoolboys Wreak Havoc in a Batley Graveyard

World War Two
299. World War Two Chronology of Deaths
300. Thomas Egan
301. Michael Flatley
302. William Smith

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Posted in 19th Century, 20th Century, Ancestry, Batley, Catholic, County Mayo, Family History, Genealogy, Great War, History, Home Front, Local History, Occupations, One-Place Study, Remembrance, Roll of Honour, Schools, St Mary's RC Church, The Great War, War Memorial, WW1, WW2, Yorkshire

Tagged Ancestry, Batley, Catholic, County Mayo, family history, genealogy, Great War, History, Home Front, Local History, Occupations, One-Place Study, St Mary's, The Great War, War Memorial, WW1, WW2, Yorkshire

Details of my Family and Local History Talks in 2024 -2025

Posted on February 8, 2024 | Leave a comment

If you are looking for a speaker during 2024 and 2025 covering family or local history, here are my list of talks for the period.

They are:

Charles the Pigeon and a Yorkshire Spy.
Local Links to the Lusitania.
My Batley St Mary’s One-Place Study. (Covers aspects of the Catholic parish of Batley St Mary of the Angels until circa 1929).
The Home Front: the White Lee Explosion of 1914.
Tips for Researching your Great War Ancestors. This is based around my book about Northern Union – rugby league – players killed in the First World War. For local history groups, I can drop the research tips aspect, and base the talk solely about the players.

The first four have a distinctly Yorkshire flavour, whereas the final one is far broader despite its rugby league connections.

Charles the Pigeon and a Yorkshire Spy is the story of an unsung Yorkshire hero, living behind enemy lines and carrying out works of espionage and sabotage during World War One. His adopted pigeon Charles played an important part in these wartime exploits. Their daring deeds are more like a boy’s adventure story than real life. But this is a true tale of wartime courage, and one which deserves wider telling.

Local Links to the Lusitania focuses on people with Yorkshire connections on board the Cunard liner, torpedoed and sunk off the Irish coast on 7 May 1915. The sinking did not affect only the rich and famous. Many Yorkshire people were involved. This talk explores some of their stories.

There is a possibility this talk can be tailored to your local area.

My Batley St Mary’s talk is based around my one-place study into the Catholic parish of St Mary of the Angels, with a focus on its early history and period up to the aftermath of the First World War. It investigates what a one-place study is, why I embarked on one, why I chose this particular study, as well as my findings – including the Irish migration angle, and with a focus on ordinary parishioners – including some of their tales.

The Home Front: the White Lee Explosion of 1914 is a talk based around the events of December 1914 when a devastating explosion, caused during the manufacture of picric acid for the war effort, took place at White Lee. It resulted in deaths and injuries, as well as damage across a vast area of Batley, Heckmondwike and the Spen Valley. It is an event often overlooked because of later explosions in Yorkshire at Low Moor and Barnbow. This talk aims to provide more information about this Heavy Woollen District incident, the forerunner to the later explosions. The talk will explore the unlucky history of the site as well as the events on the day and the aftermath.

Based on my groundbreaking book The Greatest Sacrifice: Fallen Heroes of the Northern Union about rugby league players who died in World War One, the talk investigates the stories behind some of the men. It is also packed with tips for researching your own Great War Army ancestors.

For more details about these talks, including booking one, please contact me at: pasttopresentgenealogy@btinternet.com

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Posted in Family History, Family History Talks, Local History, Local History Talks, Talks, Yorkshire

Tagged family history, Local History, Talks

St Mary of the Angels, Batley: One-Place Study Update – 1 to 31 January 2024 Additions

Posted on February 1, 2024 | 1 comment

This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. The January 2024 monthly update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts to date, including links to them, with this month’s new and updated posts signposted.

If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.

Despite moving house at the beginning of this month, I did manage to add five posts during January 2024, bringing the total number of study posts to 295. Two other posts were updated.

The additions included a new school Log Book for 1919. There were four weekly newspaper pages for January 1918. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family. The other updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more being identified last month. No new biographies have been added here, or in any of the other categories (either World War One or World War Two deaths). These will follow in due course.

Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.

I can be contacted at: pasttopresentgenealogy@btinternet.com

Postscript:
I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.

If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.

Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.

Thank you.

1. About my St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church War Memorial One-Place Study;

Biographies: Men Associated with St Mary’s Who Died but Who Are Not on the Memorial
6. Thomas Gannon
7. Reginald Roberts
8. William Frederick Townsend

Biographies: The War Memorial Men
9. Edward Barber
10. William Barber (Memorial name spelling)
11. Herbert Booth
12. Edmund Battye
13. Dominick (aka George) Brannan
14. Michael Brannan
15. John Brooks
16. Michael Cafferty
17. Patrick Cafferty
18. Lawrence Carney
19. Martin Carney
20. Thomas William Chappell
21. William Colbeck
22. Michael Cunningham
23. Thomas Curley
24. Peter Doherty
25. Thomas Donlan
26. Mathew Farrer
27. Thomas Finneran
28. Michael Flynn
29. Thomas Foley D.C.M.
30. Martin Gallagher
31. James Garner
32. Thomas Gavaghan
33. Henry Groark
34. James Groark
35. Michael Groark (also known as Rourke)
36. James Griffin
37. William Hargreaves
38. Patrick Hopkins
39. Michael Horan
40. Lawrence Judge
41. John Leech
42. Michael Lydon
43. Patrick Lyons
William McManus – See William Townsend below
44. Thomas McNamara
45. Patrick Naifsey
46. Austin Nolan
47. Robert Randerson
48. James Rush
49. Moses Stubley
50. William Townsend, also known as McManus
51. James Trainor
52. Richard Carroll Walsh
53. Arthur William Bayldon Woodhead

Biographies: Those who Served and Survived (this includes a list of those identified to date and who will later have dedicated biographical pages) *UPDATED*
54. Patrick Cassidy
55. James Delaney
56. Thomas Donlan (senior)
57. Thomas Gannon
58. Michael Rush

Burials, Cemeteries, Headstones and MIs
59. Cemetery and Memorial Details
60. War Memorial Chronology of Deaths

Electoral Registers 1918-1921
244. 1918 Batley Electoral Register, North Ward, Polling Districts A and B – Naval and Military Voters

Miscellany of Information
245. A Colliery Accident with Tragic Consequences
246. A Grave Disturbance in Batley
247. A Part of St Mary of the Angels in Batley Cemetery
248. A “Peace” of Batley History
249. An Appeal to Ireland to Build a Catholic Church in Batley
250. A Potted Early History of the Irish in Batley, the Building of St Mary of the Angels Church, and the Parish Priest’s Fatal Accident
251. A St Mary’s School Sensation
252. Batley’s Secret Irish Society and the Ammunition Seizure
253. Hot-Cross Buns and the Yorkshire Tea-Cake Dilemma. Plus A Suggested Meal Planner for Batley Families in 1917
254. St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church – 1929 Consecration Service
255. The Controversial Role Played by St Mary’s Schoolchildren in the 1907 Batley Pageant
256. The Great War: A Brief Overview of What Led Britain into the War
257. Willie and Edward Barber – Poems

Occupations and Employment Information
258. Occupations: Colliery Byeworker/Byeworkman/Byworker/Bye-Worker/By-Worker
259. Occupations: Confidential Clerk
260. Occupations: Lamp Cleaner
261. Occupations: Limelight Operator
262. Occupations: Mason’s Labourer
263. Occupations: Office Boy/Girl
264. Occupations: Piecer/Piecener
265. Occupations: Rag Grinder
266. Occupations: Willeyer

The Families
267. A Death in the Church
268. St Mary’s Schoolboys Wreak Havoc in a Batley Graveyard

World War Two
292. World War Two Chronology of Deaths
293. Thomas Egan
294. Michael Flatley
295. William Smith

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Posted in 19th Century, 20th Century, Ancestry, Batley, Catholic, County Mayo, Family History, Genealogy, Great War, History, Home Front, Ireland, Local History, Occupations, One-Place Study, Remembrance, Roll of Honour, St Mary's RC Church, The Great War, War Memorial, WW1, WW2, Yorkshire

Tagged Ancestry, Batley, Catholic, County Mayo, family history, genealogy, Great War, History, Home Front, Ireland, Local History, Occupations, One-Place Study, St Mary's, The Great War, War Memorial, WW1, WW2, Yorkshire

Charles the Pigeon and a Batley Spy

Posted on January 3, 2024 | Leave a comment

This is the story of an unsung Batley hero, living behind enemy lines and carrying out works of espionage and sabotage during World War One. His adopted pigeon Charles played an important part in the Yorkshireman’s wartime exploits. Their daring deeds read more like a boy’s adventure story than real life. But this is a true tale of wartime courage, and one which deserves wider telling.

George William Richardson was born in Hunslet in 1859, and baptised at Thornhill parish church. His parents were Thornhill-born glass bottle maker Benjamin Richardson and Mary Peace, who married at Hunslet St Mary’s earlier that year. George was the eldest of their 15 children. The Richardson family were well-known in the Batley area, with George being the nephew of local dyer Edward Richardson.

George spent his early years in Liverpool where his father, Benjamin, worked. But by the mid-1870s Benjamin changed career and moved to Batley where he set up business as a grocer and provision dealer in the Mount Pleasant area. The family home was in Denison Street, Purlwell.

A keen young all-round sportsman, George played in the forwards for the Batley Mountaineers Rugby Football team. He also won trophies for long-distance running and walking. This included first prize of two bronze vases on marble pedestals for the two miles’ walk at the Dewsbury United Clerk’s Sports at Crown Flatt in July 1878; the following month a timepiece and a guinea for first in that distance at the Heckmondwike Football Club Athletic festival; and second place over the same distance in a controversial walk in the first Batley Hospital Sports festival, also in August 1878 – so controversial the event was dropped from the following year’s programme.¹ One article reported that he also won the Yorkshire Roller Skating Championship.²

Described as a typical grim, bluff, wily Yorkshireman “quiet, dogged, and full of resource…”,³ he transferred the same perseverance and determination he applied to succeed in sport, to his working life.

It was in Batley that George began his grounding in various elements of the textile trade. His early job history included working in the cutting department at Messrs. G. and J. Stubley’s Bottoms Mill. He was also employed as a dyer at his uncle Edward’s Howley Bank dye works.

He left Batley in the early 1880s initially for Austria, and then on to France where he worked once more as a dyer, eventually saving enough money to buy the dyehouse in which he was employed.

In December 1886 he travelled from his then home in the French city of Tourcoing, on the border with Belgium, across to the British Legation (a Diplomatic Mission more common than Embassies in this period) in Brussels to marry Rebecca Willby.

By the early 20th century George’s business was flourishing. In 1906 he owned what was described as “probably the largest dyehouse in France”.⁴ His portfolio now also included a textile factory in Roubaix, a French town adjacent to Tourcoing, the town in which he and his family settled. He was living here in 1906 with his wife Rebecca, daughter Gertrude, and sons Alphonse, Frédéric and Georges.⁵

The G. W. Richardson and Co. factory in Roubaix was founded in 1898, and was initially known as Lemaire frères et Richardson. It manufactured fancy coatings and ladies’ cloths. By February 1906 it employed over 500 hands.⁶ This was the month George Richardson received the Chevalier du Merit Agricole, which the British press equated to a knighthood. When this honour was created in 1883, it was second only to the Legion of Honour in the French order of precedence.

*The Richardson Factory, Roubaix, pictured in 1923*

As business grew, other specialities of the factory included renaissance carded wool fabric, pure wool fabric, drapery, dress and cap fabric, fabric for the railways, and military sheets, with trade including supplying governments.

George always retained his love and pride for Yorkshire, reminiscing about his days in “dear old Batley”,⁷ and even in the late 1920s declaring “I’m Yorkshire through and through”.⁸ Over 40 years after leaving the district, he was described as being “as Yorkshire to-day as ever” both in manner and speech.⁹ He remained in touch with his Batley friends, looking forward to coming over for a cup of tea with them, and he regularly visited his parents. Although his father died in 1912, his mother remained in Batley, living in a tiny one-roomed cottage in Chapel Fold, Staincliffe, until her death in 1926, despite George pressing her to move to a larger house.

Interestingly, though, in post-war reports – particularly in Leeds newspapers – his Batley links were not mentioned, the emphasis being Leeds (and some newspapers even said the Bradford district!) The Batley News were so indignant as to point out to its readers that he was a native of Batley, not Leeds as stated in several of the daily papers.¹⁰

He was visiting family in Batley in September 1914 during the first weeks of the war, whilst one of his sons was a student at Leeds University. Both rushed back to Roubaix, his son to join his two brothers who were about to enlist in the French army. All three boys ended up as prisoners of war at the notorious Wittenberg camp, but were eventually transferred to Ruhleben camp – possibly because a German officer, who had before the war done business with the Richardson’s Roubaix mill, recognised them.¹¹ All three brothers survived the war.

In mid-October 1914, the German Army occupied Roubaix and remained there for the next four years. This marked the start of George’s exploits. As the Germans threatened to overrun Roubaix, he took the identity of a Belgian he closely resembled and changed his name to Dupont, though it appears this switch did not last long.

*George Richardson, photographed with a beard during the war in disguise as Belgian lookalike M. Dupont.*

As an owner of a major mill, George refused to make cloth for German uniforms and was taken before the Commandant who threatened to shoot him if he did not start the machines. He coolly replied “Will you get your cloth if you shoot me?”¹² The Commandant drew back from his threat. George was proud to say “Not one yard of cloth was made for the Germans all the time they held my mills”.¹³ For whenever the cloth-making process seemed likely to start, something would always mysteriously go wrong. As George recalled with a chuckle, “I diddled them every time.”¹⁴

His acts of sabotage commenced right from the early days of the war, as the Germans were approaching. He and his trusted foreman took all the vital parts out of the machines and buried them in a shed a mile away. The pair then replaced the key machinery parts with cracked ones, rendering the machines unusable.

The mill also had a tunnel and false wall behind which copper was tightly packed. As a result, he managed to conceal around £20,000 worth of the metal. Though there was one very lucky escape later on in the war, when a group of armed soldiers made a sudden mill inspection. They examined every nook and cranny, the officer in charge insisting on descending every stairway and probing every corner of the basement, the labyrinth details of which few beyond George knew. The officer became curious about one of the walls – the false one behind which the copper was hidden. But because it was so tightly packed, tapping it produced no suspicion of hollowness, meaning the copper was not discovered. They also bored into the floor, but missed the tunnel.

The Germans arrived before the task of incapacitating the mill and removing valuable materials was fully complete, so some items were carried out under the noses of the enemy. George and his trusted employee went to the mill almost daily under the pretence of trying to get the machinery working. They always came away with bits of lead, which they smuggled past the pair of fixed-bayoneted German soldiers. It is estimated George threw three tons of lead stealthily into the canal by this means. Several bicycles were dismantled and similarly disposed of. George also burned around six tons of sacking which the Germans would have used for sandbags.

Throughout the time his mills were commandeered by the occupiers, George continued to hide copper tubes, connections and joints, so cloth could not be woven. When the Germans planned to clothe some of their soldiers in khaki uniforms to mislead the Allies, George had the dyestuffs arranged so that every attempt at dying cloth the requisite shade ended in failure.

Other thrilling stories included the time when, disguised as an Italian, George saw a German soldier stealing potatoes from an old woman. He knocked the German down, and then saw other Germans were running towards him. He knelt down and began wiping the mud off the soldier’s face, and by the time the others arrived he was giving him brandy. Once the true story was discovered, that George was the assailant not a saviour, he was brought in by the Germans and given a public flogging.

The Batley News reported the Germans attempted to assassinate George. They reported he was struck on the neck with a dagger but, although scarred for life, he was spared.¹⁵ For another newspaper report George recalled:

A huge Prussian darted at me one dark night and put a knife in my neck. I bowled him over. He was a well-educated man, for he begged on his knees for mercy in German, French, and English. ¹⁶

When the Germans became suspicious of him, they sent him to Austria via a cattle truck. The journey took three days and four nights. He received such severe punishment at the hands of his captors that he decided to make them think their cruelty had affected his brain. The ruse succeeded and they returned him to Roubaix, believing him to be a “harmless lunatic”.¹⁷ There he maintained the pretence.

The Germans, believing he was “daft”¹⁸ and not realising he was a fluent German speaker, were careless with their talk in front of him. It meant he gleaned an astonishing amount of information from them, intelligence which was then passed onto the Allies, via his daughter Gertrude.

It also resulted in more narrow escapes. Once, while carrying a despatch, he was arrested, (one of around his six arrests during occupation). When the Germans were taking him away, he pretended to slip to the ground, and whilst he lay there he managed to swallow the two-inch square document. Stripped, even the soles of his feet were examined, nothing incriminating was found.

Some of George’s most dangerous exploits involved pigeons. A keen pigeon fancier before the war, Charles the pigeon was left in George’s care when his owner, Felix Vanoutryve, went off to join the French army. Charles was not any old pigeon. She (yes, Charles was a female) was a very special bird. Bred by Messrs. Bracey and Cooke at Martham, Great Yarmouth, the black magpie hen (hen being the term for a female pigeon) was exhibited at Crystal Palace where she won first and Challenge Cup, and was subsequently bought by Essex pigeon fancier Frank Warner (later Sir Frank Warner) for £100, believed to be a world-record price in 1912. Later, Bracey and Cooke bought some of Warner’s pigeons, and Charles once more returned to Martham, before then being sold to M. Vanoutryve and taken to Roubaix.¹⁹

Owning a pigeon was forbidden in German-occupied territory. If discovered, the owner could be shot. Yet despite the personal risk, George did not take the easy option and ring the pigeon’s neck. It led to a series of narrow escapes for the Richardson family as the bird was hidden during repeated raids by the German occupiers.

On one occasion during a German house raid, Mrs Richardson hid Charles in the wash copper (a tub for heating water to wash clothes). She poured boiling water over the clothes at the bird’s side, in order to trick the Germans.

On another occasion, when the Germans conducted a night house raid, George had just enough time to grab Charles, tie her wings and wrap her up in the bedclothes next to his wife before the Germans entered the room. As the raiding party stood on the threshold, he begged the officer in charge to make as little noise as possible as his wife was ill, possibly with typhus – a potentially fatal, infectious disease which could ravage troops. Unsurprisingly, the Germans left without conducting a search.

Another incident occurred when a German patrol visited George’s factory in search of a piece of machinery. He and the German officer went down to the basement where the officer appeared to notice Charles’ head sticking out of a basket. George asked the German into his office, and distracted him with a piece of tapestry showing old Heidelberg, and pressed him to join him in drinking his “last^”20 bottle of champagne. The officer’s glass was filled and refilled, until he became a little “fuzzy.”²¹ He eventually left, smoking a cigar, and made no comment about the pigeon. But George was taking no chances. A small bantam hen was substituted for Charles in the basket, and Charles was hidden elsewhere. It proved a wise move. Shortly after, the officer returned, accompanied by two German soldiers with fixed bayonets, and a gendarme. The whole party went into the cellar, where the gendarme seized the basket, looked at the bird, and then pointed out to the officer it was not a pigeon, it was a bantam hen. Fooled by the switch, they left in disgust.

On another occasion, Charles could not be found when a German sergeant went to the Richardson house to billet an officer. George said the only accommodation was on the second floor but, with his foot on the stairs, the sergeant said German officers never slept on the second floor. The sergeant left, and when George went upstairs, he found Charles strutting along the second floor landing - the floor the sergeant had refused to look at.

George was amongst the prominent Roubaix residents imprisoned at Güstrow Prisoner of War camp, northern Germany, held hostage because the municipality refused to pay a £6,000 fine imposed by Germany. Whilst there, a friend in Belgium looked after Charles.

As soon as George was released, he retrieved the bird, and carried her in his pocket over the German sentry-guarded border, back into France. Fortunately, Charles was accustomed to being stashed in pockets. Her usual hiding place was nestling in George’s coat pocket, with string over her wings. Several times on the journey back, George had to hide in ditches, and then make a dash for it. He estimated at least a dozen shots were fired at him, and later he found a bullet had passed through his hat. The hat, along with Charles, were exhibited at Crystal Palace in 1921.

When M. Vanoutryve returned to collect Charles after the war ended, and found out about the dangers involved in keeping her, he grasped George by the hand and said, “You damned fool!^”22

His escapades with Charles were not his only involvement with pigeons. A local baker brought him a pigeon dropped in by the British, who requested they collect information about enemy regiments and send it back to them via the bird. Despite knowing if caught he would be instantly shot, George obtained the information, tied it to the pigeon and released it early in the morning, even though Germans were billeted in his house.

Life was a grim struggle in occupied Roubaix, food was scarce, and people died of starvation. But the Richardsons were amongst the more fortunate, having money. After being without meat for three months, George was able to pay 12s. a pound for the flesh of a horse which had been killed by a shell.

Through all the hardships and tribulations, the Richardsons, and their other compatriots from England, clung together and talked of days of freedom and celebrations to come, when their treasured bottles of wine would be brought out from hiding places. After his release from Güstrow, on his return to Roubaix George secretly built an underground storage area in which to stash his valuables from the enemy.

Towards the end of the war, British military prisoners were brought in once more and put to work in Roubaix, on heavy, manual tasks like loading stones at the canal and railway station. Some British prisoners were housed in the Richardson’s idle, ransacked and now dilapidated factory. Insufficiently clothed and fed, George and daughter Gertrude were amongst those who sneaked food to them, keeping them alive. They also managed to get fresh shirts and socks to them, prior to the prisoners being taken away from Roubaix in the autumn of 1918 by their retreating German captors.

When George once again entered his half-dismantled Roubaix mill in October 1918, he found it in a dilapidated state, with windows shattered, ironwork rusted and yards full of refuse left by the retreating Germans. As the war drew to a close in 1918, and German defeat was inevitable, they had removed over £250,000 worth of machinery from the mill, stripped copper from the boilers, removed dynamos from machines they did not take, even removed pieces of leather from the wire rods in the weaving rooms. They then smashed what remained. Around 150 packing cases of equipment ready for shipping to Germany lay abandoned, including spinning frames and boxes of paper tubes, ready to pulp. But once again George was able to place a tiny home-made Union Jack over the entrance of his mill, and another over the door of his home. The family spent all night making Union Jacks with which to welcome the British troops.

As soon as the Germans went, Gertrude wrote to her grandmother in Staincliffe:

We can hardly believe it is true that the Germans have left. It is so lovely to see the British Tommies walking through the streets. We are all still too excited to give you further details. We expect to come to Yorkshire for Christmas.²³

Gertrude was a war heroine in her own right. Long before the outbreak of hostilities, she joined the Roubaix Red Cross undertaking charity work with them, and promising to serve with them in the event of war. On its declaration she was ordered to stay in Roubaix to treat the wounded on No 1 Ward in the St Louis Hospital.²⁴ She was caring for the French and British wounded after the first Battle of Ypres in 1914, when the Germans entered the town in mid-October 1914. She continued nursing at the hospital whilst it was under German authority. Until mid-1915 this included tending to Allied prisoners interred in the Roubaix area. After this date, these Allied captives were either sent to Germany to be held as prisoners, or sent home in prisoner exchanges. Gertrude then nursed the local population, whilst undertaking more dangerous work, such as passing on intelligence to the Allies, including that gathered by her father – a job described as being of immense military value. And later in the war, time and time again, she secretly and fearlessly carried food and clothing to British prisoners who were once more back in Roubaix, including to those lodged in her father’s cloth mill. Just before the Armistice, with the Germans gone from Roubaix, she was asked to be an interpreter-nurse for the British Army, which she did for five months.

She, her father, and another war heroine, (Marie) Léonie Vanhoutte, were invited to England as guests of honour of the United Associations of Great Britain and France in November 1927. Born in Roubaix, Marie Léonie Vanhoutte, also known by the pseudonym Charlotte Lameron, initially trained as a Red Cross nurse, but then – when she could not countenance treating German occupiers – she became a French Resistance fighter and secret agent operating on the French/Belgium border. She was at one point in prison with the later-executed nurse Edith Cavell. Léonie, too, was sentenced to death by the Germans, but this was commuted to 15 years imprisonment. Gertrude and Léonie became known as “the Heroines of Roubaix.” On the visit to England, Gertrude placed a wreath on the tomb of the unknown soldier at Westminster Abbey, whilst Mlle. Vanhoutte laid a wreath at the foot of Nurse Cavell’s monument.

*Gertrude Richardson (left), Léonie Vanhoutte and George Richardson in England in 1927*

To commemorate the exploits of Charles, George was presented with a pair of alabaster pigeons at the dinner which formed a key part of the visit. This event was hosted by Lord Derby at the Rembrandt Hotel in London.

The list of honours and decorations bestowed on George by the French and Belgian governments show the high regard in which he was held. According to the Batley News, these included Knight of the Order of Legion of Honour; Knight of the Order of Leopold; Knight of the Crown of Belgium; Knight of the Order of Nassau, with Military Cross Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; Officer of the French Academy; Officer of the Order of Nicham Iftikar of Tunis; Order of the National Merit with Military Medal. He was also a member of the Northern France Delegate for the British Chamber of Commerce; Textile Expert for Law Courts; and Textile Expert for the Ministry of Commerce.²⁵

Charles the pigeon died in March 1928. It was said after her death she was to be stuffed and preserved in the War Museum, Paris.

In his later years, George lived just outside Roubaix, in the town of Croix. This is where his wife, Rebecca, died in the early hours of 16 March 1922, at their 22, Rue de Roubaix home. George attributed his wife’s death to the war. Just over seven years later, at 8 o’clock in the morning of 18 March 1929, George died in the same house.

I uncovered the story of George William Richardson whilst undertaking research for a client into the wider Richardson family. I am sharing this research with their permission, supplemented by some follow-up work I have since undertaken.

If you would like me to research your family history, take a look at my research services and fees here. And note, as a special offer until 31 January only my hourly fee is reduced, as outlined here.

Postscript:
I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.

If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.

Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.

Thank you.

Footnotes:
1. Batley Reporter and Guardian, 2 August 1879.
2. Batley News, 23 February 1906.
3. Leeds Mercury, 27 March 1928.
4. Batley News, 23 February 1906.
5. Spellings as per the France, Nord, Recensement, 1906.
6. Most reports said over 500 hands, but the Batley News of 16 February 1906 said over 600.
7. Batley News, 16 February 1906.
8. Leeds Mercury, 25 November 1927.
9. Leeds Mercury, 27 March 1928
10. Batley News, 3 December 1927.
11. Batley News, 26 October 1918.
12. Leeds Mercury, 27 March 1928.
13. Leeds Mercury, 26 November 1927.

14. Observer (Adelaide, S.A.), 14 January 1928.
15. Batley News, 26 November 1927.

16. Observer (Adelaide, S.A.), 14 January 1928.
17. Leeds Mercury, 26 November 1927.
18. Sheffield Independent, 26 November 1927.
19. There are some contradictions around the purchase of Charles, with some reports saying M. Vanoutryve bought him from Sir Frank Warner for £100. The version I have used is the one from The London Daily Chronicle of 21 February 1927, as recounted by her breeders Bracey and Cooke.
20. London Daily Chronicle, 17 February 1927.
21. Ibid.
22. London Daily Chronicle, 17 February 1927.
23. Batley Reporter and Guardian, 25 October 1918.
24. Batley News, 26 November 1927.
25.. Batley News, 23 March 1929.

Other Sources:

Architecture et monuments, Usine G. W. Richardson et Cie, http://canalderoubaix.bn-r.fr/acc/img_carte7_1.html
Archives départementales du Nord, registres d’état civil du Nord, Croix/D 1921 – 1924 and Croix/D 1929 – 1932.
Censuses, England and Wales, various.
GRO Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes.
GRO Foreign Registers and Returns.
Le Monde Illustré, 5 March 1923.
L’usine Richardson, https://www.bn-r.fr/espace-thematique/le-textile-prend-l-eau-quand-le-canal-alimentait-les-usines/des-entreprises-textiles-proches-du-canal-1/l-usine-richardson
Newspapers – including Batley News, 18 May 1912, 19 January 1918, 26 October 1918, 30 October 1926; Batley Reporter and Guardian, 13 July 1878, 31 August 1878; Coventry Evening Telegraph, 8 March 1928; Dewsbury Reporter, 24 August 1878; Halifax Courier, 2 November 1927; Jedburgh Gazette, 29 November 1912; Leeds Mercury – 25 March 1929; London Daily Chronicle, 21 February 1926; North Mail and Newcastle Chronicle, 26 November 1927; The Sphere, London, 10 December 1927; Yorkshire Evening Post, 25 November 1927, 8 March 1928; Yorkshire Post, 28 November 1927, 22 March 1929. This is not an exhaustive list.
Parish Registers, England – various.

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Posted in 19th Century, 20th Century, Batley, France, Great War, History, Leeds, Local History, Roubaix, Textile Industry, The Great War, WW1, Yorkshire

Tagged Batley, Espionage, France, History, Local History, Occupied France, Resistance, Roubaix, Sabotage, Textile Industry, The Great War, WW1, Yorkshire

St Mary of the Angels, Batley: One-Place Study Update – 1 to 31 December 2023 Additions

Posted on January 1, 2024 | Leave a comment

This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. The December 2023 monthly update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts to date, including links to them, with this month’s new and updated posts signposted.

If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.

Seven new posts were added during December 2023, bringing the total number of study posts to 290. Two other posts were updated.

The additions included one new War Memorial biography, that of William (Willie) Hargreaves. There was also a new school Log Book for 1918. To round the additions off, there were five weekly newspaper pages for December 1917. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family. The other updated post is to the men who served and survived the First World War section, with more being identified last month. No new biographies have been added here. They will follow in due course.

Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.

I can be contacted at: pasttopresentgenealogy@btinternet.com

Postscript:
I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.

If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.

Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.

Thank you.

1. About my St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church War Memorial One-Place Study;

Biographies: Men Associated with St Mary’s Who Died but Who Are Not on the Memorial
6. Thomas Gannon
7. Reginald Roberts
8. William Frederick Townsend

Biographies: The War Memorial Men
9. Edward Barber
10. William Barber (Memorial name spelling)
11. Herbert Booth
12. Edmund Battye
13. Dominick (aka George) Brannan
14. Michael Brannan
15. John Brooks
16. Michael Cafferty
17. Patrick Cafferty
18. Lawrence Carney
19. Martin Carney
20. Thomas William Chappell
21. William Colbeck
22. Michael Cunningham
23. Thomas Curley
24. Peter Doherty
25. Thomas Donlan
26. Mathew Farrer
27. Thomas Finneran
28. Michael Flynn
29. Thomas Foley D.C.M.
30. Martin Gallagher
31. James Garner
32. Thomas Gavaghan
33. Henry Groark
34. James Groark
35. Michael Groark (also known as Rourke)
36. James Griffin
37. William Hargreaves *NEW*
38. Patrick Hopkins
39. Michael Horan
40. Lawrence Judge
41. John Leech
42. Michael Lydon
43. Patrick Lyons
William McManus – See William Townsend below
44. Thomas McNamara
45. Patrick Naifsey
46. Austin Nolan
47. Robert Randerson
48. James Rush
49. Moses Stubley
50. William Townsend, also known as McManus
51. James Trainor
52. Richard Carroll Walsh
53. Arthur William Bayldon Woodhead

Burials, Cemeteries, Headstones and MIs
59. Cemetery and Memorial Details
60. War Memorial Chronology of Deaths

Electoral Registers 1918-1921
240. 1918 Batley Electoral Register, North Ward, Polling Districts A and B – Naval and Military Voters

Miscellany of Information
241. A Colliery Accident with Tragic Consequences
242. A Grave Disturbance in Batley
243. A Part of St Mary of the Angels in Batley Cemetery
244. A “Peace” of Batley History
245. An Appeal to Ireland to Build a Catholic Church in Batley
246. A Potted Early History of the Irish in Batley, the Building of St Mary of the Angels Church, and the Parish Priest’s Fatal Accident
247. A St Mary’s School Sensation
248. Batley’s Secret Irish Society and the Ammunition Seizure
249. Hot-Cross Buns and the Yorkshire Tea-Cake Dilemma. Plus A Suggested Meal Planner for Batley Families in 1917
250. St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church – 1929 Consecration Service
251. The Controversial Role Played by St Mary’s Schoolchildren in the 1907 Batley Pageant
252. The Great War: A Brief Overview of What Led Britain into the War
253. Willie and Edward Barber – Poems

Occupations and Employment Information
254. Occupations: Colliery Byeworker/Byeworkman/Byworker/Bye-Worker/By-Worker
255. Occupations: Confidential Clerk
256. Occupations: Lamp Cleaner
257. Occupations: Limelight Operator
258. Occupations: Mason’s Labourer
259. Occupations: Office Boy/Girl
260. Occupations: Piecer/Piecener
261. Occupations: Rag Grinder
262. Occupations: Willeyer

The Families
263. A Death in the Church
264. St Mary’s Schoolboys Wreak Havoc in a Batley Graveyard

World War Two
287. World War Two Chronology of Deaths
288. Thomas Egan
289. Michael Flatley
290. William Smith

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Posted in 19th Century, 20th Century, Batley, Catholic, County Mayo, Family History, Genealogy, Great War, History, Home Front, Ireland, Local History, Occupations, One-Place Study, Roll of Honour, Schools, St Mary's RC Church, The Great War, War Memorial, WW1, WW2, Yorkshire

Sharing New Year Joy With a Time-Limited Offer

Posted on December 31, 2023 | 1 comment

Happy New Year! It will be a momentous one for me, as after 25+ years in my current home and a lifetime in my home-town, I’m on the move.

To commemorate this change, I will be reducing my hourly research fee to £25, for new bookings taken between 1 January to 31 January 2024 only.

So if you want some help with your family history, from an experienced, professionally qualified family historian, with a proven track record, who has been undertaking research for several years across England, Ireland and beyond, now is the time to get in touch.

From a one hour commission to a block of several hours, whether starting out with your family tree or house history, to overcoming a brick wall, or wanting a specific look-up in a West Yorkshire local archive or local studies library, I can be contacted via email at: pasttopresentgenealogy@btinternet.com

For more details about my fees and services, plus a few of many testimonials from clients, please click here.

For more information about my background and family history qualifications and experience, click here.

And my Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) profile can be found found here.

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Posted in AGRA, Ancestry, Family History, Genealogy, Local History, Professional Genelaogist

Tagged AGRA, Ancestry, Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives, family history, genealogy, Local History, Professional Genealogist

Government Proposals to Destroy Millions of Wills

Posted on December 16, 2023 | 7 comments

Yes. You read the headline correctly.

The government is proposing to destroy millions of wills going back to the 1800s, thus making the original paper documents unavailable to historians & genealogists. These are the wills held by HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS), dating back to 1858 when the Principal Registry was established.

Unsurprisingly though, this is not the spin the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) put on it when their 10-week consultation was announced on 15 December 2023.

Pitching the proposals at genealogists and historians, they say they will digitise these documents making access easier. Once the documents are digitised, the original paper documents will be destroyed – the proposal is to retain these original copies for 25 years only. They estimate this will save storage costs currently estimated to be around £4.5m per annum. Although it is unclear exactly what costings have been done, including the costs around digitisation, digital storage and keeping up-to-date with technology changes.

However, they are proposing retaining some documents: the original wills of famous and historic figures would be exempted from destruction.

As a clarification point, the documents subject to destruction are not the registered copies of wills obtained from the Probate Search Service website. The original will may differ from these registered copies, importantly containing the original signatures of testator and witnesses. These, as family historians know, can provide an important comparator in identifying/proving signatures of the individuals in other records. Currently you are able to request – and should legally be supplied – the original will. It is these originals which are earmarked for destruction.

What’s the problem?

Well, even from my initial read-through I can think of many.

Firstly, destroying key historic documents such as these is total madness. Once destroyed, that’s it. And the government has form here, even in recent years. Remember the destruction of the Windrush Landing Cards? If you read my post about that debacle, you can see echoes of that in these latest proposals. It can be found here.

Secondly, family historians are well aware of issues around digitisation. How many digitised documents have been incorrectly scanned, for example sections chopped off, failure to scan both sides, even missing out pages, or skipping complete sections. And on the subject of this in relation to wills, I’ve had the wrong soldiers’ will supplied because of a scanning issue. The reply I eventually got from HMCTS when, after months of emails and fobbing off, they finally acknowledged the problem, was:

… we are looking at rescanning the affected soldier’s wills and will correct yours in due time…

From this reply it appears mine was not a one-off issue. It seems multiple wills were affected by scanning problems. I did eventually get the correct will. But if the original document had been destroyed this would have been impossible.

Thirdly, and linked to this, there is the long-term viability of digital documents and new technology. Their preservation and longevity is a whole new can of worms. Remember floppy disks? Betamax and VHS? Anyone bought a new laptop of late, with a CD DVD drive? Will USB ports and sticks be consistent? What about deterioration of digital documents? Digital preservation is not one-off and cost-free. And what about cyber attack? The British Library is still suffering major technology outages weeks after they fell victim to one, and anticipate disruption to some services will last for several months to come.

The MoJ is clearly aware of the possible pitfalls of the digitisation process, and potential survival implications of this technology, as evidenced by their proposals around the retention of original wills of the famous. If the technology is so wonderful, why propose this exemption? Is this more around the furore which would ensue if it came to light these particular high-profile documents were incorrectly digitised, or there was a later digital failure, and then all was lost because they had destroyed the originals?

Which leads me onto my fourth point, and one of my major bugbears. My family history is devoid of the rich and famous. But the lives of my ancestors mean more to me than those categorised as such. The majority of people being researched by many family historians will also fall outside this famous category – whatever the eventual criteria for this is, as the MoJ have still to set it. I would argue history – local, social and family – is for many more about the lives of ordinary people, than the rich and famous. From an individual family history basis, to broader social history, local history or one-place studies, wills are an integral building block. It is this history which is more relatable to ordinary people. It is this history which adds richness and colour and context. But the MoJ are only focused on those deemed famous. Their proposals infer the wills of everyday people do not matter. It also ignores the fact that history evolves. Someone not deemed famous when they died, or even 25 years after probate, could – as history is reevaluated – suddenly be recognised as extremely historically valuable. But by then it is too late to retain their original will.

Final point, if one of MoJ’s selling points for this change is the benefit to historians and family history researchers, I would be interested to know why the MoJ, in their key list of 22 bodies being sent a copy of the consultation, fails to include the Society of Genealogists, the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives, the Family History Federation or the Register of Qualified Genealogists.

That being said, they do say responses are welcomed from anyone with an interest in or views on the subject covered by their paper. The full document is here.

I would urge anyone who values history and family history to respond to the consultation, which closes on 23 February 2024. The address for consultation responses is:

Will Storage consultation
Ministry of Justice
Civil Justice and Law Division,
Postpoint 5.25
102 Petty France
London
SW1H 9AJ

Email: civil_justice_poli@justice.gov.uk

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Posted in Ancestry, Family History, Genealogy, History, Local History, One-Place Study, Wills

Tagged Ancestry, family history, genealogy, History, Local History, One-Place Study, Probate

St Mary of the Angels, Batley: One-Place Study Update – 1 to 30 November 2023 Additions

Posted on December 2, 2023 | Leave a comment

This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. The November 2023 monthly update contains the list of all the St Mary’s posts to date, including links to them, with this month’s new and updated posts signposted.

If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.

Four new posts were added during November 2023, bringing the total number of study posts to 283. Four other posts were updated. The new additions were four weekly newspaper pages for November 1917. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family. This is one of the updated posts.

More men who served and survived the First World War have been identified and are included in that section. This is the second updated post.

The final two updates relate to the identification of another Great War man omitted from the church War Memorial. Accordingly, his name has been added to the section covering Biographies: Men Associated with St Mary’s Who Died but Who Are Not on the Memorial, and his biography will follow in due course. The War Memorial Chronology of Deaths section has also been updated to include him.

Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.

I can be contacted at: pasttopresentgenealogy@btinternet.com

Postscript:
I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.

If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.

Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.

Thank you.

1. About my St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church War Memorial One-Place Study;

Biographies: Men Associated with St Mary’s Who Died but Who Are Not on the Memorial *UPDATED*
6. Thomas Gannon
7. Reginald Roberts
8. William Frederick Townsend

Biographies: The War Memorial Men
9. Edward Barber
10. William Barber (Memorial name spelling)
11. Herbert Booth
12. Edmund Battye
13. Dominick (aka George) Brannan
14. Michael Brannan
15. John Brooks
16. Michael Cafferty
17. Patrick Cafferty
18. Lawrence Carney
19. Martin Carney
20. Thomas William Chappell
21. William Colbeck
22. Michael Cunningham
23. Thomas Curley
24. Peter Doherty
25. Thomas Donlan
26. Mathew Farrer
27. Thomas Finneran
28. Michael Flynn
29. Thomas Foley D.C.M.
30. Martin Gallagher
31. James Garner
32. Thomas Gavaghan
33. Henry Groark
34. James Groark
35. Michael Groark (also known as Rourke)
36. James Griffin
37. Patrick Hopkins
38. Michael Horan
39. Lawrence Judge
40. John Leech
41. Michael Lydon
42. Patrick Lyons
William McManus – See William Townsend below
43. Thomas McNamara
44. Patrick Naifsey
45. Austin Nolan
46. Robert Randerson
47. James Rush
48. Moses Stubley
49. William Townsend, also known as McManus
50. James Trainor
51. Richard Carroll Walsh
52. Arthur William Bayldon Woodhead

Biographies: Those who Served and Survived (this includes a list of those identified to date and who will later have dedicated biographical pages) *UPDATED*
53. Patrick Cassidy
54. James Delaney
55. Thomas Donlan (senior)
56. Thomas Gannon
57. Michael Rush

Burials, Cemeteries, Headstones and MIs
58. Cemetery and Memorial Details
59. War Memorial Chronology of Deaths *UPDATED*

Electoral Registers 1918-1921
234. 1918 Batley Electoral Register, North Ward, Polling Districts A and B – Naval and Military Voters

Miscellany of Information
235. A Colliery Accident with Tragic Consequences
236. A Grave Disturbance in Batley
237. A Part of St Mary of the Angels in Batley Cemetery
238. A “Peace” of Batley History
239. An Appeal to Ireland to Build a Catholic Church in Batley
240. A Potted Early History of the Irish in Batley, the Building of St Mary of the Angels Church, and the Parish Priest’s Fatal Accident
241. A St Mary’s School Sensation
242. Batley’s Secret Irish Society and the Ammunition Seizure
243. Hot-Cross Buns and the Yorkshire Tea-Cake Dilemma. Plus A Suggested Meal Planner for Batley Families in 1917
244. St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church – 1929 Consecration Service
245. The Controversial Role Played by St Mary’s Schoolchildren in the 1907 Batley Pageant
246. The Great War: A Brief Overview of What Led Britain into the War
247. Willie and Edward Barber – Poems

Occupations and Employment Information
248. Occupations: Colliery Byeworker/Byeworkman/Byworker/Bye-Worker/By-Worker
249. Occupations: Confidential Clerk
250. Occupations: Lamp Cleaner
251. Occupations: Limelight Operator
252. Occupations: Mason’s Labourer
253. Occupations: Office Boy/Girl
254. Occupations: Piecer/Piecener
255. Occupations: Rag Grinder
256. Occupations: Willeyer

The Families
257. A Death in the Church
258. St Mary’s Schoolboys Wreak Havoc in a Batley Graveyard

World War Two
280. World War Two Chronology of Deaths
281. Thomas Egan
282. Michael Flatley
283. William Smith

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Posted in 19th Century, 20th Century, Ancestry, Batley, Catholic, County Mayo, Genealogy, Great War, History, Home Front, Local History, Occupations, One-Place Study, Remembrance, Roll of Honour, Schools, St Mary's RC Church, The Great War, War Memorial, WW1, WW2, Yorkshire

St Mary of the Angels, Batley: One-Place Study Update – 1 to 31 October 2023 Additions

Posted on November 1, 2023 | Leave a comment

This is my regular look back at the posts added to the Batley St Mary of the Angels One-Place Study during the previous month. If you want to know the background, and what is involved in a one-place study, click here. Otherwise read on, to discover a wealth of parish, parishioner and wider local Batley history.

Six new posts were added to the Batley St Mary’s one-place study during October 2023, bringing the total number of study posts to 279. Two other posts were updated. This latest monthly update contains the list of all the posts to date, including links to them, with the new and updated posts signposted.

These additions included four weekly newspaper pages for October 1917. I have accordingly updated the surname index to these During This Week newspaper pieces, so you can easily identify newspaper snippets relevant to your family.

There was one new War Memorial biography added added this month, for Michael Cunningham.

More men who served and survived the First World War have been identified and are included in that section, though no new biographies were added here this month. They will follow in due course.

The other post relates to the Batley cemetery burials of several priests and nuns who served in the parish. This can be found in the Miscellany of Information section.

Below is the full list of pages to date. I have annotated the *NEW* and *UPDATED* ones, so you can easily pick these out. Click on the link and it will take you straight to the relevant page.

I can be contacted at: pasttopresentgenealogy@btinternet.com

Postscript:
I want to say a big thank you for the donations already received to keep this website going. They really do help.

If you have enjoyed reading the various pieces, and would like to make a donation towards keeping the website up and running in its current open access format, it would be very much appreciated.

Please click 👉🏻here👈🏻 to be taken to the PayPal donation link. By making a donation you will be helping to keep the website online and freely available for all.

Thank you.

1. About my St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church War Memorial One-Place Study;

Biographies: Men Associated with St Mary’s Who Died but Who Are Not on the Memorial
6. Thomas Gannon
7. Reginald Roberts
8. William Frederick Townsend

Biographies: The War Memorial Men
9. Edward Barber
10. William Barber (Memorial name spelling)
11. Herbert Booth
12. Edmund Battye
13. Dominick (aka George) Brannan
14. Michael Brannan
15. John Brooks
16. Michael Cafferty
17. Patrick Cafferty
18. Lawrence Carney
19. Martin Carney
20. Thomas William Chappell
21. William Colbeck
22. Michael Cunningham *NEW*
23. Thomas Curley
24. Peter Doherty
25. Thomas Donlan
26. Mathew Farrer
27. Thomas Finneran
28. Michael Flynn
29. Thomas Foley D.C.M.
30. Martin Gallagher
31. James Garner
32. Thomas Gavaghan
33. Henry Groark
34. James Groark
35. Michael Groark (also known as Rourke)
36. James Griffin
37. Patrick Hopkins
38. Michael Horan
39. Lawrence Judge
40. John Leech
41. Michael Lydon
42. Patrick Lyons
William McManus – See William Townsend below
43. Thomas McNamara
44. Patrick Naifsey
45. Austin Nolan
46. Robert Randerson
47. James Rush
48. Moses Stubley
49. William Townsend, also known as McManus
50. James Trainor
51. Richard Carroll Walsh
52. Arthur William Bayldon Woodhead

Burials, Cemeteries, Headstones and MIs
58. Cemetery and Memorial Details
59. War Memorial Chronology of Deaths

Electoral Registers 1918-1921
230. 1918 Batley Electoral Register, North Ward, Polling Districts A and B – Naval and Military Voters

Miscellany of Information
231. A Colliery Accident with Tragic Consequences
232. A Grave Disturbance in Batley
233. A Part of St Mary of the Angels in Batley Cemetery *NEW*
234. A “Peace” of Batley History
235. An Appeal to Ireland to Build a Catholic Church in Batley
236. A Potted Early History of the Irish in Batley, the Building of St Mary of the Angels Church, and the Parish Priest’s Fatal Accident
237. A St Mary’s School Sensation
238. Batley’s Secret Irish Society and the Ammunition Seizure
239. Hot-Cross Buns and the Yorkshire Tea-Cake Dilemma. Plus A Suggested Meal Planner for Batley Families in 1917
240. St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church – 1929 Consecration Service
241. The Controversial Role Played by St Mary’s Schoolchildren in the 1907 Batley Pageant
242. The Great War: A Brief Overview of What Led Britain into the War
243. Willie and Edward Barber – Poems

Occupations and Employment Information
244. Occupations: Colliery Byeworker/Byeworkman/Byworker/Bye-Worker/By-Worker
245. Occupations: Confidential Clerk
246. Occupations: Lamp Cleaner
247. Occupations: Limelight Operator
248. Occupations: Mason’s Labourer
249. Occupations: Office Boy/Girl
250. Occupations: Piecer/Piecener
251. Occupations: Rag Grinder
252. Occupations: Willeyer

The Families
253. A Death in the Church
254. St Mary’s Schoolboys Wreak Havoc in a Batley Graveyard

World War Two
276. World War Two Chronology of Deaths
277. Thomas Egan
278. Michael Flatley
279. William Smith

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Posted in 19th Century, 20th Century, Ancestry, Batley, Catholic, County Mayo, Family History, Genealogy, Great War, History, Home Front, In Memoriam, Ireland, Local History, Occupations, One-Place Study, Remembrance, Roll of Honour, Schools, St Mary's RC Church, The Great War, War Memorial, WW1, WW2, Yorkshire

Tagged Ancestry, Batley, Catholic, County Mayo, family history, Family History Tips, genealogy, Great War, History, Home Front, Ireland, Local History, Occupations, One-Place Study, St Mary's, The Great War, War Memorial, WW1, WW2, Yorkshire

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