Nostalgia with Margaret Watson: Honouring our fallen heroes

Margaret Watson writes: At present there are 1,053 names inscribed on the cenotaph but there are some names missing.

Unfortunately, I do not have enough space here to explain just how this might have happened, but I hope in coming weeks to do so.

In the meantime I wish to pay tribute to a dedicated group of volunteers – Dewsbury Sacrifices – who have researched the lives of those named on the cenotaph.

The group came together in 2014 at a time when the nation was commemorating the centenary of World War One.

Their project was to research the lives of every single soldier named on the memorial, a task they are still continuing.

In their research they found the names of some soldiers killed were not on it, and some names there which shouldn’t have been.

Some names were duplicated and a further five names which couldn’t be matched to any casualty records.

Surprisingly, they discovered that one name on the Cenotaph – Isaac Brook - didn’t die until 1973!

Dewsbury Sacrifices also fought for the names of eight soldiers, who died from injuries after being discharged from the war, to be recognised as victims of the war.

These were men who were not initially commemorated as war casualties but now their names have been added to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records.

This could never have happened without the dedicated research of Dewsbury Sacrifices who were able to prove their deaths were attributable to war service.

They have also recently discovered there was a soldier who enlisted under the name of Fred Buckley but was in fact called Abraham Wolstenholme.

Although he had enlisted under his mother’s maiden name of Buckley, his name was later changed when she married his father, Henry Wolstenholme.

Dewsbury Sacrifices only learned of this name change when Abraham’s war pension records, stating his name had changed, were released.

Only then were Dewsbury Sacrifices able to confirm that Fred Buckley and Abraham Wolstenholme were actually one and the same.

Since its formation, Dewsbury Sacrifices have been helped in their research by other local groups, churches and individuals.

Between them they haven’t left a stone unturned in their quest to ensure the name of every man from Dewsbury, who paid the supreme sacrifice, will be recognised.

They have scrolled through numerous newspaper accounts, historical war records and visited many cemeteries in this country and abroad to make this possible.

Abraham’s name is commemorated on the Dewsbury Cenotaph in Crow Nest Park and also in the Dewsbury Roll of Honour kept in Dewsbury Central Library.

As well as on the memorial plaque taken from the now demolished Moorlands Wesleyan Church and placed on display in Batley Central Methodist Church.

Abraham, who had enlisted as Fred Buckley, was sent to the Western Front on August 10, 1914 and tragically killed in action four weeks later.

His remains were never identified for burial and so he was commemorated as Fred Buckley on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial, Seine-et-Marne, France.

While in the fighting line, he had in his pocket a photograph of three of his children, and on the back was written – “With love to our dear father from Eva, Marjorie and Bessie”.

Abraham was awarded the 1914 Star with Clasp, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

A report in the local newspapers in October 1914 stated that Abraham was the first Dewsbury man to be killed in World War One, but in fact six men had died before him whose deaths were confirmed later.

The family lived at 6-8 Princess Street, Westtown, where his father, Henry Wolstenholme, had a hairdressing business at which Abraham worked after leaving school.

He was married in 1902 to Lydia Pickles, who was later to be remarried in 1917 at Broomhill Methodist Chapel, Batley, to William Eggleshaw.

Abraham was not new to army life when he entered the war, having attested in the Militia at Leeds in 1903 under the name Fred Buckley.

He served for three years as a private in the West Yorkshire Regiment from 1904 and was on the Reserve List for a further seven years.

At the outbreak of war he was recalled on August 5, 1914 and served in the 1st Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own) as Lance Corporal 7385.

In June of this year, his pension records became available, which proved beyond doubt that Fred Buckley was in fact Abraham Wolstenholme.

Dewsbury Sacrifices forwarded these facts to the relevant authority, and his records have since been amended to show his true name.

And in due course, his name on the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre Memorial, located on the main road running east from Paris, will also be corrected.

This memorial is situated in a small park on the edge of the town and is dedicated to the memory of 3,740 officers and men of the British Expeditionary Force who fell at the battles of Mons, Le Cateau, the Marne and the Aisne between the end of August and early October 1914 and who have no known graves.

The story of Abraham Wolstenholme is just one of many which Dewsbury Sacrifices have researched and I’m sure there are many more to come.

For this dedicated group of volunteers believe it is imperative that the memory of those who paid the supreme sacrifice will never be forgotten.

We are indebted to Dewsbury Sacrifices whose dedicated research has made this article (and many more in the past) possible.

I hope during the month of November to write more about the fascinating information which Dewsbury Sacrifices, who have been funded by a lottery grant, have brought to light.

This year’s Remembrance Sunday parade will set off from outside Dewsbury Town Hall at 10.20am, heading across to the Minster for a service at 10.30am. After the service, the parade will head to Longcauseway for wreath laying.