Last week during one of my regular searches of the Barnsley (and Sheffield) newspapers on Find My Past I discovered a report on the Barnsley Mechanics' Institute's Annual Meeting from 19 February 1916.
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| Barnsley Independent 19 February 1916 (from Find My Past) |
It notes that 'twenty-five members of the Institute were serving in the military forces and a roll of honour had been hung on the walls'. This was a war memorial (the definition of a war memorial includes any tangible item which commemorates war) that I had not been aware of before. I wanted to know more about the Mechanics Institute and the men who joined up to serve in the war who had been connected with it.
The Barnsley Civic website notes that its building, which dates from 1877, had been the Barnsley Mechanics' Institute and Public Hall, later becoming the Harvey Institute, named after Charles Harvey who gifted it to the people of Barnsley. The building that is now the Civic had housed the public library, provided space for public meetings and hosted speakers and education.
However, I found reports in the Barnsley Chronicle and Independent that the Mechanics' Institute had moved in 1912 when its new building was opened between Hanson Street and Royal Street (Barnsley Chronicle 28 September 1912). So this means that the First World War Roll of Honour hung in this new building, not the one which is now the Civic.
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| The location of the Mechanics' Institute in 1931 (Old Maps) |
As you can see in this map snip the Institute was located behind the Billards Hall on Regent Street. It had only moved a little way from the Harvey Institute which is shown above as the Public Hall & Library. The Mechanics' Institute was still plainly visible on the 1961 map, but by 1968 it had gone.
The report on the opening of the new building included a history of the institution. It was obvious that the Mechanics' Institute's remit had changed over time. In 1837 it was formed to promote education amongst young men, public lectures were given and a library formed. The library was in Wellington Street and the rooms were in the Oddfellows Hall on Pitt Street, later known as the Temperance Hall which still exists today. In 1890 the Mechanics' Institute moved into 'the old building in Hanson Street', but I cannot identify this on a map. When the lease ran out on that building in 1905 they decided to build a new premises. This does not seem to tally with the article on the Barnsley Civic website, unless they rented part of the Public Hall/Harvey Institute for a short while between removal from one building to another before the building of the new premises. Further evidence that the Mechanics' Institute was not housed in the Harvey Institute in 1912 can be found in a small advertisment in the Barnsley Chronicle on 28 September 1912.
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| Barnsley Chronicle 28 September 1912 |
The advert reports that the furniture shop of Mr. E. Moss 'is moving to larger and more convenient premises, lately occupied by the Mechanics' Insitute', where he will be selling the 1913 Season's New Stock. I cannot imagine there being a furniture shop in the Harvey Institute and this clearly states that the previous home of the Mechanics' Institute still stood (and had not been demolished to make way for the new which I thought might have been the case).
A further search of the local newspapers has shown that the Mechanics Institute did move into the ground floor of the Public Hall when it was opened in January 1878. On 2 June 1877 (Barnsley Chronicle) the Mechanics' Institute reported their eagerness to make the move, as they were operating from a number of small premises spread across Barnsley. They were in the process of putting themselves forward to host the meeting of the Yorkshire Mechanics Union the following year. It sounds a bit like bidding for hosting the Olympics ... they were telling the other delegates at the 1877 meeting how great the facilities would be in the new Public Hall in Barnsley in 1878!
Some talks and lectures were advertised in the new building between 1878 and 1890. However, it is difficult to spot these adverts in the digitised newspapers as they are usually in block capitals which don't seem to be very well picked up by the indexing. I have found some art classes advertised, a series of lectures on geography and another series on Tudor history. A price of one penny per lecture was quoted for the geographical lectures in January 1885. In October the same year a charge of one shilling per lecture, or 6s in advance for eleven lectures, was made for the historical series. That was some inflation in prices!
When the building was handed over to the Council by Charles Harvey in 1890 the Mechanics Institute had to move out. This changeover appears to have caused some friction between the organisations especially concerning a grant of money for the School of Art. Technical education and new books for the library were discussed at some length in early 1891, with the Council and the School Board having heated discussions about who should pay for what and what rooms in the Public Hall/Harvey Institute could be used by who. This may be why there was an tactful gap in the history of the Mechanics' Institute related at the opening of their new Hall in 1912.
An article in the Barnsley Chronicle on 23 July 1910 partially explains what happened. When the manager of the Institute, Mr Chambers, was presented with an award for 25 years service, his speech was reported. He mentions that when he came to the Institute (so in 1885) it 'had between 500 to 600 members, but that was when there were libraries and classes attached to it'. When the Town Council adopted the Free Libraries Act it was decided that the Mechanics' Institute 'should be continued in the form they saw it today', that is, without the educational aspects. The Free Libraries Act was enacted in 1850, so it took some time for Barnsley to adopt it.
A report of the Annual Meeting in 1911 noted that 'it had sometimes been stated that the members of [the] Institute were the "cream of Barnsley"'. It commented that the members were men who belonged to the 'clerical, legal and other professional walks of life'. It no longer appeared to host classes or lectures and attracted a distinctive class of men. In 1912 it was for men only, although in the report of the opening of the new building the possiblity of ladies being able to attend in the future was mentioned. I have found a PhD thesis by Martyn Walker online which noted that in 1849 the Barnsley Mechanics' Institute had 62 female members and 232 male members. Walker noted that by 1880 'Barnsley Institute had doubled its membership and the ratio between male and female members was 506 to 70'. So this separation of the sexes had taken place gradually over time until there were no female members by 1912.
I did find a letter in the Barnsley Chronicle of 7 November 1885 which suggested that the trend towards members of a higher social status had been the case for a while. The writer, Mr. J. Tomlinson, commented that 'founded upon my own observation and experience ... the Barnsley Mechanics' Institute is emphatically not an institute for mechanics. ... I believe I am acquainted with the majority of the the mechanics of the town but I can count on the fingers of one hand all the members of that class that I ever saw at the Institute.' He went on, 'in this town of Barnsley, whose population is so largely industrial ... we ought to find a "working man's college" devoted to the higher education of the toilers, we find instead a mere "circulating library and news room ...". He did concede that previous efforts by the Institute on the topic of education "have been met on the one side of the skilled workers in the various trades with the most surprising apathy and indifference" but also notes that those efforts had been made by the Institute "in a very perfunctory and spiritless fashion". He also comments on the prohibitive fees for membership and for the lectures. Sadly it seems that the Institute had moved on from its original remit before it even left the Public Hall.
During the speeches at the opening of the new building in 1912 the President noted that the Institute was a place for men to meet their friends without having to go to a place which served 'intoxicating liquors'. The description of the new building mentioned reading rooms, a writing room, a library, a telephone room (!) and, on the first floor, two billiard rooms. In the basement there was a cycle store, 'approached [a] sloping path out of main entrance lobby'. The building frontage on Hanson Street was 61' 6" and enclosed by a fence wall and wrought iron railings and 'gates of special design'. There was a 5' wide frontage onto Royal Street providing a secondary entrance. I have been unable to find a photograph of the building unless it is the two story building with basement windows, just visible on the extreme right of this picture of Hanson Street on the Tasker Trust website. I think a tiny sliver of wall and a bit of roof gable of the same building is visible on this photo of Royal Street on the Tasker Trust website. Its position behind the billiards hall would seem to confirm that this shows the secondary entrance to the Mechanics' Institute referred to in the newspaper report.
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| Royal Street in the 1960s (Image EGT1213 from the Tasker Trust) |
First World War
I decided to see if I could find the names of the men from the Institute who had served in the war. The social class of the members described above suggested that I might find more officers than private soldiers, but even with that advantage (officers are mentioned by name more often in the newspapers than the 'other ranks') the task turned out to be quite difficult.
Along the way I discovered that there weren't very many other mentions of the Barnsley Mechanics' Institute in the newspapers during the war years, besides their February Annual Meeting each year. The Institute was occasionally mentioned in articles about other events, for example in lists of donations to the Belgian Refugees' Fund or the Barnsley Comforts Fund (for Servicemen), they gave a billards table to the Beckett Hospital in June 1916 for the use of wounded soldiers, and the Institute was used a Recruiting Office in December 1916. But there was no regular list of their events or fundraising efforts. They did have a chess club, the prizegiving was reported in the newspaper.
In contrast the Dodworth and Wentworth Mechanics' Institutes were mentioned quite often during the period I examined, hosting meals for the elderly, sports tournaments (billiards and dominoes) fundraising whist drives and dances, talks and lantern slide shows and even as venues for inquests. Maybe the institutions in the villages had not lost their working class roots?
At the Barnsley Mechanics' Institute Annual Meeting in 1917 (Barnsley Chronicle 17 February 1917) it was noted that thirty-two members were serving in H.M. Forces, In 1918 (Barnsley Independent 23 February 1918) forty-two members were serving and by 1919 (Barnsley Independent 22 February 1919) this had increased to forty-seven. At that same meeting the committee discussed reviewing the conditions of membership of the Institute 'in view of the numerous applications of intending members'. Was this because men were returning from the war?
A Barnsley Grammar School teacher, Richard Butler, gave a talk at the Mechanics' Institute in Februrary 1916 on the subject of his internment at Ruhleben Camp in Germany on the outbreak of the war, he was sent back to England in December 1915. There was no advertising in the newspapers before the talk, suggesting attendance was restricted to members. When the death from influenza of a member of the Mechanics' Institute, Fred Dunk, aged 40, was reported in the Barnsley Chronicle on 14 October 1916, it was noted that his younger brother Reginald Dunk had been killed in action in July of the same year. The report of the 1918 Annual Meeting mentioned the death of a Captain D. Grey without making clear his connection to the Institute. Unless he is Lieutenant George Donald Gray, son of James (a solicitor) and Elizabeth Gray, who died of wounds on 5 May 1917 and who is remembered in St George's churchyard on a family gravestone? I cannot say for certain who he was. These are the only mentions I can find of men connected to the Institute being directly affected by the war.
The coverage of the Barnsley newspapers online is a bit patchy - the issues of the Barnsley Independent which might be of interest for the First World War are 1912, 1916, 1918-1919, 1921, 1926 and 1928. The Barnsley Chronicle online coverage currently halts at 1912. You can see more of these newspapers in Barnsley Archives - they have a digital copy of the Barnsley Chronicle and the other Barnsley newspapers on microfilm. I have a copy of the index the Barnsley War Memorials Project made of the servicemen in the Barnsley Chronicle August 1914 to March 1919. But there were absolutely no mentions of the Mechanics' Institute in the index.
This left me with little to go on. I can see that original records for the Barnsley Mechanics' Institute, 1874 to 1963, 1960 to 1975, are stored at Barnsley Archives, so I will add a search of those to my list for when the Archives reopens. Maybe the names of the men serving are mentioned in the minute books.
Lieutenant George Donald Gray
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| G. D. Gray from the Barnsley Chronicle (with thanks to Barnsley Archives) |
The Barnsley Chronicle reported the death of Lieutenant Gray on 12 May 1917. It does refer to him as G. Donald Gray, so maybe this indicates that he commonly went by Donald and therefore he was probably the man referred to at the Mechanics' Institute Meeting in February 1918. Maybe he had been an Acting Captain at the time of his death?
'A painful senstation was caused in Barnsley during the early part of this week by the news that Lieut. G. Donald Gray had met his death on the front somewhere in France. A telegram from the War Office conveyed the sad news to the relatives stating that the gallant officer had died of wounds on May 5th.
Lieut. Gray, who in civil life was a solicitor of the firm of Messrs. James Gray and Sons, Regent Street, Barnsley, was very well-known in the district and was highly respected, his untimely death being a source of great sorrow to all who knew him. On the outbreak of war he immediately offered his services and became attached to the K.O.Y.L.I. On the death of his father [3 May 1915 according to his gravestone at St George's], however, he was transferred to the 2nd Barnsley Battalion and was for some time stationed at Silkstone Camp. He was with the Reserve Battallions until about 6 weeks ago when he was transferred to the Hallamshires and went out to the front, only to meet his death as stated. Lieut. Gray was 33 years of agan and was educated at the Wakefield Grammar School.
Only six weeks ago his mother died [11 April 1917 on the gravestone], and he was home on short leave. Lieut. Gray had a promising legal career before him. He was well known at Doncaster, where he organised the Boy Scout movment, and he was a keen worker in connection with the Y.M.C.A. hut appeal.'
George Donald Gray is slso remembered on the war memorial in St Mary's church, Barnsley.
Reginald Dunk
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| From Barnsley Chronicle 22 July 1916 (with thanks to Barnsley Archives) |
Sergeant Reg Dunk was declared 'missing presumed dead' on or about 3 July 1916. He has no known grave and is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial in France.
The report of Reginald Dunk's death and the following obituary appeared in the Barnsley Chronicle on 15 July 1916 with his photograph appearing the following week.
'Members of the Barnsley Swimming Club are deeply deploring the death in action of one of their most popular memers - Sergeant Reginald Dunk, of the 2nd Barnsley Battalion, son of Mr. W. Dunk, builder, etc., of Hopwood Street, and Peel Street, Barnsley.
"Reg", as he was so popularly known locally was a born athlete. Occasionally he kept goal for the Barnsley Reserve football team, but it was in swimming that he gained renown, and in addition to being the champion of the club he was the esteemed captain.
Some months ago, when the Barnsley Battalions were in Egypt, Sergeant Dunk was able to distinguish himself by life saving in the Suez Canal. A comrade, it will be recalled from the account which at the time appeared in this paper, fell into the Canal at a point where it was deep and a swift running tide. "Reg" saw the mishap and without a moment's hesitation he plunged into the water and saved the Pal from a certain death. That action was greatly admired by the whole Battalions - by officers and men alike - and by a singular coincidence he very shortly afterwards performed a similar gallant feath by rescuing a second lad from the Canal. Sergeant Dunk, in a letter home, said that he spoiled his watch in entering the water but, he added, he did not care for that and was more than compensated by the fact of saving the lives of the two soldiers.
The news of Sergeant Dunk's gallantry was received in Barnsley with great pleasure and satisfaction, and his colleagues of the Swimming Club were more than ever proud of him. Only the other week we mentioned that the Royal Humane Society had recognised the dual acts by presenting him with a Certificate which, at the Sergeant's personal request, the Society sent home to his father to keep for him while he was out on active service. Mr. and Mrs. Dunk have received many expressions of sympathy in their bereavement, they can take consolation from the fact that their brave son died nobly doing his duty. Sergeant Dunk's brother, Vernon, is a Corporal in the Army.'
Reginald Dunk is remembered on the family gravestone in Barnsley Cemetery, on the war memorial at St Mary's Church, on the lost Roll of Honour for Barnsley Swimming Club and on the Old Boys' Memorial at Penistone Grammar School.
The social class profile of these two men does meet my expectations for the kind of men connected to the post 1912 Barnsley Mechanics Institute. A junior solicitor from a family firm and the son of a building contractor. It might be possible to spot a few others by looking at the sons of the various committee members mentioned in the newspaper reports.
References:
Barnsley Archives and Local Studies, Barnsley Town Hall, http://www.experience-barnsley.com/archives-and-discovery-centre (accessed 1 March 2021)
Barnsley Civic, 'Our History', https://www.barnsleycivic.co.uk/our-history/ (accessed 1 March 2021)
Find My Past newspapers, https://search.findmypast.co.uk/search/british-newspapers (accessed February/March 2021)
Old Maps https://www.old-maps.co.uk/ accessed 28 February 2021)
Tasker Trust, http://www.taskertrust.co.uk/ (accessed 1 March 2021)
Walker, M. 'Solid and practical education within reach of the humblest means’: the growth and development of the Yorkshire Union of Mechanics’ Institutes 1838–1891' (Ph D, University of Huddersfield, 2010)