Remembering Albert Greenhow: Elinor's Long Vigil 1918-1965

Yesterday I reached October 1929 in my long search of the Penistone, Stocksbridge and Hoyland Express (PSHE) for articles relating to war memorials and other forms of commemoration and remembrance. I have not been collecting the 'In Memoriam' notices unless they are for someone in particular because that would have added 100s of cuttings to my files. However ... this one popped up in the search results and I immediately knew the man to whom it referred. I also recognised the street name - Stonyford Road in Wombwell (my OH will know why). So my curiosity was engaged (and to be honest it was just too hot to concentrate on the routine task of searching month by month for articles - I needed something more interesting to keep me awake!)

This lady had inserted an 'In Memoriam' notice for her husband who had been killed in action 11 years previously.

PSHE, 5 October 1929, p. 16.

Quite a few years ago now I was asked to do a talk to the Darfield History Group. They meet in the Parish Hall near the church and I know a couple of the ladies there quite well as they helped with the Barnsley War Memorials Project (BWMP), their legacy is now the Barnsley & District War Memorials (B&WDM) website. The ladies are also members of the Friends of Darfield Churchyard and they had created a map of all the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burials and war memorial gravestones in the Churchyard. It was was free to collect from a little box on the church's noticeboard. You can download a copy from our Darfield war memorial gravestones page on the B&DWM website. 

The talk went well and afterwards we were having a look around when my husband spotted a small table to one side of the hall. After asking permission he took a few photos.

Albert Greenhow war memorial table in Darfield Parish Hall (photo taken 21 May 2014)

As you can see it has a tiny label dedicating it to a man who died in the First World War. 

Albert Greenhow was Private M2/188133 in the Army Service Corps. He was killed in action on 2/3 October (the exact date varies depending on the source) 1918. At his death he was serving with Mechanical Transport and was attached to the Canadian Corps Siege Park. According to this post on the Great War Forum a Siege Park was a central depot where Army Service Corps lorries which drew the heavier guns were located. The lorries were assigned to different guns as and when required like a motor pool. Due to the nature of the work the men were in constant danger from to enemy shelling directed at the guns. Albert is buried in the Queant Communal Cemetery, British Extension.

Looking on the CWGC website I found that just in the week 1 October 1918 to 7 October 1918 there were 35 casualties buried in this cemetery. Most were Canadian Infantry or other Canadian servicemen (Field Artillery, Machine Gun Corps, Labour Corps, Medical Corps, Canadian Army Service Corps) but there were also seven Gordon Highlanders and scattering of other British men, including two from the Mechanical Transport, Army Service Corps (Albert Greenhow and Frank Cyril Bosworth).  Private Frank Bosworth was killed in action on 6 October 1918, just a few days after Albert. It does indeed look like a dangerous place to have worked. 

Photo by MH via Facebook

Shortly after I posted some information on the 'Barnsley's History - The Great War' Facebook page which is administered by myself and PS, I got a reply with a photograph from one of the other members. It seems that he is friends with the Greenhow family and had taken a photo of Albert's grave for them on a trip to the area in 1919. What a wonderful resource the Internet is!! I have included this photo to the right, with thanks to MH.

The post I had made, which is linked above, was of a newspaper cutting from 1958 (Mexborough & Swinton Times (MST), 7 June 1958, p. 16) reporting the donation of a number of items of light oak furniture to the church in Darfield by various parents and relatives in memory of their loved ones. At the end of the post, the last item, was this note:

'A small oak table was presented by Mrs. Greenhow in memory of her husband Mr. Albert Greenhow, who was killed in the war.'

As it was 1958 I was surprised the 'war' was not further specified - to a reader it could easily have been taken as the Second World War rather than the First. Mrs Greenhow had given the little table to the church 40 years after Albert's death. I was overjoyed to have finally discovered the origins of the table, but was surprised at the lateness of the act of commemoration.

I decided to look for more information on Albert and his wife, who had kept him in her memory for so long. 

Albert was born in Darfield in early 1889 to William Greenhow, a coal miner from Graystock in Cumberland, and his wife Sarah Ann (nee Parkinson) who was from Darton, near Barnsley (or Sandtoft in Lincolnshire, depending on which census return you consult). Oddly William and Sarah had married in Bolton in Lancashire. Shortly after their marriage, in the 1871 census return, William and Sarah were living in Tranmere, Birkenhead, Cheshire where William was a farm labourer. I can only assume that they had met whilst Sarah was working away from home, or maybe visiting relatives on the other side of the Pennines from Barnsley.  The 1911 census return tells us that William and Sarah had a total of eight children, one of whom had died before 1911. 

The birthplaces of their children provide evidence of more travelling. It may be that Sarah temporarily went home from Birkenhead to her parents in Darton for the birth of her first child, and then returned to Birkenhead because their second child was born there. Her parents, William and Ann Parkinson, were recorded living in Staincross, in the parish of Darton, in the 1861 to 1891 census returns, although by 1891 William Parkinson had become a widower.  William and Sarah Greenhow came to live in Barnsley area before the birth of their third child in 1876. This may also be when William Greenhow changed his occupation from agricultural labourer to coal Miner. They remained in Royston until at least 1883, then moved to Darfield before 1886.

William and Sarah Greenhow's Children

Mary A. Greenhow born 1872 in Darton, near Barnsley
Joseph Greenhow born 1874 in Birkenhead, Cheshire
Thomas Greenhow born 1876 in Royston, near Barnsley
Emma Greenhow born 15 March 1878 in Royston, died early 1881 aged 3 years.
Ethel Greenhow born in 25 August 1880 in Royston
Florence Greenhow born 14 February 1883 in Royston
Beatrice Greenhow born 1886 in Darfield, near Barnsley
Albert Greenhow born early 1889 in Darfield

All three of William Greenhow's sons followed him down the pit, with Thomas Greenhow listed as a Pony Driver aged 16 in the 1891 census return and Joseph Greenhow being a Coal Miner Hewer in the 1901 census aged 28 (he had been a Pottery Furnace Stoker in 1891). Although Albert was a Coal Miner Hewer in the 1911 census (2 April 1911), and at his marriage on 5 June 1911, by October 1913 he appeared to have become a motor char-a-banc driver. This is no doubt where he gained the experience that proved useful driving lorries in the First World War.  

There are several mentions of Albert's brief bus driving career in the local newspapers. (See PSHE, 3 October 1913, p. 3; Sheffield Evening Telegraph, 18 March 1914, p. 5.)

SDT, 23 March 1911, p. 8

But, before that, Albert had been working at Houghton Main Colliery, near Darfield. In March 1911 he was mentioned in a newspaper report (Shields Daily Gazette, 23 March 1911, p. 2) coming in front of magistrates charged with leaving corves (wagons for transporting coal) in a postition that would impede the flow of air in the colliery. On the same date, but in a more local newspaper (Sheffield Daily Telegraph (SDT), 23 March 1911, p. 8) Albert was reported as being summoned for breaking 'special rule 94' at Great Houghton Colliery, by allowing his miner's lamp to become damaged. The slight variation of colliery names might just reflect the reporter's interpretation of the court proceedings, but it seems very odd that Albert was reported in connection with two distinctly different misdemeanours depending on which newspaper you read. The only other Albert Greenhow living in Darfield in 1911 was the twelve year old son of Thomas Greenhow, the original Albert's older brother. He was too young to have been working in the pit.

Albert Greenhow married Elinor Winifred Williams in St Matthew's church in the parish of Darfield on 5 June 1911. His address at the time was 14 Hill Street, Darfield. Elinor's address was just given as Darfield. There are plenty of Williams in this family - not only was Elinor's surname Williams, but her father was William Williams (need I add that he was from Wales?). Albert and William Greenhow and William Williams were all recorded as miners on Albert and Elinor's marriage certificate, which is available on Find My Past. 

I have searched the General Register Office online index to births, but I can find no evidence of Albert and Elinor having any children.  

Although Albert's Army Service Records do not appear to have survived the blitz in the Second World War there are some clues in his other military records about the length of his service. His medal card does not show that he received any Service Stars - so he did not reach a Theatre of War until after the end of 1915. His record of Soldier's Effects notes that Elinor received a war gratuity of £10, this can be used to calculate his estimated date of enlistment, which appears to have been July 1916. This suggests that Albert was conscripted as that began to affect married men in May 1916. 

There is some information on Albert's death and a photograph of him on a Dearne Valley History page here.  The article includes extracts from the letter sent to Elinor informing her of Albert's death. The writer commented that through his duties censoring his men's letters he was aware of  'the bond of love and friendship that exists between you', which is lovely.  Information on Albert can also be found in Darfield Remembers: The First World War (Darfield History Society, 2016) by Michael Smith and Kay Valentine.

After his death Elinor was awarded a pension of 30 shillings a week from 21 April 1919.  (30s is £1.50 in decimal notation, and is worth about £70 in today's money - although various other means of calculation give a higher result). The Pension Record Cards are available via Fold3 on Ancestry (for an extra fee) or as part of a Western Front Association membership (which is my point of access). They confirm that Albert and Elinor had no children. Elinor's address was recorded on the Pension Cards as 65 Stoneyford Road (the 'e' in Stoneyford comes and goes throughout the records).

The following list of 'In Memoriam' notices appears in the Mexborough & Swinton Times (MST) on 11 October 1919, just after the first anniversary of Albert's death. 

MST, 11 October 1919, p. 11.

The first notice is from his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Greenhow at 14 Hill Street, Darfield, which was Albert's address when he married in 1911.

The second notice is from his brother Joseph Greenhow, who had married Sarah Wood in 1910. Note that they also lived on Stoneyford Road.

The third notice is from a Mr. W. Williams, also on Stoneyford Road. This may be Elinor's father, who would have been 62 years old in 1919. 

The fourth notice is from Elinor herself. She writes:
'Sacred to the loving and cherished memory of my dear husband, Albert, who suffered the supreme sacrifice Oct. 3rd, 1918.
How I shall miss thy loving presence,
In the days, as years roll on;
Only those who have lost a loved one,
Know the bitterness of - Gone.  R.I.P.' 

The fifth and final notice is from Mr. and Mrs. E. Williams also of 65 Stoneyford Road. This may be Elinor's brother Edward and his wife Sarah who married in 1912.


It looks as if Elinor was living with her brother after the death of Albert. Or her brother had moved in with her?

If Elinor had remarried she would have received a lump sum and her pension would have ceased. Her home address was 65 Stoneyford Road on the Pension Cards, on the 1919 'In Memoriam' notice above, and on the 1929 'In Memoriam' notice I started this post with. 

In 1935 Elinor posts the following 'In Memoriam' notice (PSHE, 5 October 1935, p. 3):

GREENHOW - In loving and fragrant memory
of my dear Husband, Albert Greenhow,
killed in action, Oct. 2, 1918.
Ever remembered.
 - Barnsley Road, Darfield.

In 1939 a Register was taken at the start of the Second World War which shows Elinor living at 102 Barnsley Road, Darfield. She appears to have a lodger, Miss Evelyn Mary King, an Elementary School Head Mistress. 

We have seen that Elinor Greenhow donated a memorial table to Darfield Church in 1958. She also seems to have submitted an 'In Memoriam' notice to one or the other of the local newspapers on most years on a date near to the anniversary of Albert's death.

Elinor Greenhow died on 6 September 1965 at the age of 75 at Beckett Hospital in Barnsley, her home address on the Probate Calendar index (on Ancestry) was still 102 Barnsley Road, Darfield. She was cremated and her ashes scattered in the Ardsley Crematorium Chapel area. 

Albert Greenhow is remembered on a family gravestone in Darfield Churchyard. The plot is headed by the names of Elinor's parents, Mary and William Williams. Mary died in 1906 and William in 1933, so the grave was already in existence when Albert was killed. I wonder if his name and details were added shortly after his death or when the stone mason added William? I don't suppose we'll ever know. But certainly this gave Elinor somewhere to come to pay her respects and maybe lay flowers on Albert's birthday and the anniversary of his death. 

By supporting herself by taking in lodgers and with her Army penison, Elinor, who you will recall had no children to support, had no urgent need to remarry after Albert was killed. Based on some of the phrases she used in her 'In Memoriam' notices over the years she was devoted to Albert's memory for the rest of her life. I particularly like the final phrase in the notice she posted in 1928 (MST, 5 October 1928, p. 20):

GREENHOW - In ever loving memory of my
dear husband, Pt. Albert Greenhow who was
killed in action, October 3rd 1918.
God's greatest gift - Remembrance.
 - From his loving Wife.

Thank you for reading.

Searching for information on the impressive 'Darfield Village WMC' First World War Photo Collage Memorial

Currently my thesis plan contains outlines for a number of Case Studies of the townships around Barnsley comparing how they proposed, planned and funded their war memorials - and one of those studies might be about Darfield if I can find out more about their war memorials. I did want to at least mention ALL the war memorials I know about in each place, but finding out the background of some of them has been less than easy. When examining local history you can't help but realise that people were not only members of their town or village community but also of communities within them, extended families, schools, places of work and of worship, clubs and pubs, sports teams or political organisations. Each of those places may have planned their own memorial(s).

The main First World War memorial in the church at Darfield is not a problem, as I have seen some archival documents relating to the application for permission to erect the memorial in the church. Its unveiling and dedication, along with a good description of the materials used in its design appear in several old newspaper reports.

Darfield All Saints Church, War Memorial Tablet - unveiled 1921
Photo taken 10 March 2014 by Linda Hutton

Also in the church, and mentioned in the local newspapers, are some other FWW memorials, a processional cross dedicated to the Bible Class and memorial plaques for two individual men, Charles M. C. Sorby (the vicar's son, who also has a stained glass window in his memory) and Eric F. H. Taylor (the local landowner's son), plus a stained glass 'Thanksgiving' window subscribed to by 'Members of the Mothers' Union and other Parishioners' in order to commemorate the safe return of 'those from this parish' from the war. (Penistone, Stocksbridge and Hoyland Express (PSHE), 13 January 1923, p. 7.) We even found a war memorial table in the church hall with a little plaque commemorating a single man killed in the war. All of these memorials are recorded on the Barnsley & District War Memorials website with photos taken by myself, my husband or by members of the Darfield History Society. There is also a good section on these war memorials in the book, Darfield Remembers: The First World War (Darfield History Society, 2016) written by Michael Smith and Kay Valentine for the Darfield History Society.

The Darfield Cenotaph in the Miners' Welfare Square (a little park laid out in the 1920s with money from the Miners' Welfare Scheme) was unveiled on 5 July 1930. (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 7 July 1930, p. 3.) This was a few years later than the others had appeared and I hope to explain more about that in my thesis, as the ins and outs of that are all quite well documented in the local newspapers. But I do still hope to find local primary sources, maybe council records or even (if I am really lucky) the minutes of the local British Legion who eventually facilitated it. The history of this memorial is also summarised in the Darfield Remembers book. 

The following chronological selection of map snips are taken from the Old Maps website.

Darfield High Street, showing the place where the Cenotaph was eventually installed
From left to right: 1892, 1906, 1930, 1962

In the fourth and final snip, which is from 1962, the 'War Mem' has appeared in the centre of the park laid out some years previously (and is visible in the 1930 snip).  One of the newspapers reports had noted, 'It was not that there was no place in Darfield for a war memorial. [...] When the miners' welfare scheme was opened in 1923, it was suggested that the ornamental garden opposite the council offices would make an ideal site for a war memorial, and the central portion was reserved for that purpose'. (Sheffield Independent, 24 November 1928, p. 10.)

What I am having more trouble with is the various clubs in the village and their memorials and a niggling feeling that the Methodist Chapels in Darfield would probably have also had their own war memorials based on what we know about other places in Barnsley such as Cudworth (where I live) which had two Methodist Churches, both with memorials.

The most impressive of the other memorials is in Darfield Village Club. When we went to photograph it back in 2014 we found it was in a very narrow corridor and impossible to capture straight on. My husband took lots of oblique photos and photographs of each of the individual men close up. I did manage to edit one of the photos and get it fairly straight, using Adobe Photoshop, and posted that onto the Barnsley War Memorials Project website (now Barnsley & District War Memorials).  I created a gallery of the individual images (split into two sections) and put links to them on the post as well.  Just a few months later a local lady, JD, got in touch with me to say that a gentleman she knew had been able to tell her more about the Village Club memorial. It seems that the one in the club now is not the original - which is, instead, in the Maurice Dobson Museum & Heritage Centre in Darfield. It had become damaged so a new memorial was created and when the museum opened the old memorial was donated. JD was able to send me a small photo with permission from the museum.

Darfield Village W.M.C. & District Roll of Honour
Left: the original Roll of Honour. Right: the current Roll of Honour

As you can see, there is a resemblance. The title looks as if it has been carefully copied, although there is one flag rather than a collection between the lines. The images are laid out on foliage rather than poppies, and in a decorative pattern rather than lines. JDs photo (on the left) is quite small and I can't tell whether the photos are any clearer on the original than on the newer version. I wonder if the poppies are a clue that the replacement was made in the time of the British Legion in the building. Poppies were particularly connected with the Earl Haig Fund after 1921 and later with the British Legion. I also wonder if the men who lost their lives are grouped on the first version, the individual images are arranged differently. This was often a feature of Rolls of Honour created after the war, the dead would be shown in a separate section or highlighted in some way to differentiate them from the men who returned.

The building now known as the Darfield Village Club changed hands and names several times in the 20th century. It appears that there was a group meeting somewhere else using that name before the current building was erected.

My newspaper research has shown that there were at least two Working Men's Clubs in Darfield. In April 1903 the Darfield Working Men's Club had bought a property in Darfield known as the Post Office which consisted of a shop and a house along with 723 square yards of land. (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 28 April 1903, p.11.) Only a few days later, in what the newspaper called an 'amusing action', Darfield Village Working Men's Club were taken to court by the Great Central Railway Company because a barrel of beer had been delivered to them by mistake when it should have gone to the Darfield Club in Low Valley. By the time the mistake was discovered two days later the good people at the Village Club had 'supped' the beer and refused to pay for it saying that they thought it had been a gift from Smith's Tadcaster Brewery Co. connected to the Coronation. They had even written a letter of thanks to the Brewery and placed an order for more beer. The verdict went against the Club who were directed to pay for the beer.  (Sheffield Daily Telegraph, 9 May 1903, p. 12.) 

As the Coronation of Edward VII was on 9 August 1902 this incident must have referred to a previous property owned by the Darfield Village Club.

In 1911 it was reported that building had commenced on the site of the old Darfield Post Office on behalf of the Darfield Village Working Men's Club. (Barnsley Chronicle, 15 April 1911, p. 8.) They must still have been meeting somewhere else as in July 1911 they were reported as holding elections for their committee at their club. (Barnsley Chronicle, 15 July 1911, p. 8.) The current building couldn't have been built in just three months, could it? I haven't found a report on the opening of the new club. 

Darfield Village Club from Google Maps with the Maurice Dobson
Museum in the left background

There is a date stone at the very top of the front facade - 1911.

The following chronological selection of map snips are taken from the Old Maps website.

Showing the site of the Darfield Village Club
From left to right: 1892, 1906, 1930, 1962

In the first map section from 1892 a Post Office is indicated with P.O. although its location is not very precise. In the next snip, from 1906, the P.O. has gone but although there don't appear to be any changes in the buildings in the centre of the snip, a row of terraced houses has appeared centre towards the top. In the third snip, from 1930, a Club has appeared in the previously empty ground in the centre of the area shown adjacent to the terraced houses. In the final snip, from 1962, this building is labelled 'British Legion Club' and the area to the south of it has been cleared of buildings. That is the area which is now a car park. 

MST, 7 January 1927, p. 4.

Only 16 years after the building of the new club was reported something drastic must have happened because in 1927 the building and all of the fixtures, fittings, furnishings and trade utensils of the Darfield Village Club were put up for sale. (Mexborough & Swinton Times (MST), 7 January 1927, p. 4.) 

Maybe the club had been over-ambitious with their new building and after the war and going into the depression of the 1920s they just couldn't keep it going as it was.

Everything was put up for sale, even (oddly to my eyes) the 'upholstered and 3-ply seating throughout the club', possibly the seating which was 'built-in' to the club, and which appeared listed separately to the tables and chairs and stools in the bar, along with a large bookcase containing 416 books, a baby grand piano and two full sized mahogany billiard tables. All the items needed to run a club or pub are included, beer pumps, pint and half pint glasses and mugs, pewter measures and spirit kegs.

There is no mention of any pictures or framed items that might have been the Roll of Honour, so we can only assume that was taken out for safe-keeping. 

The sale was to be on 20 January 1927 'on the premises', that is, actually in the club.  

 

 

 

PSHE, 15 January 1927, p. 4.

The building itself was put up for auction and the sale was to be on 19 January 1927 in the pub nearby, the Cross Keys Hotel. I wonder why the building was to be sold before the fixtures and fittings? Did the purchaser of the club get first option on the furniture? There is an indication of this at the foot of the advert, 'the purchaser will be required to take over certain fixtures at a fixed valuation'. I suppose if someone was buying it as a going concern they would want the beer pumps and glasses and so on.

I can see that the same or similar advertisements appeared  in the Sheffield and Barnsley newspapers. The one on the right here is from the Penistone, Stocksbridge and Hoyland Express (PSHE) on 15 January 1927, p. 4.

There is a vast amount of detail given here, on the ground floor there was an Entrance Hall, Games Room, Snug, large Billiards Hall, Bar and Lavatories, and on the first floor: Club Room, Secretary's Office, Bath Room with hot and cold water, and Lavatories. 

There was also living accomodation adjoining, but built of stone - so could that have been some of the older buildings which were later cleared away?

I have not found any reports of the result of the sales, yet ... but ...

On 8 August 1928 the building was officially opened as the Darfield British Legion Club by Lord Lascelles, husband of Princess Mary. (PSHE, 11 August 1928, p. 5.) According to a report in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph the Darfield Branch had been formed twelve months previously and already had 300 members. (13 July 1928, p. 3.)  

The article I referred to earlier, from the Sheffield Independent, 24 November 1928, which mentions the little park, and which was printed just a few months after the British Legion took over their new premises, commented that now the Legion had a fine, well equipped club, 'that the question of a war memorial ought ... to come next'. It is odd how the reporter omits to mention that there was already a memorial, with the local men's names listed upon it, in the church. As we have seen, the Darfield Cenotaph was unveiled in July 1930, so it didn't take very much longer to finally bring that particular project to its conclusion.

So I have several questions:
Where were the Darfield Working Men's Club (as opposed to the Low Valley Darfield Club) who bought the Post Office site meeting before the grand 1911 building was completed?
What about the club on Snape Hill that is mentioned a few times? Any connections?
Why was the Village Club and all its fittings and fixtures sold in 1927?
Where had the Darfield British Legion been meeting for the twelve months prior to the opening of their new club?
Who was in the British Legion committee and did they have any connection to the Village Club?
AND mainly ...
When was that original Roll of Honour created and hung in the Darfield Village Club?

That will be for another day.

Thanks for reading.