Some of the Kiveton Lads had previous experiences in the Armed Forces or fathers who had fought in campaigns around the Empire. One living room on Wales Road still has a painting above its mantelpiece of a local man who had served in the Boer War at the turn of the century. The photos here show an ancestor of the Chambers and Wigmore families, serving in both the Boer War and First World War.
When war was declared in 1914, there was a rush to join up across Britain. Men were fuelled by both the sense of duty for King and country that had been nurtured in them since boys, but also a sense of adventure and excitement, to serve and fight against the foe was a dashing experience that would make them men – such ideas had been packed into the adventure fiction picture books and stories many would have been raised on. The reality was to be much more grim.
At the St. John’s Rooms on that fateful day in September 1914, recruiting sergeants cajoled and encouraged men to join up, even distributing tots of rum to induce confidence. George Louder’s brother-in-law Lance not only refused to join because he had a wife and children to look after, but tried to persuade George not to go, even in front of the recruiting Sergeant who wasn’t too happy, according to a family story passed down, that Lance had drunk the Sergeant’s rum with no intention of marching to war.
Several men from Kiveton and Wales were already fighting in France when these volunteers joined up, including Grenadier Herbert Barks, a member of the British Expeditionary Force who died during the Battle of Aisne on 14 September 1914 – the very day it is considered trench warfare began. The new recruits served in an assortment of regiments due to the location of Kiveton and Wales at a point where three counties meet. Chance and circumstance seem to have largely determined which regiment the volunteers ended up in. They fought across the world, in an extensive number of regiments unusual for a village of this size.
The regiment they joined made for very different wartime experiences and fates. Walter Blackwell and some others joined the Lincolnshire Regiment but found themselves with the Notts and Derby Regiment, otherwise known as the Sherwood Foresters. Others joined the Yorks and Lancaster Regiment and were killed alongside hundreds of other Sheffield Lads on the fateful day of 1 July 1916, when the battalion attacked the fortified village of Serre on the first day of the Battle of the Somme. Clarence Elliot, a Kiveton Park miner from Killamarsh, joined the Sherwood Foresters at the start of the war. We think he served and died almost alongside Os Checkley at Ypres, even though Os joined a few months later and was serving in an entirely different regiment, the KOYLI.
The following are only a small number of the men who died. If you have any further information please don’t hesitate to contact us as we are continuing our research. Our thanks goes to the many people who have provided stories, photographs and information; particular thanks for their research goes to Lance Wilks, Ian Hinks, Mari Godfrey, Betty Quinton, Peggy Whiteway, Leri Morton and the Wales High School History Club.
Grenadier Herbert Barks: Herbert Barks (7281) served with the 1st battalion of the Coldstream Guards and was amongst the first casualties of the war. He was part of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), the first British troops to take part in the conflict. Herbert was in the regular army, having joined before the war started. The 1st battalion travelled to Le Havre on the SS Dunvegan Castle in August and spent the following weeks in fast-moving warfare, very different to the trench warfare for which the First World War is well known. The very day on which Herbert was killed, the 14 September 1914, has been suggested to have been when the soldiers of both sides started to become bogged down in trench warfare. The battalion suffered heavy casualties and it seems that Herbert, like many others in the battalion, were either lost in action or were buried by German soldiers in one of sixty un-named graves in Cerney Cemetery. This was during the Battle of Aisne, one of the first major battles in the conflict. Herbert is commemorated on the La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre Memorial.
Daniel Copestake served with the 6th battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, service number 15225, and was killed on 22 August 1915. Daniel was killed and His brother was William Henry Copestake, who ran the Sherwood Inn in Worksop. Daniel and his family had grown up in No. 8 the Old Rows, Park Terrace off Station Road. His father and other brothers were all miners at Kiveton Colliery. He is commemorated on the Helles Memorial. Daniel died during the Gallipoli Campaign.
Able Seaman A. Clarkson: Albert Clarkson, service number J/28603 had been made a leading seaman when he died, and it seems like his listed rank is a mistake on the Wales memorial. Albert was the son of Albert and Hannah Clarkson, who lived at 11 Colliery Road in Kiveton, just a few hundred yards away from the pit. Albert was a real Kiveton lad, his parents moved here even before the pits were sunk in the 1860s. He was 25 when he died, in rather different circumstances to the other Kiveton servicemen.
L55 was a British submarine which sank in the Baltic in 1919, a year after hostilities had come to an end on the Western Front. The British government had decided to intervene in Russia, to join those mobilising against the Soviet government which had been established there in late 1917. L55 was serving in the Baltic Battle Squadron. She had been forced into a minefield by the Bolshevik destroyers Gavril and Azard and was sunk by gunfire after striking a mine. The submarine was raised in August 1928 by the Soviet Navy and, after repair work, shown in the picture to the right, was recommissioned into the Soviet Navy. After much diplomatic wrangling, the bodies of her crew were taken to Heslar, via Kronstadt and Estonia. HMS Champion carried their bodies, with the ship’s Royal Marine Band playing Chopin’s Funeral March as they left Estonia. Albert and his forty-one fellow seaman were buried with full military honours in September 1928 at the Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery in Hampshire. The men of L55 are commemorated in various places, including on a new memorial in Portsmouth Cathedral, which was unveiled by the Duke of York in late 2005.
Sergeant Cecil Eyley had been brought up in Kirkby in Ashfield before the family moved to live at 39 Wesley Road in Kiveton Park; he was the son of Hargrave and Sarah Ann Eyley. Cecil was 21 when he was killed and was married to Jessica, who lived on Fir Vale. Cecil was killed on 14 February 1916, whilst serving with the 10th Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters, as did Walter Blackwell. Other men of the 10th battalion who died on the same day included George Hayto of Bakewell, such was the varied background of those who made-up the Foresters. Cecil is commemorated on panels 39 and 41 of the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres. His body was never found.
Corporal Fathers was the son of Mrs. E. Fathers, who lived at 17 Wales Road in Kiveton. Harry Fathers was part of a large Kiveton family, who will be familiar to many residents. Harry was 32 when he died on 5 June 1917, serving with the 16th battalion of the Sherwood Foresters, service number 14761. He is buried in grave ID8 at the Metx-en-Couture Communal Cemetery. Harry’s nephew is local historian Arthur Fitton.
W.A. Emmerson served with the 12th Battalion of the Yorks and Lancs Regiment, otherwise known as the Sheffield City Battalion, service number 121358. He was the son of George and Grace Emmerson, shopkeepers at 71 Wales Road, who had come originally from Monmouthshire and Cornwall respectively. He died in April 1916, just days after the Battalion had arrived in France. They had been initially assigned to Egypt, to guard the Suez Canal, but had then been redirected to France, a five-day journey by boat. It was only a few days after arriving in France, to bitter cold and approaching snow, that Emmerson was killed. He is buried in grave IH74 in the Sucrerie Military Cemetery in Colincamps, alongside over a thousand fellow servicemen, many of whom died when the great Somme offensive began a few months later. It seems likely that he had been related to the Emmerson family in Kiveton, which included the man responsible for sinking the pit in the late 1860s, J. Emmerson, who was under manager at Kiveton Park pit at the end of the 19th century.
Lance Corporal Horace George Parkin: Horace was the son of William and Elizabeth Parkin, who lived at 4 Carrington Terrace in Kiveton. Horace had been a miner, already working at Kiveton pit at the age of thirteen when his family lived in the New Rows, at number 227. Horace died on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916. This was a disastrous day, when tens of thousands of men were killed in the initial attack because days of artillery bombardment failed to destroy the German defences. Horace served in 12th battalion of the Yorks and Lancaster Regiment, better known as the Sheffield City Battalion. They attacked at the very north edge, the left flank, of the British offensive, attacking over a wide no-mans land against the village of Serre. Horace’s death is commemorated on the Thriepval Memorial, with 72,114 other men who died on the Somme but had no known grave. His name is on Pier and Face 14A and 14B.
Thornton Whysall Thornton also died 1 July 1916 whilst serving with the Sheffield City Battalion, service number 12/555. Along with so many others, Thornton’s death is also commemorated on the Thriepval Memorial, on Pier and Face 14A and 14B. A history of Thornton’s experiences has been written by a descendent and we hope to publish it on this site soon.
Harry Osborne Checkley was the son of Joseph and Hannah Checkley. Their family home during the war was at 1 Albert Terrace, the ‘Little Rows’ in Kiveton. Joseph was one of the first miners to work in the pit at Kiveton, he moved here just months after it opened (he had been born in Kenilworth in Warwickshire and lived at number 11 ‘Kiveton’ with Hannah and Hannah’s sister Elizabeth in 1871. During his time in Kiveton ‘Os’ spend a great amount of time teaching his nephew John William Morton, or Jack as he was known when he worked at Kiveton Pit, to play the violin and developed his interest in reading. Harry was a member of the bible class, Sunday school teacher and on of the first members of the Wales Orchestral Band. He also worked in Kiveton Pit, first with pit ponies and then on the coal-face.
Os worked in the High Hazel and was a promising mining student at the University of Sheffield. We know that they had been friends and attended chapel together. They served together, both in the second battalion of the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. Harry’s service number was 20785 and after training in Hull he was posted to France, where Albert died less than a fortnight night later. Harry survived him by 61 days, dying at St. Eloi with twenty-five of his fellow KOYLIs on 18 July 1915. Harry was just twenty-one. Read more about the Checkley Family in the Great War here.
Albert Lamb was born in the early 1890s to Charles and Isabella Lamb and attended Wales school. Like so many local boys, as soon as he finished his basic schooling he went to work at Kiveton pit. Albert’s brother Herbert, born in 1892, had been badly injured in a pit accident before the War, which rendered him permanently medically unfit for military service. Albert was friends with Os Checkley. They joined up and served together. You can read much more about Albert Lamb here:
Frederick Whyles fought with the 8th battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was the son of Mrs. R. Whyles who lived at 6 Wesley Road in Kiveton. Frederick was only 20 but was already a lance corporal when he was killed on the 1st July, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, his service number 19900. Frederick’s battalion managed to get into the German frontlines but came under increasingly heavy fire.
Ernest Blewitt was also a lance corporal in the 8th Battalion of the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, service number 19982. Frederick and Ernest’s bodies were lost and they are therefore commemorated on the Thriepval Memorial, on Pier and Face 11C and 12A.
Cuthbert Froggatt was the 19-year-old son of Joseph and Ellen Froggatt of 9 Manor Rd., Wales, also died while served with the KOYLI. He is remembered on the Thriepval Memorial, Pier and Face 11C and 12A.
Lewis Gregory fought with the 4th Battalion of the York and Lancs. He came from a family of metalworkers who had lived on Sydney Street in Sheffield when Lewis was growing up. He had no known grave but is commemorated on the Thriepval Memorial, on Pier and Face 14A and 14B. Lewis survived the first few days of the battle but died on 6th July 1916, aged 34. He left Hannah Gregory, his widow; they had been married in 1907. Hannah’s maiden name was Checkley: she was the sister of Harry ‘Os’ Checkley, who also died in the war.
Fred Mortimer: Fred Mortimer was killed on either the 18th or 19th November 1916. He is buried in grave B55 at the Grandcourt Road Cemetery in Grandcourt. His parents were Tom and Harriet Mortimer, who lived at 93 South Terrace in Wales. Fred was 20 years old when he was killed, serving in the 8th Battalion of the North Staffs Regiment, service number 14883. This demonstrates the array of battalions which Kiveton men fought in, as the 8th (Service) Battalion of the North Staffs were formed originally in Litchfield, in September 1914. Fred was killed during the fighting around the Ancre, a major part of the Battle of the Somme. The advance on Grandcourt was the last stage of the Battle of the Somme, which was declared ended on the very day which Fred died. Fred is buried in Grandcourt itself.
Private A. Froggatt. Arthur Froggatt was the son of Tom and Caroline Froggatt, who lived at 21 North Terrace in Waleswood when he died on 18 September 1916, at the age of 23, during the Battle of the Somme. Arthur had grown up in Swallownest, his father a surface-man at the pit. Arthur served with the 1st/7th Battalion of the West Ridings Regiment, the Duke of Wellingtons, service number 7/5430. He is buried in the Lonsdale Cemetery at Authuile (VIII. F. 5.). This is approximately five kilometres north from the town of Albert.
Bruce Radford, Service Number 241718, served in the 5th Battalion Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry. He was killed on 13 June 1917 and is commemorated on Panel 97 and 98 of the Loos Memorial. It seems likely that Bruce was the son of Walter and Annie Radford, of Aughton, and that Bruce had moved to this area to work in the pit, the same occupation as his father and eldest brother. Bruce was born in approximately 1899, which would have made him about eighteen when he died.
Private J. M. Thornton: This seems to be another mistake on the memorial, as J M Thornton (47850) was in the 12th Squadron (Cavalry) of the Machine Gun Corps when he died in June 1917 at the age of 26. He had lived with his parents, Thomas and Louisa, at 70 Springfield Terrace, Kiveton Park. His family were originally from Pontefract but had come to Kiveton to work on the railways, where his father was a signalman. They had previously lived at number 157 Little Rows. John is buried in the extension to the war cemetery in Templeux-Le-Guererd (B-14).
Private J. Hall (Army Service Corps): After growing up with his family in the New Rows (Number 194) and going down the pit at an early age, John Hall moved to Quarry Cottage in Kiveton with his wife, H. E. Hall. This was where they lived when John died aged 29 on 13 February 1917, having served with the M. T. Reserve Depot (Grove Park), service number M/281611. John is buried in South Anston (St. James) Churchyard.
Private David Clarkson was the son of David and Fanny Clarkson, who lived at 9 Church Street in Wales. His grandfather, also David Clarkson, had been the butcher in Kiveton, living at No. 5 Wales Road. In 1901 his father was the butcher for Wales, living between the Post Office and Wales Hall. David was 21 years old when killed on 18 April 1917, whilst serving with the Cameronions (6th Battalion Scottish Rifles), service number 240955. This was part of the Battle of Arras, one of the most important but relatively understudied episodes of the war. He is buried at Warlincourt Halte British Cemetery, Saulty, grave reference VII. J. 3.
Lance-Corporal C. Chambers was the son of James Chambers, who lived at Norwood Locks. Chambers was a member of A Company, in the 56th Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps, service number 130079. He was killed on 29 August 1918 and is buried at the HAC Cemetery in Ecout-St.Main, II.D.4.
Corporal Herbert Hawkins served in the 144th Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery, service number 64601. The Royal Garrison Artillery were responsible for heavy artillery, huge guns which could fire shells for miles. Herbert was killed on 8 October 1917 and is buried in grave VA4 at the Bard Cottage Cemetery, in the northern area of the Ypres Saliant where artillery sections such as Herbert’s were moved to only weeks before he died. Herbert was 29 and the son of William and Hannah Hawkins who lived in Waleswood. The family, which included six siblings, lived at 45 ‘Waleswood Colliery’. When he died, Herbert was married to Annie Hawkins and they lived at 2 Hill Cottages, Kelvedon in Essex.
Second Lieutenant Henry Martin died only weeks before the end of the war, on 22 October 1918. It is a slight mystery as to why he appears on the Kiveton Memorial, as his parents lived in Alfreton and it was in Alfreton that he was buried. It is probably that he may have moved to Kiveton prior to serving in the war. Henry was one of the few officers to have come from Kiveton and he was the only man to be awarded a medal for bravery. This was the DCM, which he was awarded for rescuing ammunition when under heavy fire. This was his mention in despatches, published in the London Gazette on 25 August 1917.
W. Williams on the memorial seems to record the death of Walter Williams, who died on the first day of the Somme, 1 July 1917, while serving with the 15th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers, Service Number 10057. Walter is commemorated on the Thriepval Memorial, Pier and Face 3C and 3D. This information is unconfirmed; we are not entirely sure that this is the W. Williams referred to on the Kiveton Memorial, although it seems likely that this is the case.
G. Knapton is buried in the Hamel Military Cemetery in Beaumont-Hamel. He was killed whilst serving as a sapper with the Royal Engineers, on 21 July 1916. He was the only Knapton who served with the Royal Engineers, service number 2960, so it seems likely that he is ‘H. Knapton’ recorded on the Kiveton Memorial. (This is unconfirmed. Harry Knapton, born of 5 Arley Street in Sheffield, was killed on 22 March 1918. This may have been the man recorded on the Wales Memorial, but Harry served with the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and it seems unlikely that such a mistake would have been made.)