Possible Source of the Brampton Parish Hall RoH - The Guide Post Inn

 First published 21 June 2020

I have been researching the Roll of Honour (RoH) rediscovered recently in Brampton Parish Hall since February 2020.  It was found in the papers of an outgoing Parish Clerk in 2018, conserved by the Clifton Conservation Service - Rotherham, framed and then hung in the Parish Hall. A friend spotted it whilst at an event in the Hall and photographed it for me. I have yet to work out where the RoH originated, though suggestions have included Cortonwood colliery, the local school or the nearby Methodist Chapel. In each of these cases there are sufficient discrepancies to suggest that the RoH did not come from there.  This morning I may have found another candidate.

The top of the front page of the Mexborough & Swinton Times 5 June 1919

The local newspaper for Wombwell and Brampton during the years of the First World War was the Mexborough and Swinton Times, later the South Yorkshire Times.  Some digitised copies of this newspaper were recently released by the British Newspaper Archives and its sister site Find My Past.  I have been gradually working my way through the names on the Brampton Parish Hall Roll of Honour searching the newspaper for mentions of the men.

Searches using the term 'Concrete' for the Concrete Cottages that used to stand where Garden Drive and Springhill Avenue are, brought back a number of relevant results including the names of men from the area who are not on the RoH.  One interesting hit was in a list of Wombwell 'Notes and News' from 30 September 1916. 

Patriotic Fund - Over 102 soldiers and sailors have benefited by the Guide Post Inn Patriotic Fund, which includes Concrete, New Wombwell, Park Road and Park View.

I am aware of a pub RoH from the Second World War from the Honeywell Inn just outside Barnsley town centre, so I would not be surprised if the Guide Post Inn had started their own list, especially as they were obviously keeping track of the men from their area who were in the forces for the purposes of their Patriotic Fund.

Last week I wrote about two brothers, James and Albert Crawford, from Concrete Cotttages who were both killed in the war.  James is named on the Brampton Parish Hall RoH but Albert is not.  I suggested that this might be because Albert did not enlist until after his marriage in May 1918.  If the RoH was drawn up before that, and the space filled after the addition of Fred Godfrey in pencil at the very end, maybe a second RoH was begun for men who joined up later and this has yet not been found.

The Guide Post Inn was situated on the junction of Wath Road and Brampton Road, just to the north west of The Junction, where the Elsecar Branch of the Dearne and Dove canal joined the main canal.  It and the housing around it appear on the 1890 Ordnance Survey map of the area.  That area was sometimes known as New Wombwell.  On the 1855 map of the area several guide posts are marked on the route between Brampton and Wombwell, one of which was on this corner - however there was no housing there at that time.  So the pub was built after 1855 and before 1890, which fits with the expansion of housing provision in the area as Cortonwood Colliery opens.

1905 map of The Junction, Wombwell (from NLS maps)

On the 1905 map (above) the Guide Post Inn is indicated and a G.P. for a guide post. The triangle of housing is completed by Junction Street, and there is a terrace of housing on Brampton Road just south east of the pub. There is another guide post marked at Tunstall Cross, at the top left of the above snip.

1931 map of The Junction, Wombwell (from NLS maps)

By 1931 housing has spread up Wath Road towards Wombwell, between the Guide Post Inn (now labelled simply as Inn) and the crossroads (which was Tunstall Cross on the earlier map).  Park Street begins after the crossroads and continues into Wombwell going north east. I cannot identify Park Road and Park View on these old maps. They may have been the names of individual terraces or groups of houses on Wath Road.

The 1918 Electoral Register for the South-East Ward of Wombwell includes Park Street, Wath Road, Wombwell Junction and Brampton Road.  It also mentions Park View but not Park Road.  Could the newspaper article have been mistaken and written Park Road for Park Street?  The 1918 and 1919 Electoral Registers are particularly useful for First World War research as they indicate which men were 'Absent Voters' and 'Naval and Military'. Men who were aged 19 and over and in the military were included despite the usual voting age being 21 years and over.

The first man named on the Brampton Parish Hall RoH is John Andrews who may be the man listed in the 1918 and 1919 Electoral Registers at 28 Park View, however he is not indicated as being an Absent Voter in either register.  There is a Thomas Atmore of 74 Concrete who is not listed as an Absent Voter in either register, however this is probably the father of the family (at 55 years old in the 1911 census he was rather too old to have served in the war) because in 1919 a Thomas Atmore jnr is also listed. As he was 19 years old in 1911 this raises the question why was he not listed in 1918?  Sydney Beckett [Sokell] listed third on the RoH is indicated as an Absent Voter from 46 Concrete in 1918 but he is listed and not absent in 1919 suggesting he had returned home by the late winter of 1918. Information for the 1918 registers was collected in late winter 1917 and early spring 1918.

The first three names on the Brampton Roll of Honour

Going back to check on the Crawfords whom I mentioned above, Albert and his other brother William (James having been killed in 1916) are both listed in the 1918 Electoral Register but in 1919 only William is listed - on both occasions the address is 11 Wath Road, the family home. Albert is not indicated as an Absent Voter at all, despite us knowing he served, but the late date at which we know Albert Crawford enlisted, after the collection of the data, might explain why he is still registered at home. The omission of his name in the 1919 register suggests that his death in November 1918 was known before the data for that register was collected.

The only photograph I have found of the Guide Post Inn (so far) is on a Facebook page for old photos and shows it standing alone, the triangle of housing behind having been demolished. I mentioned the pub in a blog post some months ago as three generations of the Savage family ran the pub between 1891 and 1968. Joseph and Walter Savage are mentioned on the Brampton Parish Hall RoH. Having members of the landlord's family in the forces would have been an additional incentive to create a Roll of Honour for display in the pub.

Other addresses associated with the Brampton RoH men beside Concrete include Brampton Road, Wath Road, Carnley Street in West Melton, Elliotts Terrace in New Scarborough, Wombwell (listed in the South East Wombwell ward in the Electoral Registers), Hough Lane, Wombwell (listed in the South West Wombwell ward), Hawson Street, Wombwell (South East Wombwell ward), Gower Street, Wombwell, Milton Street, Wombwell (South West Wombwell ward), Deputy Row, Wombwell (I don't know where this was, but it sounds like housing connected to the colliery).

The area covered by the Brampton RoH is fairly discrete - where a man named did not live in the area in 1911 he had usually lived in Concrete Cottages beforehand and had moved a short distance to Stairfoot, Ardsley, Hoyland or Barnsley itself.  It is not unreasonable that a man might pop back to visit his friends in his old local, keeping in touch up to the beginning of the war.

Further research on the Electoral Registers and the dates when men enlisted will help to narrow down the time span in which the Brampton RoH was created.

Thank you for reading.

References:

Absent Voters, Barnsley War Memorials Project, http://www.barnsleywarmemorials.org.uk/p/absent-voters.html, accessed 21 June 2020.

Mexborough and Swinton Times, British Newspaper Archive, https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/mexborough-&-swinton-times, accessed 15 June 2020.

West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962, Ancestry, https://www.ancestry.co.uk/search/collections/3057/, accessed 21 June 2020.

Yorkshire CCLXXXIII.NW, Revised 1901, Published 1905, National Library of Scotland (NLS), https://maps.nls.uk/view/100949606, accessed 21 June 2020.

Yorkshire CCLXXXIII.NW, Revised 1929, Published 1931, National Library of Scotland (NLS), https://maps.nls.uk/view/100949603, acccessed 21 June 2020.

The Brampton Parish Roll of Honour Mystery - Where Did it Come From?

 First published 29 May 2020

The Brampton Parish Hall Roll of Honour is a framed pre-printed paper Roll of Honour (RoH) filled with 100 names of men from the area who served in the First World War. It is on display in the Parish Hall on Knoll Beck Lane in Brampton, but no-one knows for which local organisation it was originally drawn up.  My suggestions have included the local school or the Methodist Chapel, and at a meeting on 8th March 2020 in the Parish Hall local historians suggested it was a precursor to the Cortonwood Colliery 'Centotaph' which was relocated to a little park beside the Parish Hall when the Colliery was closed in 1985-86.  In an aside, two of the men who attended the meeting had been part of the group who rescued the memorial using colliery equipment and moved it to Knoll Beck Lane and they were able to show us some fantastic photographs of that project.

Relocation of the Cortonwood Colliery War Memorial
(with thanks to the local historians I met on 8 March 2020)

My research over the past few months has shown that the Brampton Parish Hall RoH is very unlikely to have been a provisional listing for the Cortonwood memorial, as only 56 or 58 (including some possibles with common surnames) of the 100 names on the Roll of Honour also appear on the Cortonwood Colliery Memorial. Fifty-six is not many out of the 592 names listed on that memorial.  The Cortonwood memorial lists hundreds of men who served as well as 94 who fell.

A list of 21 men from the Cortonwood Methodist Chapel has been discovered online (see above). Although this list is titled a 'Roll of Honour' all the names included are of men who were lost in the war. Eighteen of those included are also listed on the Brampton Parish Hall RoH. Oddly one of the other three, and remember this is a man who lost his life, is a brother of a man who IS named on the Brampton RoH. Both brothers are listed on the Methodist document, so why one brother is present on the Brampton Parish Hall RoH and the other is not is yet another mystery awaiting a solution.  The Brampton RoH lists 22 men who fell which means that four of them are NOT listed on the Methodist document.  This suggests the the Brampton RoH did not originate in the Methodist Chapel.

Since starting this research I have found four more men from the area, which I suggest is closely related to the Concrete Cottages and Wombwell Junction areas, who are not named on the Roll of Honour, but who did definitely serve in the First World War.  Including the man mentioned above two of these four men are brothers of men listed and another is possibly a cousin. This suggests that a thorough search of local sources such as the 1918 and 1919 Electoral Registers of the area (available on Ancestry.co.uk), which indicate men who were serving by the notation NM, might reveal even more names of men from the Concrete Cottages and Wombwell Junction who were not included on the RoH.

I have cross-checked the 100 names on the Brampton Parish Hall RoH with a number of other war memorials in the area including the Cortonwood memorial mentioned above and also memorials in Wombwell, Wath and Brampton itself.  Some names appear on one, some on another, some on more than one. There is no pattern. The original source of the Brampton Parish RoH remains a mystery. 

Did Barnsley men who served in the First World War know what the war might be like before enlisting?

First published 16 November 2020

In the book I have been reading for the past week historian David Cannadine quotes A. J. P. Taylor in 1966 who said that in 1914 'no man in the prime of life knew what war was like. All imagined that it would be a great affair of great marches and great battles, quickly decided'.(1) I don't own the Taylor book so I looked it up online - a slightly later version is available on Google Books, with limited page accessibility, but fortunately that did include the page with the quote Cannadine used.(2)

The context of the quote amends its meaning slightly. What Taylor actually said was 'There had been no war between the Great Powers since 1871.' Then the quote above, and then 'It would be over by Christmas'. So he was excluding the South African wars of 1879 to 1915 and, specifically for my case, the Second Boer War of 1899 to 1902.  If a Barnsley man was old enough to have served in that war, say 18 years old in 1900, he would only have been 32 years old in 1914.

However, we have to consider what Taylor may have meant about the 'prime of life' - it could be that what we think as still young today was not the case when he wrote in 1966 and probably even less so in 1914 when life expectancy was shorter. If he meant 18 to 30 years old then, yes, I suppose his proposition was accurate.

Analysis of the First World War Roll of Honour created by the Barnsley War Memorials Project in 2014-2018 shows that nearly 400 men who died were over 35 years of age and of those 125 were over 40 years of age.(3)  The approximate percentage of men who died from those who served was one in eight or about 12.5% according to J. M. Winter. But note that Winter states that 'men under 20 were more likely to be killed (more than one in six)', and that the chance of men in his oldest cohort, ages 45-49, being killed was only one in seventy. (4) This is because they were more likely to have served behind the lines, or on the home front. 

Winter, 'Britain's Lost Generation', p. 451.

 

Using Winter's table of age distribution of British men who served and who died in the First World War (above) I see that 9.8% of men between 35 and 39 were killed and 5.1% of those age 40-44. So the 275 deaths of Barnsley men 35 to 39 years of age, might be translated into as many as 2800 men who served, and the 125 who died over the age of 40 into another 2500 who served. That is an awful lot of men who enlisted who might have served in the Second Boer War and even if they didn't actually serve in the Boer War there was a very good chance they knew some one who had. 

In 2012 I wrote a blog post about Tom Charlesworth, born in 1864 in Hoyle Mill, who served in the South African wars prior to the Boer War and also in the First World War. By 1914 he would have been 50 years old! The family story was that he was a guard at a prisoner of war camp in the FWW. 

Another Barnsley man with prior experience of war was Lieutenant (later Captain and Major) Tom Guest, who joined the Barnsley Pals. Jon Cooksey writes that Guest had served in the Boer War as a Sergeant and also notes a number of other old soldiers.(5) I wrote a blog post about Tom Guest's origins in 2015. Cooksey interviewed many First World War veterans and they remembered Major Guest as a genial old soldier, a good leader and who got on well with his men. He was born in 1875 so he would have been 39 years old when the First World War broke out. He was killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916. 

John Edwin Cornish, who lived in Worsborough Common had served in the army in the Royal Field Artillery between 1901 and 1911, and was called up out of the reserve in 1914. He had not served abroad during his service, but we might presume that he had served along many men who had. He was killed at Ypres on 18 November 1914.  He was 31 years of age. The 69 Barnsley men killed in 1914 would have been in the regular army (or the navy) or the reserve. Although the Territorials were called up immediately they did not see action overseas until April 1915. 

The prior service of men is often mentioned in reports in the Barnsley Chronicle. 

Thomas Patrick Knight, born in Ireland, but living in Barnsley by 1911, had served in the Second Boer War with the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. He was awarded the DCM in 1915 for 'conspicuous gallantry and initiative' on 9 August. He was killed less than two months later 17 September 1915, aged 39 years. The Barnsley Chronicle reported that 'Corporal Knight went through the Boer War and did good service there'.(6)

George Jaques had originally joined the army in 1890 aged 17 and had served seven years, although during that time he had not seen active service, according to an article in the Barnsley Chronicle on 3 February 1900. He was called up from the reserve for the Boer War. He later wrote a very detailed letter about how he was wounded fighting the Boers which was published in the newspaper.(7) He described 'very hot work, bullets dropping all around us' and as they advanced 'it was just like being in a heavy hail-storm'. He added 'We could see our fellows dropping, but we kept going'.  George made it  home from South Africa and re-enlisted in September 1914, by which time he was 41 years old. Probably as a consquence of his age he was assigned to guard duty in this country, but unfortunately he was killed during an incident at Frenchman's Point detention centre in Durham on 9 September 1915. (Follow the link on George's name above for more information on this.) 

The Second Boer War was well covered in the Barnsley Chronicle - you can read the newspaper articles for that period via the British Newspaper Archive (for a fee).

I am sure that given a few more hours to work through my files I could find many more examples of men who served in the First World War who had experience of battle - this seems to refute A. J. P. Taylor's assertion quoted at the start of this post. As I write in my story of Tom Charlesworth I imagined these older men regaling their younger family members and work colleagues with exciting stories of their service which might have inspired many to volunteer for the FWW. Yes, the Boer War was comparatively short and only resulted in the deaths of 16 Barnsley men as far as we know, 14 of those are remembered on the memorial in St Mary's, Barnsley, but the Wombwell Boer War Memorial, which records two men who died, names 43 other local men who served in that conflict. There is no reason not to assume that these figures might have been repeated in other Barnsley townships and villages.

I contend that many Barnsley men had first hand experience of war before 1914, and many more will have read about war in the local newspapers and heard stories from those who had served.

References:

(1) Cannadine, D.  ‘War and Death, Grief and Mourning in Modern Britain' in Whaley, J. (ed.) Mirrors of Mortality: Studies in the Social History of Death (London: Europa, 1981), pp. 187-242.

(2) Taylor, A. J. P. The First World War: An Illustrated History (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974) via Google Books, https://tinyurl.com/y4pynlqk (accessed 16 Nov 2020) - no page numbers available.

(3) Barnsley WW1 Roll of Honour, https://barnsleyremembersww1.home.blog/ (accessed 16 Nov 2020)

(4) Winter, J. M. 'Britain's 'Lost Generation' of the First World War', Population Studies, 31 (3) (1977), p. 450-452.

(5) Cooksey, J.    Barnsley Pals: The 13th & 14th Battalions York and Lancaster Regiment: A History of the Two Battalions Raised by Barnsley in World War One (London: Leo Cooper, 1996 [1986]), p.37, 43, 46, and 76.

(6) Barnsley Chronicle, 6 November 1915, p. 1.

(7) Barnsley Chronicle, 24 March 1900, p. 6.

 

The Extended Caunt Family of Jump and Hoyland in the First World War

Finally published on 20 February 2021 at 00.48am

This post took me quite a few days to write as I was doing the research along the way and going through a particularly bad patch with tiredness due to a lot of 'more important' things that needed to be done.  I did consider posting it in stages, but as I found I was revising from the very beginning of the text as more information was uncovered I decided to keep it as one long post (for now).

I have been looking for suitable examples of war memorials to use in my PhD thesis on Commemoration and Remembrance in Barnsley. One of my sub-sections is memorials to individual men in churches and other public places (various for Albert Shepherd VC in Royston, the Matthew Thornton benches in Darton and a plaque on a wall in Green Moor to Frank Brammall - if you know of any more please let me know as they seem very rare). 

I have decided to include the two Caunt brothers, Reginald and Harold, who are remembered in St George's Church, Jump near Wombwell, Barnsley. 

Photo from the Barnsley & District War Memorials website (link above)

In loving remembrance
of
Reginald and Harold Caunt,
who fell asleep on the battle-field,
Nov. 17th, 1915, and July 1st, 1916.
For the Glory of God
"Greater love hath no man than this."

I began by updating the post linked above on the Barnsley & District War Memorials website with a little of new information I had found in Sheffield Archives and shared my post on the Barnsley's History - the Great War Facebook page. As a postgraduate researcher it is important that I share my findings with others and try to engage the public in my work. I am very keen on helping other people in Barnsley to discover more about their First World War history and the way that many people first approach this is by researching their own ancestors who were killed or who served in the war. Within minutes of me posting the link a lady had tagged a friend whose surname was Caunt asking if she was a relative. The power of social media in action!

A search of the local newspapers produced a small number of articles about the Caunt brothers, but also the following interesting article published on 29 July 1916 in both the Barnsley Chronicle and the Barnsley Independent.

JUMP FAMILY'S SACRIFICE
Six out of seven members of a Jump family have been killed in action, the latest being Private Harold Caunt, of Church Street, Jump, killed in the Great Advance. His brother Reggie was the first to fall, followed soon after by Private J. W. Caunt, cousin, Hoyand Common. Others are Private Jos. Hargreaves, Lundhill, cousin; Private Albert Clegg Horsfield, Jump, cousin; and Private Leonard Noble, brother-in-law, Hoyland Common.

This piece inspired me to investigate the Caunt family in more depth. It is entirely possible that more members of the extended family lost their lives after July 1916. I am very interested in discovering how and where all these other men were remembered. For the purposes of my PhD thesis I am interested in discovering if there is a reason why Reginald and Harold have a their own plaque in St George's church. I suspect that the other men are remembered on community memorials, but not as individuals.

I had not researched the Caunt brothers in the past as they fell into the Wombwell area which was covered during the Centenary period by another Barnsley War Memorials Project volunteer.

Archive and Pension Records

About 18 months ago (before the pandemic) I visited Sheffield Archives where I viewed the Diocesan Faculty requesting permission to place a plaque to the brothers in the church. There was accompanying correspondence which noted that the 'chief mover' of the proposal was Frederick Caunt of Fidelia Cottages in Jump. I was somewhat surprised at this because Reginald and Harold's father was John Caunt and I assumed that he must have been alive in 1917 (the document was dated 4 October 1917) as he is noted as their next of kin on their Pension records (available via Fold3 on Ancestry - extra fee payable, or to all members of the Western Front Association via their website).

Pension Ledger Record image from the WFA

Note that the address given for John Caunt on this card is 10 Guest Street, Platts Common, nr Barnsley.

Using the census returns on the Ancestry website I found that John Caunt was born in Calverton in Nottinghamshire, but he had relocated to Yorkshire by March 1877 when he married Sarah Jane Mellor at St John's church in Chapeltown.

Ancestry's algorithms suggested that John Caunt, born 1858 (so tallying with the Pension record) had died in Q1 1932 in the Barnsley Registration District (RD). Quarter 1 includes January, February and March. There is another death, registered in Sheffield in 1892, for a man born about the same time, but this cannot be the patriarch of the Chapeltown family as he definitely still alive at the time of the 1901 census. Quite a few of the online family trees on Ancestry have not spotted this and have attributed the death in 1892 to John born in Calverton.  It was - incidently - the death of a John Caunt born in Q4 1857 in Rippingale in Lincolnshire who had moved to Sheffield and married by 1880. Although I often look at the family trees on Ancestry I never take anything they say as accurate until I have checked it myself from at least two corroborating sources.

Dependant's Pension card from the WFA

On the individual Pension Card (also on the WFA site) for Reginald Caunt, who died in 1915, his widow Norah is named, but a long note in red ink remarks that she remarried in 1917 to Harry Howarth and was given a 'Remarriage Gratuity' of £35 1s 3d. There is another card, a 'Dependant's Pension' record card (see above), which notes Mr John Caunt as Reginald's dependant which tallies with the ledger record above, but Mr Frederick Caunt is recorded Harold Caunt's dependant. There is a stamp at the top, DEAD, noting that someone died on 17.3.32 - could this refer to John Caunt the father of the two men? It does agree with the death record suggested by Ancestry. John would have been 74 years old in 1932.

Caunt Core Family Births and Burials

John and Sarah Jane had at least eleven children who appear on the census returns in 1881, 1891 and 1901. In 1901 John is listed as a widower and a total of 12 members of the family are living at 'Back Warren' in Chapeltown. The Caunt family appears in the 1911 census at 11 Church Street, Jump, but the head of the household is now Frederick Caunt and most of the other 10 people listed are his siblings. I double checked the names given in the census returns in the GRO indexes in case a child had died between censuses. The list below shows the combined results, from the census returns and the GRO indexes.

Annie b. Q3 1877 mmn Mellor in Wortley RD
William b. Q1 1879 mmn Mellor in Wortley RD
Frederick b. Q1 1881 mmn Mellor in Wortley RD
Gertrude b. Q1 1883 mmn Mellor in Wortley RD
Frank b. Q1 1885 mmn Mellor in Rotherham RD
John Mellor b. Q3 1888 mmn Mellor in Wortley RD
Ralph b. Q4 1890 mmn Mellor in Wortley RD
Reginald b. Q3 1892 mmn Mellor in Wortley RD
Harold b. Q1 1894 mmn Mellor  in Wortley RD
Herbert b. Q3 1897 mmn Mellor in Wortley RD
Jane b. Q1 1899 mmn Mellor in Wortley RD

The GRO index suggests that a second Ralph listed in the census was not a child of John and Sarah Jane, despite being listed as such in 1901 and 1911, as his entry gives no mother's maiden name.

Name:                                 Mother's Maiden Surname:
CAUNT, RALPH  BELL       -     
GRO Reference: 1896  S Quarter in WORTLEY  Volume 09C  Page 311 

Another child, Sarah J Caunt, listed as child of John in 1901 but the niece of Frederick in 1911, also has no mother's maiden name in the GRO index.

Name:                                                         Mother's Maiden Surname:
CAUNT, SARAH  JANE RALLINSON      -     
GRO Reference: 1900  M Quarter in WORTLEY  Volume 09C  Page 311 

I suggest that the middle names these of children may give clues to the identity of their fathers. Finding a baptism record for these children would give me their mother's name, but without that the only other option is to send for their birth certificates and at £7 a time that is something I would only consider if I really need to know the mother's name. 

Happily I was able to find a baptism for Ralph Bell Caunt on 7 Jul 1897 at the church in Chapeltown. His mother was Annie Caunt, place of residence, Warren. Presumably John and Sarah's eldest daughter as the baptism immediately before and on the same day as Ralph in the register was that of Herbert Caunt, Annie's younger brother.

The wife of John Caunt, Sarah Jane Caunt (nee Mellor), died in the first quarter of 1899 in the Wortley RD aged 42. As the family is still living in Chapeltown in the 1901 census I assumed she was buried in that area. I found her grave on the useful Sheffield Indexers website. There were two other Caunt burials from the same address in the same grave, one was for 6 month old Jane Caunt who died in October 1899 who must have been the last child Sarah Jane bore before her death.

CAUNT, Sarah Jane (~, age 42).
Died at The Warren; Buried on March 31, 1899 in Consecrated ground;
Grave Number 45 Row G, Section A-Q of Burncross Cemetery, Sheffield

The other burial in the same grave is for Beatrice Vera Caunt in July 1902 aged six months, and that tallies with a birth in the GRO index in Q1 1902 with no mother's maiden name. Nearby is the grave of Ralph Caunt aged 9 months buried in July 1891, who can be seen in the list above. Both were buried from 'The Warren' like Sarah Jane.

Eventually I found the widowed John Caunt (whose surname looks like Gaunt), aged 54 and from Calverton, Nottinghamshire, in the 1911 census. He was living as a boarder in the household of an older couple at 111 Upper Hoyland, nr Barnsley. His occupation was Coal Miner Hewer. Does this suggest some kind of estrangement from his children? Or was he simply lodging nearer to his place of work? He was not incapacitated if he was working as a Hewer, a very strenuous job. 

So far I have not been able to identify the burial place of John Caunt born 1858.  I have searched the Dearne Memorials website for any burials for the Caunt name and identified 68 burials - from 1871 to 2017 - most of which occur in Jump, Wombwell and Hoyland. Even the 16 recent cremations at Ardsley Crematorium mostly give home addresses in those areas. The Dearne Memorials site will be a useful resource for discovering the whereabouts of the families releated to the Caunts after 1911. There was no burial listed on Sheffield Indexers or Dearne Memorials for a John Caunt or Gaunt in 1932. I had hoped that he was buried in Burncross with his wife. Sheffield Indexers state that their coverage of Burncross is complete from 1877 to 1996.

Jump

Jump is a small village in South Yorkshire located about 5 miles south east of Barnsley. The population in 1901 was about 370. It has an Anglican Church, St George's (from about 1880), with a large Sunday School and on the 1892 maps onwards, a Wesleyan Reform Church. The land slopes down from Hoyland and Jump towards the valley at Elsecar where a branch of the Dove and Dearne Canal used to end at a basin beyond the iron works (now the Elsecar Heritage Centre). Part of the Trans Peninne Trail runs along its towpath. The railway line from Elsecar to Cortonwood has been restored and although currently closed, operates as the Elsecar Heritage Railway. None of the other railway lines on this adaptation of the 1905 map remain.

Map of area around Jump showing main villages, railway lines (brown), canal (blue), collieries (grey diamond) and Iron Works at Elsecar. This map is approximately 4 miles from side to side.

Back to the First World War 

There are two possible ways of tracing the soldiers whose names appeared in the newspaper cutting, working backwards from each man until I see a Caunt connection or working outwards and down the generations from the core family around Reginald and Harold Caunt. It would be necessary to find the marriages for John and Sarah's brothers and sisters, and for their children (first cousins of the core family) as well as the marriages Harold and Reginald's siblings. As the definition of 'cousin' can flexible, often including more distant relations, it might be necessary to spread my search to the children of first cousins as well. This sounds more time consuming but it should also enable me to discover other members of their extended family who served in the First World War.  

This is the kind of family history that I compare to doing a crossword puzzle or a wordsearch as it is good brain therapy - it is fairly repetitive but it doesn't tire me out as much as other research does. There are lots of  'oh, yes' moments when I discover links and prove facts which cheer me up and carry me onwards. I can do this research in short sessions even when confined to bed by fatigue.

Header to the Barnsley FWW Roll of Honour website

As all the men named in the newspaper cutting lived in the Barnsley area they should appear in the Barnsley Roll of Honour. I have access to a version of the very detailed spreadsheet, collated by Pete Schofield, one of the original Barnsley War Memorial Project volunteers, upon which the RoH was based (the spreadsheet is still being updated even though the book has been printed as we do occasionally find another Barnsley man, and sometimes have to correct mistakes which have come to light during research like this). Indented information below is from this spreadsheet, this is followed by my own current research from Ancestry and Find My Past etc.

Reginald Caunt - named on plaque being researched

Reginald Caunt died at 3 General Hospital, Le Treport, France on 17 November 1915. He was a Private in the 1st/5th battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment. He is buried in Le Treport Military Cemetery in France. He is remembered on three war memorials in Jump, one in Worsborough and two in Wombwell. 

Reginald was born, as we have seen, in 1892 in Chapeltown, Sheffield. In the 1911 census his occupation was as a roper in a colliery. He married, towards the end of 1913, to Nora(h) Orwin, who was his sole legatee on his Soldiers' Effects record (on Ancestry) and was recorded as his widow, with one child, on his Pension Card. This child was Irene, born 26 May 1914. 

The following appeared in the Barnsley Chronicle on 25 September 1915:

Offical information is to hand that Private Reginald Gaunt (sic), well known in the Hoyland district, has been seriously wounded in action in France, and has had to have one of his legs amputated. He belongs to the 1/5 York and Lancasters, and had been in the trenches four months.

Reginald's inclusion on the Worsborough Dale war memorial was probably because that is where he lived after his marriage. A brief mention in a list of wounded in the Barnsley Chronicle noted that his home address was Worsbro' Dale. Due to some error his name was inscribed under the 1914 header on the memorial column. Norah lost her pension when she remarried to Harry Howarth in 1917, but was awarded a gratuity. War widows were encouraged to remarry by the British government by the giving of a lump sum which replaced their pension. (Hetherington, 2018, pp. 157-158) Reginald's father John was also named on his pension records. Norah and Harry went on to have at least eight children together. 

Reginald was remembered in the Barnsley Chronicle on 18 November 1916, the anniversary of his death. His brother Harold, who had died only four months previously was also mentioned.

Harold Caunt - named on plaque being researched

Harold Caunt was killed in action on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He was a Private in the 13th battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment which was also known as the 1st Barnsley Pals. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial in France. In Barnsley he is remembered on three war memorials in Jump, two in Wombwell and one in Barnsley (the 2016 Somme Centenary Artwork). 

Harold, like most of his brothers and sisters, was born in Chapeltown, Sheffield. He born in 1894 and was John and Sarah's ninth child and their seventh son. He was unmarried when he died. His elder brother Frederick, born 1881, is his sole legatee on his Soldiers' Effects record.

On 2 July 1917 a very touching 'In Memoriam' notice was posted in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph by his siblings on the anniversary of his death.

CAUNT - In tenderest remembrance of Pte. Harold Caunt, of the Y. and L., who was translated on the battlefield, July 1, 1916, in his 23rd year.

O noble boy! in whom was plac'd
The virtues love, devotion!
Thy sacrifice has richl grac'd
The roll of souls' promotion.
A little while we miss thee here,
And feel thy absence keenly;
But just ahead 'tis rising clear -
The Morning Star serenely.

 

From his Brother and Sisters, Fidelia Cottage, Jump, Barnsley

Harold had also been remembered on 18 November 1916 in the Barnsley Chronicle in a joint notice with his brother Reginald on the anniversary of Reginald's death.

J.W. Caunt, cousin of Hoyland Common

John William Caunt was killed in action 26 November 1915 and is buried in Belgium. He was a Private in the 1st/5th battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment. He is remembered on three war memorials in Hoyland. He was born in Birdwell in 1895, the first of six children born to William Caunt b.1865 and Sarah Ann (nee Goody) b.1864. 

His father William was his sole legatee on his Soldiers' Effects record. The Sheffield Soldiers WW1 website notes that John W Caunt is named on the Newton Chambers Roll of Honour, Rockingham Colliery.

A newspaper report in the Barnsley Chronicle 4 December 1915 reported John William Caunt's death.

HOYLAND COMMON PATRIOTS
ELEVEN FALL IN ACTION

Information has reached Hoyland Common that Private John William, eldest son of Mr. and the late Mrs. William Caunt, of Elm Street, has been killed in action. Deceased who was 20 years of age, formerley worked at the Rockingham Colliery. He enlisted on January 14th in the Birdwell Territorials, and went out to France with the 1/5th York and Lancaster Regiment on August 20th. As late as Monday last a letter was received from him, in which he stated he was alright. This makes the 11th Hoyland Common victim during the war.

On 18 December 1915 the following appeared in the Barnsley Chronicle:

Mr. W. Caunt, of Elm Street, Hoyland Common, has received official intimation that his son, Private John William Caunt, of 1/5th York and Lancaster Regiment, was killed in action on November 26th. Deceased, who was 20 years of age, was killed by a bullet from a machine-gun. He was hit in the groin, and passed away without much suffering. Before enlisting he worked at the Rockingham Colliery.

This should have been be the easy one, because he shares the Caunt surname. John William's father William Caunt was born in 1865 in Calverton and in 1871 he was six years old and living with a elderly couple, John and Hannah Caunt, in Calverton. The relationship column noted that he was their nephew. This is the same John and Hannah Caunt who, in 1861 in Calverton, had a young grandson, John Caunt aged 3, so born 1858, in their household,  whom I assumed was the father of Reginald and Harold. I think my head is spinning!

In February 1893 when William Caunt, born 1865, married Sarah Ann Goody in Wath upon Dearne, the name of his father was left blank.

In order to sort out these relationships I began to compile a family tree using my 'Family Historian' software. The tree was quite difficult to map as the Caunt family tree, as we saw above in John and Sarah's family, seems to contain a lot of illegitimate births.

A John Caunt, born 1858, appeared in a baptism record in Bingham, Nottinghamshire as the son of Mary Ann Caunt. She is probably Ann Caunt, the unmarried daughter of John and Hannah Caunt of Calverton, Nottinghamshire who listed in the 1861 census with their grandson John aged 3. Ann Caunt married John Swift in Q3 1865 in Mansfield RD, and in 1871 the widowed John Swift, aged 41, is listed as the son-in-law of John and Hannah Caunt in Calverton. Also in the household are his son Frank Swift aged 9 and that William Caunt aged 6 whom I think is the father of John William Caunt.

If I assume that William Caunt, born 1865, was the son of another of John and Hannah Caunt's daughters then that makes his son, John William Caunt, born 1895, a second cousin to Reginald and Harold. 

Jos. Hargreaves, cousin of Lundhill (there are two Joseph Hargreaves on the spreadsheet).

1. Joseph Hargreaves died of illness 17 May 1916 and
2. Joseph Hargreaves missing presumed dead 17 June 1916

Although the spreadsheet noted that the first Joseph's parents had lived at Lundhill Row, Hemingfield I wasn't quite ready to say this was the right man for sure. However the second Joseph Hargreaves was born and lived at Carlton, and was only remembered on the memorial in Carlton, which suggested he had no connections to Hoyland, Jump or Wombwell.

Joseph Hargreaves died of illness 17 May 1916 and is buried in Sucrerie Military Cemetery, Colincamps, France. He was a Private in the 13th battalion (1st Barnsley Pals) York and Lancaster Regiment. He is remembered on a family gravestone in Jump Cemetery, two war memorials in Jump and three in Wombwell. He was born at Denaby Main in 1896. His parents were Joseph (b. 1861) and Sarah Hargreaves.

Joseph's war memorial gravestone at Jump is on Find A Grave. The inscription on the gravestone confirms Joseph's date of death and his parents' names. It was uploaded by Fay Polson, another of the Barnsley War Memorials Project's ex-volunteers, who concentrated on Wombwell area research. She noted that 'According to an article published in the Barnsley Chronicle on June 10th 1916, Joseph was the victim of a gas attack'. That was presumably the cause of the illness from which Joseph died.

The GRO index gives us Joseph's mother's maiden name.

Name:                                   Mother's Maiden Surname:  
HARGREAVES, JOSEPH    GAUNT  
GRO Reference: 1896  J Quarter in DONCASTER  Volume 09C  Page 775

As you can see this has been recorded as Gaunt ... but let's not give up hope. It would be very easy to mistake Caunt for Gaunt if the handwriting was poor.

I searched on FreeBMD for a marriage between a Joseph Hargreaves and Sarah * and was pleased to find a marriage with Sarah Caunt in the Barnsley RD in Q1 1893. Marriage registers for Barnsley are split between Ancestry and Find My Past (FMP) and I hoped to find this marriage on FMP as that site covers Wombwell and other places to the south and east of Barnsley.  Unfortunately there was no record of the event on either site. The couple may have married in the Register Office or a nonconformist church. 

In the 1901 census Joseph and Sarah were living in Denaby Main and their children included Selina aged 10, John aged 7 and Joseph aged 5. This fits with the information from the spreadsheet above. Sarah was 35 years of age and born in West Notts (which really isn't very helpful). In 1911 the family was living at 1 Lundhill, Hemingfield. Joseph Hargreaves junior was now 15 years old and working on the pit top. Sarah, his mother, who was the Caunt link, gave her age as 44 years and her place of birth as Melton, Yorkshire.  The marriage between Joseph Hargreaves senior and Sarah had lasted for 18 years, which fits with a marriage in 1893, and they had six children surviving out of a total of nine born to the marriage.

So, the census information suggested that Sarah Caunt was born in 1866 or 1867, possibly in Nottinghamshire or possibly in (West) Melton, which is near Wombwell. She was too old to be a child of John Caunt and Sarah Mellor. As we have no marriage certificate or register entry we don't yet know the name of her father. 

In Wombwell in the 1871 census are James and Selina Caunt, both from Calverton, Nottinghamshire. They have five children, the eldest two born in Calverton, and the younger three born in West Melton. The second youngest child is Sarah Caunt b.1864. The Ancestry algorithms suggest she married Joseph Hargreaves. The fact that Joseph and Sarah Hargreaves call their eldest daughter Selina is a good indicator that this is the right family. The mismatch of a few years in Sarah's age could be vanity or simply uncertainty of age by the person filling out the census return.

James Caunt, born 1835 in Calverton, was the son of John and Hannah Caunt, and the brother of Mary Ann Caunt, the presumed mother of John Caunt born 1858. This makes Joseph Hargreaves, grandson of James Caunt, the second cousin of Reginald and Harold Caunt, the sons of John Caunt.

Albert Clegg Horsfield, cousin of Jump

Albert Clegg Horsfield died of wounds on 5 June 1916 and is buried in France in the Habarcq Communal Cemetery Extension. He was a Private in the King's Own Scottish Borderers. He is remembered on two memorials in Jump (recorded as A.C. Horsfield) and two in Wombwell (where he is recorded as H.A. Clegg - probably). He was born in Wombwell in 1894 son of Herbert and Hannah Clegg Horsfield.

At first glance there appears to be no connection, I cannot even find the marriage of a Herbert Clegg Horsfield. However ...

In the 1901 census the Clegg Horsfield family, including Albert, are living in Jump at 46 Kitroyd. This an area just south of Jump. Herbert and Hannah have four children living with them and a Joseph C Horsfield who is Herbert's brother. In 1911 the family, who can be compared by the names of the older children, are living at 34 Cemetery Road, Jump, under the surname Clegg. Herbert and Hannah Clegg, the parents, six children and a boarder, whose name is John Caunt. 

In his Soldiers Effects record Albert Clegg Horsfield's sole legatee is his mother Hannah Clegg.

Looking again, under Clegg, I found a marriage in Q2 1892 for Herbert Clegg and Hannah Gaunt. Looking at her age and birth in the two census returns Hannah was born in 1875 in Wombwell.  James and Selina Caunt/Gaunt, mentioned above in the research for Joseph Hargreaves, have a daughter called Hannah the correct age. They also have a son the correct age to be the Hargreave's lodger John Caunt in 1911. This seems to all fit quite well.

This means that Albert Clegg Horsfield is the first cousin of Joseph Hargreaves and another second cousin for Reginald and Harold Caunt.

Family Tree showing five of the men mentioned as Caunt relatives in 1916 (created using Family Historian software) Other members of the families are hidden to simplify the diagram.

Leonard Noble, brother-in-law of Hoyland Common

Leonard Noble died of wounds on 11 May 1916 and is buried in France. He was a Private in the 14th battalion (2nd Barnsley Pals) York and Lancaster Regiment. He is remembered on three war memorials in Hoyland. He was born in Hoyland Common in 1881 and was the son of Luke Noble b.1834 and Annie (nee Cooper). He served in the South African War according to his Commonwealth War Graves information.

For Leonard to be the brother-in-law of Reginald and Harold Caunt he must surely have married one of their sisters, but that is not noted on the copy of the spreadsheet that I have. In fact it says he was unmarried. Maybe brother-in-law doesn't mean what I think it means?  I did find that Annie Caunt, the eldest sister of Reginald and Harold,  married Albert Noble in Q2 1909 in the Barnsley RD. Could Leonard be one of Albert's brothers? Was he the brother of a brother-in-law (in our meaning of the term)?

Albert and Annie Noble were living with Frederick Caunt and his siblings at 11 Church Street, Jump in the 1911 census, along with two children Annie and Florence. From this I can see that Albert was born in 1878 in Hoyland. Using that information I could look up the earlier census returns for the Noble family. Sure enough Albert, whose parents were Luke and Alice Noble, has a slightly younger brother Leonard, born in 1881. In 1911 the widowed Alice is living at 30 Elm Street, Hoyland Common, with just Leonard, now aged 30, for company. His occupation was coal miner hewer. 

Leonard Noble's Soldiers Effects record from Ancestry noted that his sole legatee was his mother Alice. He died in 16 General Hospital Le Treport in France on 11 May 1916. He was buried in Le Treport Military Cemetery. His pension record card states that he had a gun shot wound to the left forearm which was subsequently amputated. 

A report in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph from 15 May 1916 adds some detail to his final days.

On Saturday news was received that Private Leonard Noble, of Elm Street, Hoyland Common, had succumbed to wounds on Friday. On May 4 he had his left arm amputated, and on Wednesday last his mother, who is 74 years of age, and one of his sisters, journeyed to France to see him. Deceased, who was about 34 years old, served in the South African War. His death brings Hoyland Common's death roll up to 20.

The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer on 20 May 1916 gives more detail.

Mrs. Noble, of Elm Street, Hoyland Common, who is 74 years of age, hearing her son, Private Leonard Noble, was dangerously wounded, went to France with one of her daughters. There was some unavoidable delay, and on arrival at the hospital after an 80 hours motor journey from the French port, she was informed that she was too late, as her son had died two or three hours earlier. She was present at the funeral, however, and returned home the following day. Private Noble was 35 years of age and fought in the Boer War.

I think I will leave Finding Other FWW Caunt Relatives for another post as this one has got very long. It has been a fascinating few sessions of research. 

Lessons learnt - cousin doesn't always mean first cousin, a brother-in-law might be a further step away in relation than you expect. Caunt and Gaunt are frequently mixed up in transcriptions and the adoption of children born outside wedlock by their grandparents was quite common place in the past.  Soldiers can be named on more than one memorial, and the details 'carved in stone' are not always correct. I still don't know why Reginald and Harold have a plaque in St George's church when none of their relatives have the same - but it could well be because the others didn't have a close family of surviving siblings organised by someone like Frederick Caunt and earning enough money between them to pay for a personal memorial. 

References:

Barnsley Chronicle, Barnsley Archives and Local Studies, Barnsley Town Hall.

Barnsley Independent, British Newspapers, Find My Past, https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search/british-newspapers (accessed February 2021)

Barnsley's History - Commemoration and Remembrance, https://commemorationremembrance.blogspot.com/p/about.html (accessed February 2021)

Barnsley & District War Memorials, Jump, St George's Church, R and H Caunt, http://www.barnsleywarmemorials.org.uk/2014/03/jump-st-georges-church-r-and-h-caunt.html (accessed February 2021)

Barnsley's History - the Great War, https://www.facebook.com/groups/425720354266452 (accessed February 2017) 

Dearne Memorials, https://www.cemeteries.org.uk/ (accessed 6 February 2021)

Faculty for Alabaster Tablet in Remembrance of Reginald & Harold Caunt, 4 October 1917, Diocesan Archives, Sheffield Archives, DIOC/FAC/65. 

FreeBMD https://www.freebmd.org.uk/ (accessed February 2021)

Hetherington, A. British Widows of the First World War (Barnsley: Pen & Sword, 2018) 

Sheffield Daily Telegraph, British Newspapers, Find My Past, https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search/british-newspapers (accessed February 2021)

Sheffield Indexers, https://www.sheffieldindexers.com/ (accessed 5 February 2021)

Sheffield Soldiers of the Great War, http://sheffieldsoldierww1.co.uk/Home.html (accessed 16 Feb 2021)