W for War Memorials and an Unexpected Discovery: A-Z Challenge 2020

War Memorials give no more than a name, yet they are one of the most powerful, poignant and emotive of family history resources, recording the loss of often young lives under harrowing circumstances. War Memorials are not only significant features for the family of individuals they commemorate but also for the local community who bear witness to the sacrifice of their people in war. 

So many local historians are now takiong on board projects to research and publish accounts of the men behind the war memorial names.   My archive centre also holds a large collection of postcards c.1920 featuring the unveiling of war memorials in towns and small villages across the region.  So it is always worth contacting your relevant  centre to see what has been done at a local level to record and remember those who gave their lives in war.  

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My great  uncle George Danson (1894-1916) of Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire has featured in a number  of my blog posts.  He was a stretcher bearer in the First World War and was killed on the Somme, a week after his 22nd birthday. He was buried in the Guards Cemetery, Les Boeufs,  France and also remembered on the war memorial of his home town (below the name of his brother John) and on the Memorial Plaque St. Chad's Church where he sang in the choir.

 

But  it is thanks to a reader of my blog, that I learned the existence of another War Memorial that lists George’s name - in Todmorden,  a cotton mill town in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, where George was working at the time of his enlistment.

The Todmorden Connection
1916 saw Conscription introduced in Britain. George was working as a  W.H. Smith bookstall manager at Todmorden Station.   I was lucky enough to find  on Ancestry his service record, as many were destroyed in bombing in the Second World War. This 

At his enlistment, George's address was given as 17 Barker Street, Harley Bank, Todmorden.  His medical report stated he was 5'3" tall, weighed 109 lbs. (under 8 stone), with size 34 1/2 chest and he wore glasses - a slight figure to be a stretcher bearer in the Royal Army Medical Corps.  

I turned to the 1911 census online  and found the Dodd family living at  17 Barker Street, Harley Bank,  Todmorden, with head of household Elizabeth Dodd (occupation choring) and three daughters Amy aged 15 (a cotton weaver), Edna 12 (a fustian sewer)  and Lavinia  aged 9.  The photograph below  was found amongst the collection of George's sister Jennie, who wrote the inscription on the back.

 

 I was sent the cutting from the local Todmorden press reporting on George's death.

                                               

The article noted that George had worked at Todmorden for 12 months, lodging at Harley Street.  

 "He was well known and highly esteemed by his wide circle of friends in Todmorden and was a fairly regular attender at Todmorden Parish Church" 

 His corporal wrote:

"He was one of my stretcher bearers and gallantly doing his duty over open and dangerous ground, which became subject to severe enemy shellfire. He continued steadily bearing his burden, and was only stopped by a shell which took his life and that of his comrade beside him".

The Todmorden Garden of Remembrance in Cenre Vale Park
Approx. 670 names  are listed on the large war memorial. 

 

 

 

Unfortunately George's name has been  wrongly engraved as "Dawson", but there is no question that it is George Danson,  my great uncle.   I have found this confusion in transcription in other records.

Other Memorials to George 

 

This photograph marks George's resting place and was sent to his widowed mother Martha Maria Danson.  It is a stark image and contrasts sharply with the sad beauty of the later gravestone at the Commonwealth War Graves sites across the world.

The War Memorial in the Square at Poulton-le-Fylde, George's birthplace, with St. Chad's church in the background. 

 

George's name below that of his brother John 

George remains one of my favourite ancestors.   I must admit it had never occurred to me to look  to Todmorden for any information on him  and I was delighted to receive this contribution from my Todmorden contact. 

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