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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Photo by MH via Facebook |
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.)
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| SDT, 23 March 1911, p. 8 |
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.
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| MST, 11 October 1919, p. 11. |
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.