OneGuyFromBarlick

"Virtutis Fortuna Comes was also the motto of the Hills Cycle Firm" I see that the Yorkshire Regiment Badge is based on the Dukes design, West Riding having been replaced by Yorkshire surmounted by a white rose.

An headline this morning was about Rememberance Sunday 2014. It is hoped that all shops will be closed, no major sporting events will take place and all flags will be at half mast. I wonder which group will be the first to "Kick off" about that one.

A special remembrance at around 100 years after the start of a war seems strange, if we are not careful it could be made into a celebration of war rather than a remembrance of needless deaths.

Work has started on the modifications to the War Memorial site. Trees trimmed back and walls being taken out.

Sally said that they had started. I have tended to avoid that bit of Fernlea while the road works are on. It's a bit of a pain at the moment getting through the three way lights. Must have a look when I knock off a dinner time.

Both pics taken this morning.

This has been such a honourable cause and I am overwhelmed at how fantastic the memorial looks now preserved for future generations. All those involved deserve recognition, it is too easy for such relics to be left uncared for.

Colin

Ian and Peter, have you seen my PM about contacting the BET?

No but I'll ask them to call you via Oneguy. S


On 16/10/12 16:29, William Cook wrote:
> Hi Stanley,
>
> It's Will, the B&E reporter. Many thanks for the photos of the war memorial.
>
> Do you have an email address or phone number for either of the Barnoldswick War Memorial group members Ian Lambert or Peter Thomson?
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Will
>

I will give the office a ring when they open.

I have spoken with Will at The BET. He is doing a small piece about the ongoing work on the memorial and needed a little bit of background information. He will do a full feature when the project comes to fruition. He asked about the Drill Hall plaque as well so I have pointed him in Thomo's direction as he has this in hand.

Thank you both, I have also spoken to Will and mailled him a bit of info and the schematic for the modified panels, which I will now put in here.

I have been for a quick look today and taken a couple of pics, one has been doctored to give an idea of what we are after, hopefully without the fencing of course.

Now:-



How:-



Oops, forgot to crop that one.

It looks a lot better now it's opened up. Made me wonder yesterday what the point was in moving the recycling site as the memorial dominates its own end of the site. Far more focussed now it is on view from both sides.

A good factual piece in the BET from Will this morning regarding the refurbishment work.

No such thing as bad publicity.....

There is no doubt about the improvement, it is no longer tucked away in a corner behind a wall. It is also satisfying to know that we have got this far without a great deal of fuss.

Looking far better now. A good change. How much better than the aborted proposal to move it to the old memorial gardens on New Road.

Those of you who have been following this topic may recall that there were 33 WW1 names for addition to the memorial with another one under consideration by the mans family. I am pleased to inform you that a decision has been made, and that the total is now 34. The data for this project will now be amended and passed to the stonemason, as will the extra item concerning HMHS Rohilla.
Everyone I have spoken to has said "What a difference the work on the memorial is making", they are right, it is a vast improvement.

The Rohilla panel seems to have met with general approval, there is just one small alteration to the wording however:- "To the memory of the twelve men from this town" has been replaced by, "To the memory of the twelve men from Barnoldswick" Thanks to Colin Brittain for that one. The updated information is now being passed on to the stonemason whom I have been in contact with today. The target date for dedication of 28-07-2013 appears to have met with general approval as well, main comment is "the weather may be more favourable".

The plaque in now undergoing final laquering and the house smells like ICI on a bad day, nearly there and soon be time to put it back where it belongs.

I'm so pleased that this whole project is progressing so well, I have come into this much later than you all but I very impressed with your efforts.

Most of you may appreciate that my interest is SS Rohilla and in particular the members of the St. John Ambulance Brigade men who endured the tragedy. It is such a fitting tribute to all those who endured The Great War. Reading this thread there is mention of publicity and I wondered if it would be possible for someone to collate copies of the publicity or help me do so.

I am guilty of not updating my Rohilla website for sometime and am often frustrated at the workload I have. I do though hope to add this worthy project soon. I am presently in the process of revising my book as the publisher is keen for it to feature in its plans for the Great war Centenary. I am most fortunate that during the first writing of the book I was able to initiate contact with families of those involved along with many new connections via some of the frequent e-mails I get. Over the years I have acquired significant new material which allows me to select important new pieces for the book.

I am also part of a steering group responsible for planning how best to mark the loss of the Rohilla and we agree that the Centenary should be marked with a balanced celebration of the lives saved and a solemn memorial to those who drowned. We have had problems with the dates for holding the events as our hope was to hold it over the last weekend in October. We have found though the weekend clashes with the annual Goth weekend and being Halloween they are unlikely to change dates. This frustrates me as this event is a once in a lifetime occasion. A later date clashes with Folk week and then of course Armistice day. We now seem to have agreed on holding our commemoration on the 31st Oct and 1st & 2nd Nov.

There are a lot of preparations underway for what is expected to be one of the largest events in Whitby's history for many years. We will of course make every effort to contact anyone with a connection to the tragedy and if you know of anyone in particular please could you ask them to contact me on my personal e-mail so that I can make sure they receive an invite. It would be really nice if anyone reading this could also come along, it is an open invitation.

My best regards

Colin Brittain

Best of luck with the event Colin.

I took advantage of the break in the weather to start my distribution of remembrance crosses down Ghyll. I could only make a start as I only had the surplus crosses from last year in hand. I have been in touch with the RBL Poppy Appeal co-ordinator for Barlick, Carol Kitson. In fact her husband Simon rang me the other week to confirm that they had a note from the previous organiser Susan that I needed supply each year. At the time Simon rang me he told me that the shop on Frank Street would be used as usual for the distribution of wreaths. I have been keeping my eye on the shop for the last couple of weeks and there did not seem to be any sign of it becoming the poppy shop so I rang Carol this morning to check. It appears that there has been little confusion or misunderstanding this year about when they would have access to the shop which, as it turns out, is from this afternoon. I called on my way back from Ghyll after distributing my existing stock and I can see that the shop is now empty and tables and cloths have been set up for the annual distribution point. Carol did say that I could call her and she would open up for me if need be. I will pop in tomorrow as she said she would be there setting up.

Back to Ghyll, I started in the lower half of the cemetery where we eventually found Wilfred Anker. I followed my normal distribution pattern from bottom to top of that section and managed to find another 3 individuals that were not already on my list. This despite a concerted effort along with of a team of volunteers last year to do a thorough sweep of the cemetery and churchyard. We expanded the list considerably last year but it would seem there are still more to find. The bottom half of the cemetery is not particularly densely populated with surviving headstones so it's quite remarkable how myself and the team last year could have missed these. I would hazard a guess that there will be even more yet to find in other more populated areas of the churchyard and cemetery.

The new discoveries are:

Thomas Collier KIA France July 12th 1917 aged 35

??? Brown son of Elizabeth and Herbert Brown - Died of wounds received in Italy 8th July 1944

Pte Carl Randolph Watson - November 1st 1918 aged 29

All three of these lads are already commemorated on our memorial, providing that the undecipherable Brown (through weathering) is either F. or H.M. Brown who are already present in the existing 1939 - 45 section.

Well done Ian. I have a cross here to go into the ground at the War Memorial, it is for the 46 men and woman who are on list for addition, I will put the "Brown" through my system and see what comes up. Now awaiting the arrival of a new RN Beret and Badge for next Sunday.

I have just checked, from my own research it will be Frank Brown who I have seen a report about in the BET from 28th July 1944. The report says that he died of wounds serving in Italy so this looks like confirmation. I knew his name rang a bell. He is commemorated on an existing family memorial and now added to my list.