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| Poster for the talk at Barnsley Town Hall |
In February of this year, whilst researching a man from the sample for my study of First World War Absence from Commemoration in Barnsley, I found a newspaper cutting which noted that the name of Private Percy Featherstone, who was reported Missing Presumed Dead on 13 August 1916, appeared on the Roll of Honour at the Barnsley Zion Baptist Church on Pitt Street West. (2) Private Featherstone had previously been thought to be absent from any known memorial in the Barnsley Borough, hence his inclusion in my sample.
A Roll of Honour was generally a working document, updated throughout the war as men enlisted and/or were wounded, killed or discharged. Where the Rolls of Honour survive they are not usually the original, rather a final version, rewritten after the war with all the men in alphabetical order, those who served and returned and those who lost their lives, and often with some mark (a star or cross) indicating that a man had been killed. They are usually written or printed on paper, in a decorative border, and framed under glass. In some cases the Roll of Honour accompanies a permanent war memorial, but not always.
I hadn't been aware of this church previously, and sure enough when I looked into it I discovered that it had closed in 1947 and was demolished in 1984. The church on Pitt Street West had been preceded by a smaller building on Parker Street, which is still in existence, although now as a residential building. (3) In the 1930s the Parker Street building was a church of the Swedenborgians. The area where the Pitt Street West Baptist Church once stood is a grassy bank between two roads.
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| 1930s map of the area either side of Racecommon Road, Barnsley. Parker Street is top left, and Pitt Street West is lower right. (from Digimaps - via my University of Wolverhampton account) |
This led me to do a search of the online newspapers on Find My Past to see if I could find any more references to this previously unknown memorial. I found a mention of a memorial service held for James Downend and George Bower at Zion Baptist on Sunday 13 August 1916. (4) Further to that I found a notice announcing a memorial service was to be held for Percy Featherstone on 3 September 1916 (it actually reads 'Sunday next', which but judging from other notices this usually means the next Sunday, not the Sunday following). (5) But neither of these pieces mentioned the church's Roll of Honour.
The only other mention of the Barnsley Zion Baptist Roll of Honour (that I could find) was in May 1919 when there was a report of a social reunion.
A Welcome Home
The Pastor (Rev. R.H. Jackson), deacons, and members of the Zion Baptist Church, Pitt Street West, invited all the men whose names appear on the Church's "Roll of Honour", to a social re-union, on Thursday evening week. More that 50 ex-service men and their wives and friends accepted the invitation, and a very enjoyable evening was spent. [The report continues with details of the speeches and songs at the event.] (6)
I find the phrasing of this article a little confusing - the Barnsley Independent came out on a Saturday, so did Thursday week mean two days before the newspaper appeared, or the Thursday the week before that? Also, did 'more than 50' mean a total of 50 ex-servicemen plus their guests or a total of 50 attendees including the ex-servicemen and their wives and their friends? What about widows or the parents of deceased men, were they invited? We know from the cuttings mentioned above that at least three men connected to the church were killed.
The church obviously had a working list of the men 'whose names appear' - hopefully some evidence of that will have survived in the church's records, which have been deposited in Barnsley Archives. I intend to search at the archives for any mention of the Roll of Honour or a permanent war memorial connected to this church.
The following men are those whom, so far, I think may have been remembered at the Zion Baptist on Pitt Street West:
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| Percy Featherstone from the Barnsley Chronicle, 2 September 1916, p. 1, with thanks to Barnsley Archives |
The Featherstones lived at 119 St George's Road, Barnsley, in 1916, according to Percy's obituary in the Barnsley Chronicle. This was roughly 350 yards from the church on Pitt Street West.
His obituary read:
'Another Barnsley "Terrier" to make the supreme sacrifice is Private Percy Featherstone, C Co., Barnsley Territorials, who was killed last Sunday by a shell. [...] prior to enlisting a few months after the outbreak of war he worked at Kendal Green Colliery. He was born in Racecommon Road, [and] was a member of the Zion Baptist Church, his name appearing upon their Role [sic] of Honour.' (7)
His parents were buried in Barnsley Cemetery, Sarah in 1941, from 119 St George's Road, and Henry in 1950 still from 119 St George's Road. I wonder if they continued to attend the Zion Baptist Church until it closed?
Was Percy's name inscribed on a framed Roll of Honour or permanent memorial in the Zion Baptist Church? His membership of the church was important enough to mention in his obituary, and a memorial service was held for him there, suggesting a strong affiliation. Did his parents continue to see it each time they visited?
Percy's parents Henry and Sarah Elizabeth Featherstone were buried in Barnsley Cemetery in plot 9 602 in 1941 (his mother) and 1950 (his father) both from 119 St George's Road in Barnsley, the place where they had lived in 1916. We are not aware of a gravestone on their plot with a memorial inscription to Percy.
James Downend, aged 27, who was killed in action on 8 July 1916, had married Jane Godber in 1910 and had one child, Cicely, born in 1911. The young couple lived at 24 Blenheim Avenue when the 1911 census was taken. After his death Jane remarried to Ernest Owen in March 1917 and took the government's war gratuity in lieu of her pension. (8) They had at least three children together. She later lived in Royston. Until I found the newspaper reports above, and began to consider the possibility that James was remembered at the Zion Baptist Church, we had thought he was not remembered on any memorial in the Barnsley area besides his parents' gravestone.
Although James' parents put a Death Notice in the Barnsley Chronicle on 5 August 1916 and an In Memoriam notice in the Barnsley Chronicle on 7 July 1917 on behalf of themselves and James' brothers and sisters, nothing appeared in the newspapers from his widow. (9)
James' parents Aaron and Elizabeth Downend were buried in Barnsley Cemetery, she in 1935 and he in 1939. Their gravestone bears an inscription commemorating their son James. This inscription, on a gravestone where the soldier is not buried, makes the gravestone itself, a war memorial. However the inscription must date from later than at least 1935 and more probably after 1939, meaning that James was 'absent' from commemoration (if he was not remembered on the Zion Baptist memorial) for many years.
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| The Downend family gravestone in Barnsley Cemetery Photo by Wayne Bywater, July 2018 |
In Loving Memory Of
ELIZABETH S. DOWNEND
Died Oct. 22nd 1935, aged 80 years
Also AARON DOWNEND
Beloved husband of the above
Died July 10th 1937, aged 81 years
Also JAMES DOWNEND, their son
Who was killed in action in France
July 8th 1916, aged 27 years.
I have begun to notice that when a war widow remarried within a few years of their husband's death there is more likelihood of the man being absent from commemoration. I can only suggest that this may have been due to her remarriage. Maybe the widow had 'moved on' from the death of her husband, or maybe (and I think this is more likely) the second husband suggested that she should have done so, and she acquiesced to his wishes.
It also seems to be the case that whereas an unmarried man was nominated for commemoration by his parents, or if they had predeceased him, by his siblings, in the case of a married man the responsibility for commemoration lay with his wife. I can see associations in commoration with the place the widow lived after the war rather than where the man's parents or surviving family lived. Whatever Jane's wishes in the immediate post war period, by 1937 his brothers and sisters (I assume they requested and paid for their parents' gravestone) felt that they were able to have an inscription to James added to their parents' gravestone.
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| Barnsley Independent 12 August 1916 with thanks to Barnsley Archives |
George Bower, aged 27, was reported Missing in Action on 1 July 1916, the First Day of the Battle of the Somme. Until the discovery of the newspaper reports about the Zion Baptist Church on Pitt Street West it had been assumed that he was solely commemorated on the 2016 Somme Centenary Artwork. That memorial was unveiled on 1 July 2016 and commemorates 300 men (most of whom) were killed on the First Day of the Battle of the Somme.
George's parents were Edward and Mary Bower of 15 Bala Street, off Windermere Road in Barnsley. That was nearly a mile from the Zion Baptist Church on Pitt Street West, so they, or maybe just George, must have been quite committed to worship in that place rather than any of the many other religious insitutions in Barnsley at that time, to walk that distance on a regular basis, and for George to have a memorial service held for him there after his death.
In 1915 the Barnsley Chronicle reported that Edward and Mary had three sons serving in the army. (11) Sadly they were to see two of them die in the war.
A Death Notice was posted for George in the Barnsley Chronicle on 5 August 1916. It was from his 'father, mother, brothers and sisters'. In the same edition was also a notice from his wife.
'BOWER - In affectionate remembrance of Corpl. George Bower, Signaller, 1/5 Y and L Regt., the beloved husband of Minnie Bower, who was killed in action, July 1st 1916, aged 27 years.
Our tears are mingled with our pride,
What more would mortal give;
With other heroes side by side,
He died that we might live.
- From his loving wife.' (12)
In 1917 and 1918 George's parents also posted In Memoriam notices in the Barnsley Chronicle at the end of June each year. (13) Despite the loving message in her death notice for George in 1916 Minnie posted no In Memoriam notices (certainly not in 1917 and 1918, although I have not checked subsequent years) for her husband. (14)
George Bower had married Minnie Waterworth in 1912 and they had two sons, Edward who died in infancy, and George born in early 1915. The Pension Card for George Bower reports that Minnie remarried on 24 February 1917 to Richard Bentley receiving a remarriage gratuity of £54 6s in July 1917. (15) By the time the 1921 census was taken Minnie had given Richard a daughter and they went on to have two sons in the following years.
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| 1921 census for 103 Summer Lane, Barnsley, the household of Richard and Minnie Bentley Find My Past, GBC_1921_RG15_22689_0353 |
Note that in the census return shown above, in row 3, for George Bower aged 6 years, in column (b) it stated that he was Richard Bentley's step-son and in column (e) it was noted that his father was dead. These are the only indications that Minnie had previously been married and that her first husband was dead.
Why would Minnie not have submitted any In Memoriam notices? Why was George Bower (snr), as far as we know, not commemorated on any war memorial in Barnsley until 2016 (unless he was indeed on a memorial at the Zion Baptist Church)? His father did not die until 1940 and his mother died in 1943. This suggests, as mentioned above, that the responsibility for nominating a man for inclusion on a memorial lay with his widow if he had been married, and for some reason Minnie chose not to carry that through.
George's older brother Sergeant Major Herbert Bower was also killed in the First World War. The dugout in which he was sheltering was hit by a shell on 21 October 1916. (8) He had served in the 'South African War' and on his return (and presumably discharge) from that service had married Lizzie Thompson at St Mary's in Barnsley in 1903. They and their four children had moved to Reddish near Stockport before the war, and Herbert was remembered there rather than in Barnsley. (16)
His parents posted a lengthy Death Notice in the Barnsley Chronicle and In Memoriam notices in 1917 and 1918. (17) Therefore, unless he too is remembered at the Zion Baptist Church, his commemoration in Stockport supports my contention that the responsibility for nominating a man for remembrance on a war memorial was the responsibility of the widow rather than the parents.
George and Herbert's parents were buried together in Barnsley Cemetery, plot J 639, in 1940 (his father) and 1943 (his mother). Either they do not have a gravestone, or if they do, it bears no memorial inscription to either George or Herbert (as far as we know).
My only hope of resolving the issue of the Roll of Honour and/or a permanent memorial at the Zion Baptist Church on Pitt Street West is to find some mention of its existence in a newspaper or in a document at the Archives. On a later visit to the Archives I requested the Zion Baptist Church on Pitt Street West's minute books, but sadly the the earliest one they had started in 1921. There was only one mention of the war, in connection with arranging a Remembrance Sunday service in 1925. So that's a dead end I'm afraid. There may be other records, possibly filed with the records of other Baptist churches in Barnsley, if their congregations were merged when the Pitt Street West church was sold. I will keep looking.
Thank you for reading, and if you have any information on the Zion Baptist Church on Pitt Street West, or on any of the families mentioned above I would love to hear from you.
My contact details are on the 'About' page of this website, see the tabs at the top of the page.
References:
(1) Friends of Barnsley Archives, 'Barnsley's Nonconformist Heritage: Their congregations, chapels and records' with James Stevenson, Project Archivist, Monday 11th July 2022 at 11am.
(2) Barnsley Chronicle, 26 August 1916, p. 8.
(3) Barnsley Archives Online Catalogue, A-2257-N/2, https://www.explorebarnsleycollections.com/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=A-2257-N%2f2
(4) Barnsley Independent, 19 August 1916, p. 5.
(5) Barnsley Chronicle, 2 September 1916, p. 4.
(6) Barnsley Independent, 24 May 1919, p. 5.
(7) Barnsley Chronicle, 26 August 1916, p. 8.
(8) Western Front Association (WFA), 'Pension Records',
https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/pension-records/, (accessed 19
October 2022). Access to the pension cards is included in the WFA
membership subscription, they can also be accessed via Fold3 on
Ancestry.
(9) Barnsley Chronicle, 5 August 1916, p.8; 7 July 1917, p. 8.
(10) Barnsley Chronicle, 18 November 1916, p. 8; 20 October 1917, p. 8; 19 October 1918, p. 4.
(11) Barnsley Chronicle, 30 January 1915, p. 8.
(12) Barnsley Chronicle, 5 August 1916, p. 8.
(13) Barnsley Chronicle, 30 June 1917, p. 8; 29 June 1918, p. 4.
(14) The Barnsley War Memorials Project indexed all mentions of servicemen and other people who lost their lives due to the war mentioned in the Barnsley Chronicle between August 1914 and March 1919. The index is available online (1914-1918 at https://barnsleyremembersww1.home.blog/newspaper-entries/) and also in Barnsley Archives (1914-1919). The British Newspaper Archive has not yet released issues of the Barnsley Chronicle beyond 1912, so, to find In Memoriam notices for Barnsley men post March 1919 in the Chronicle, it would require an issue by issue search through the microfilm at Barnsley Archives.
(15) Western Front Association (WFA), 'Pension Records'.
(16) Barnsley Chronicle, 18 November 1916, p. 1.
(17) Stockport Memorial Hall and Art Gallery, https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/2794, (accessed 21 September 2022)