The war memorial at St. Oswald's church, Fulford.
Some information we have found about a few of the men named on the memorial. The full biographies of the 86 men are available in 3 volumes from the Society.
William Valentine Alderson (1895-1915)
William was born in the parish of Fulford in 1895. He grew up at 3 Heslington Lane in Fulford with his family. His father David Alderson was a coachman and groom, who presumably worked for one of the larger families in the village. He lived with his elder siblings Charles, Elizabeth and Alice and younger siblings Margaret and Lucy. He also had older siblings Annie, Rosa and Sarah.
His father David was born in Knapton in 1861, the son of George Alderson and his wife Ann and he grew up in Sutton upon Derwent. Up until his early 20s he was an agricultural labourer like his father. He married Annie Burden in Pocklington in 1882 and their first child was born in Sutton on Derwent. His second and third children were born in Conisbrough where the family must have moved for a while before settling in Fulford around 1890 when David became a coachman.
William’s mother, Annie Burden, was born in Chalbery, Dorset, the daughter of Stephen Burden and his wife Emma. Stephen was a gamekeeper when the family lived in Wiltshire and later Hampshire and quite how Annie met David is not clear, although perhaps the Burden’s moved to Pocklington during the early 1880s and then moved south again before 1891.
William was enlisted into the Dragoons of the Line, the 6th Dragoon Guards, as number 8333 on 15th September 1913 in York at the age of 18 years 7 months. His occupation was given as musician. On his service record he is described as being 5ft 7 ins tall and weighing 144 lbs. He had a chest expansion of 37ins and was a member of the Church of England.
He embarked to France on 17 August 1914. He suffered a gunshort wound (GSW) in his left thigh on 16th May 1915 and died the next day. He was not buried until 29th May. William Valentine Alderson was entitled to the 1914 (Mons) Star, British War Medal & Allied Victory Medal. Because he was KIA, he automatically qualified for all of the standard WW1 medals which were sent to his next of Kin, which was his mother Mrs Annie Alderson of Heslington Lane.
He is buried in Hazebrouck Communal Cemetery, France, Nord, II. C. I8and is commemorated on the Fulford War Memorial and in The King’s Book.
Researched and written by Bob Cook and Gavin Thomas.
Major Surtees Atkinson M.C. (1888-1918)
Memorial in Fulford Cemetery (GH Thomas, Feb 2012).
Surtees was born on the 10th January 1888 in Bedford, the youngest of four children of John Atkinson, J.P. of Newbiggin, Hexham (1841-) and his wife Alice Maud Mary Buckle (b. 1856 Richmond, Yorkshire). He grew up in Bedford with his elder siblings and his father practised as a solicitor and they were clearly a comfortable middle class family. In the 1891 census John Atkinson’s profession is retired solicitor and so he likely had inherited money and was later, in 1904, to inherit the Newbiggin estates in Hexham when his elder brother Leonard Wilson Atkinson passed away and so became a member of the landed gentry. While Surtees was a teenager, he saw his elder brother John Edward Atkinson (1878-) leave home and join the Army as a Lieut. in the 3rd King’s Own Hussars, while he was still at home with his parents and elder sisters Frances Dorothy and Eva Maud. However, when he was 16 he followed his brother, going to Sandhurst in 1906 and graduating as a gentleman cadet in 1908. On the 29th July 1908 he was gazetted as a second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery.
Meanwhile, his parents had relocated to York having moved to Fulford Lodge, Heslington Lane, sometime between 1901 and 1911. It is not clear what exactly drew them to Fulford and John only lived here for about 10 years as he died sometime before 1916. Surtees was by now serving in the war and had been promoted to Captain in the Royal Field Artillery by 1916 when the Times announced his engagement to Miss Margaret Guy, the daughter of Rev. T.E.B. Guy, Vicar of Fulford. The announcement stated that the wedding was due to take place “very quietly at Fulford Church, York, early in February, leave permitting”.
After his wedding Surtees must have return to the War and at the start of the following year (1st January 1917) it was gazetted that he had been awarded the military cross (M.C.). What he won this for and what then happened to him is unclear, but he died on the 7th February 1918 in Leeds after an operation for appendicitis. On his gravestone it states that he died "of illness caused by hard fighting 1914-1916", so he may have been invalided during 1917. He was 30 years old when he died. An interesting article in the Toronto World comments on his death and gives us some insight into Surtees as a person. They write “The latest list [of War deaths] includes the name of Major Surtees Atkinson, killed, who was a keen horseman, being a familiar figure at regimental meetings and winner at several point-to-points. He was for a time, when stationed at Bordon, master of the Woolmer Draghounds. He was also keenly interested in boxing.”
Despite his short time as a married man, he did have a single daughter, Elizabeth Mary Josephine, who married in 1949 to Wing Commander Anthony John Mander Smyth, O.B.E., D.F.C.., son of the late H.M.M. Smyth and of Mrs Smyth of Wombourn near Wolverhampton. Surtees’s wife Margaret (Peggy) lived in York after his death and for a long time lived at 35 St. Mary’s, York. She died on the 26th November 1982 at her daughter’s house in Brunton, Somerset, 64 years after her husband.
Surtees's elder brother rose to be a Major and retired from the Army and inherited the Newbiggin estate from his father. However, three of his sons were killed in the 2nd World War: Lieut. Leonard Atkinson, Captain John Surtees Atkinson and Lieut. Robert Atkinson. What a sacrifice this family made for our freedom.
Researched and written by Gavin Thomas.
Simeon Thomas Daly (1890-1917)
Simeon Thomas Daly was born in Kensington, London in 189O to an Irish father, John Daly, and an English mother, Cecilia Eliza Targett who was born in Tisbury, Wiltshire. He was the Daly’s second son; his brother Frederick Stephen being two years older. By 1901 the family had moved to Hertfordshire and had two more children John Francis and Ethel. John senior had moved to a good position as coachman in the service of the aged Sir Charles Nicholson, (1808-1903) who had retired to Totteridge Grange near Barnet after a distinguished career in Australia. Daly and his family were living in the lodge of the house at this time – not quite Downton Abbey, but not far off! Sir Charles died in 1903, which might have been the trigger for the family to move and their whereabouts in 1901 and 1911 are unclear and they might have been in Ireland.
Sarah Louisa Wise, his wife to be, was born in Clifton, York, in 1879 to James William Wise and his wife Selina nee Skelton. Two years later the family had moved to Lambeth, where James was a butler. By 1911 the family were back in York and now living in Fulford at 1 Palace View, Fulford, which is a house at the end of Prospect Terrace. James was a house steward in a private asylum , perhaps this was the Quaker Retreat a short distance away. Sarah was 23 and was a ladies maid and lived with her parents and younger siblings Lilian and Frederick.
Later the same year Sarah married Simeon in York. They had 2 children before Simeon joined the West Yorkshire Regiment and left for the Western front. One of their children was Thomas Horace Daly (1914-1987). It is not clear how and why Simeon came to York and how they met.
Simeon was killed in action in France and died on 13th April 1917 aged 27 years when he was an acting regimental sergeant major in the 12th Battalion of the Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire Regiment). He is buried in Wancourt British Cemetery. Wancourt is a village about 8 kilometres south-east of Arras. The Grave reference for Simeon is IV. E. 11. There was the second loss for the Daly family as their third son John Francis Daly had been killed on the 20th July 1916 at Delville Wood, Somme, France.
Simeon's wife Sarah died in 1965, aged 86. She was still residing in York.
Prepared by Barbara King and edited by Gavin Thomas
Sarah Louisa Wise, his wife to be, was born in Clifton, York, in 1879 to James William Wise and his wife Selina nee Skelton. Two years later the family had moved to Lambeth, where James was a butler. By 1911 the family were back in York and now living in Fulford at 1 Palace View, Fulford, which is a house at the end of Prospect Terrace. James was a house steward in a private asylum , perhaps this was the Quaker Retreat a short distance away. Sarah was 23 and was a ladies maid and lived with her parents and younger siblings Lilian and Frederick.
Later the same year Sarah married Simeon in York. They had 2 children before Simeon joined the West Yorkshire Regiment and left for the Western front. One of their children was Thomas Horace Daly (1914-1987). It is not clear how and why Simeon came to York and how they met.
Simeon was killed in action in France and died on 13th April 1917 aged 27 years when he was an acting regimental sergeant major in the 12th Battalion of the Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire Regiment). He is buried in Wancourt British Cemetery. Wancourt is a village about 8 kilometres south-east of Arras. The Grave reference for Simeon is IV. E. 11. There was the second loss for the Daly family as their third son John Francis Daly had been killed on the 20th July 1916 at Delville Wood, Somme, France.
Simeon's wife Sarah died in 1965, aged 86. She was still residing in York.
Prepared by Barbara King and edited by Gavin Thomas
Ernest Ironmonger (1896-1914)
Ernest was born in Slingsby, Yorkshire in 1896, the eldest of seven children to Arthur Ironmonger, a gardener originally from South Lincolnshire (1865 -) and his wife Elizabeth, nee Stabler (1865-1952) of Heslington, York. Elizabeth was the daughter of Thomas Stabler, who was also born in Heslington and was a Coachman and Gardener, who was the son of Robert Stabler, a farmer of Heslington so Ernest had deep roots in Heslington.
The family, with Ernest and his six younger siblings, namely Harold, Amy, John, Dora, Edward and Elizabeth, appear to have moved at regular intervals from Sligsby to Aysgarth. In 1901 they had moved to 36 Maison Dieu, Richmond and then in 1903 they moved to Alma Terrace, Fulford Road, York. By 1911 the family, with seven of their children were living at 2 Cycle Street, Hull Road, York and Ernest is now working as a kitchen boy
He enlisted on the 6th January 1914, aged 17 years, as a Private in the 1st Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment and was killed in action just over 10 months later on the 13th October 1914, aged 18 years old. He is buried at Bailleul Communal Cemetery in Belgium.
Prepared by Barbara King and edited by Gavin Thomas. With thanks to Michael and Anne Holder (relatives of Ernest) for guidance and support.
The family, with Ernest and his six younger siblings, namely Harold, Amy, John, Dora, Edward and Elizabeth, appear to have moved at regular intervals from Sligsby to Aysgarth. In 1901 they had moved to 36 Maison Dieu, Richmond and then in 1903 they moved to Alma Terrace, Fulford Road, York. By 1911 the family, with seven of their children were living at 2 Cycle Street, Hull Road, York and Ernest is now working as a kitchen boy
He enlisted on the 6th January 1914, aged 17 years, as a Private in the 1st Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment and was killed in action just over 10 months later on the 13th October 1914, aged 18 years old. He is buried at Bailleul Communal Cemetery in Belgium.
Prepared by Barbara King and edited by Gavin Thomas. With thanks to Michael and Anne Holder (relatives of Ernest) for guidance and support.
Robert Richardson (1896-1918)
Robert was born in York in the autumn of 1896, the second son of Robert Richardson, a forage dealer of York, and his first wife Eleanor Penty. Robert senior started out as a grocer but later moved into the dealing of hay and corn. Eleanor family lived in Bolton Percy, but her father Robert Penry was born in Naburn and may be related to the Heslington/Fulford Penty family.
From starting out in Bolton Percy, the family moved back into York and in 1901 they were at 1 Hull Road. Robert Senior is 39 and is a Forage Dealer living with wife Eleanor (38) and children Joseph (7) and Robert Junior(4). They have a single domestic.
By the 1911 census, Robert’s mother Eleanor has died and his father Robert Senior had remarried to Gertrude Maude Sherry in 1905. The family now lived at 136 Lawrence Street. Robert Junior is 14 and he is the eldest child in the house, which he shared with his younger brother Ronald Stanley, step-brother Allan Percy and step-sister Dorothy. The family have a single domestic servant in the house.
He enlisted in York and served as a Driver in the 16th Division Ammunition Col., Royal Field Artillery.
He died of wounds on the 18th February 1918 in France and was buried at the Tincourt New British Cemetery in the Somme, France.
His parents later moved to Ashville in Fulford.
From starting out in Bolton Percy, the family moved back into York and in 1901 they were at 1 Hull Road. Robert Senior is 39 and is a Forage Dealer living with wife Eleanor (38) and children Joseph (7) and Robert Junior(4). They have a single domestic.
By the 1911 census, Robert’s mother Eleanor has died and his father Robert Senior had remarried to Gertrude Maude Sherry in 1905. The family now lived at 136 Lawrence Street. Robert Junior is 14 and he is the eldest child in the house, which he shared with his younger brother Ronald Stanley, step-brother Allan Percy and step-sister Dorothy. The family have a single domestic servant in the house.
He enlisted in York and served as a Driver in the 16th Division Ammunition Col., Royal Field Artillery.
He died of wounds on the 18th February 1918 in France and was buried at the Tincourt New British Cemetery in the Somme, France.
His parents later moved to Ashville in Fulford.
Robert Henry Smorfit (1889-1917)
Robert was born in 1889 in Heslington, the second son and third of four children of John Smorfit, a butcher of Heslington, and his wife Ruth Kendra. Although his family lived in Heslington, he was raised in the house of his maternal grandparents who lived in a cottage near Water Fulford Hall. Robert’s father died of ‘blood poisoning’ sometime in the early 1890s and his mother Ruth remarried in 1897 to Robert Young, but was widowed for the second time shortly afterwards and by the time of the 1901 census when Robert was 11, Ruth lived at 49 Frances Street off the Fulford Road with son Robert and Robert’s elder sister Ethel.
By 1911 Robert is now 22 and is a chocolate moulder, likely working for Terrys or Rowntrees, and he is still living on Frances Street, but now at number 25, with his mother and maternal grandfather Robert Kendra. In June 1914 he married Florence Cole at St. Saviour’s Church, York.They had a daughter Annie, born in Spring 1917.
When he joined up he served as a rifleman with the 2nd/8th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. He was killed in action in France on the 22nd November 1917, aged 28, and is buried at the Cambrai Memorial in Louverval, France.
After he died his wife and daughter were living at 6 Wide Yard in Hungate. His wife married again in 1926 to Thomas P Corrigan and had two other children. Robert’s sister Ethel married and had children and his niece Nora lives was living in Frances Street in 2012.
Researched and written by Judith Nicholson and Gavin Thomas and including material from Robert Henry Smorfit’s niece Nora.
By 1911 Robert is now 22 and is a chocolate moulder, likely working for Terrys or Rowntrees, and he is still living on Frances Street, but now at number 25, with his mother and maternal grandfather Robert Kendra. In June 1914 he married Florence Cole at St. Saviour’s Church, York.They had a daughter Annie, born in Spring 1917.
When he joined up he served as a rifleman with the 2nd/8th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment. He was killed in action in France on the 22nd November 1917, aged 28, and is buried at the Cambrai Memorial in Louverval, France.
After he died his wife and daughter were living at 6 Wide Yard in Hungate. His wife married again in 1926 to Thomas P Corrigan and had two other children. Robert’s sister Ethel married and had children and his niece Nora lives was living in Frances Street in 2012.
Researched and written by Judith Nicholson and Gavin Thomas and including material from Robert Henry Smorfit’s niece Nora.
_Reginald Stuart Tarran M.C. (1897-1918)
From the Supplement to the London Gazette, 17/09/1917.
_ Reginald was born in York in 1897, the son of Arthur George
Tarran (1870-1945) and his wife Maria of 7 Holly Terrace, York. Arthur was a
building surveyor who was born in Darlington but had lived all his adult life in Fishergate. Arthur's father William Henry Tarran had moved to Fishergate from Durham
in the 1870s and was the landlord of the Lighthorseman public house in
Fishergate around this period. William later became a builder and moved to live
at 1 New Walk Terrace and it is likely that Arthur then followed his father
into the building trade.
Reginald's mother was Maria Leng (1871-1831), who had married Arthur in 1895 in York. She was the forth of five daughters of George Leng, the biscuit maker of Fulford who were a well-known Fulford family.
Reginald had two siblings, Norah Gladys Theodora Tarran and Cecil George Tarran (1900-). He was living at 7 Holly Terrace in the 1911 census with his parents and elder sister Norah and younger brother Cecil. They must have been of reasonable means as they employed a domestic servant, 24 year old Annie Eliza Hanley from Thorganby.
He would have been either 16 or 17 at the outbreak of war and he went up to Sandhurst in 1916 as a cadet, leaving in 1917 when he joined the King’s (Liverpool) Regiment as an officer. He was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery in 1917 (see press cutting) when he was a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion of the same regiment. His father Arthur also served in the war and was a Captain in the Army Ordnance Department.
He was killed in action on the the 24th March 1918 probably during the Spring German offensive of 1918 in the Arras area. His body was not identified and he is remembered along with 35,000 soldiers on the Arras Memorial at the cemetery of Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery in Arras, France. In 1920 his father received his medals and was still living at 7 Holly Terrace and the family appear to have moved to Scarborough by the 1930s.
Researched and written by Gavin Thomas.
Reginald's mother was Maria Leng (1871-1831), who had married Arthur in 1895 in York. She was the forth of five daughters of George Leng, the biscuit maker of Fulford who were a well-known Fulford family.
Reginald had two siblings, Norah Gladys Theodora Tarran and Cecil George Tarran (1900-). He was living at 7 Holly Terrace in the 1911 census with his parents and elder sister Norah and younger brother Cecil. They must have been of reasonable means as they employed a domestic servant, 24 year old Annie Eliza Hanley from Thorganby.
He would have been either 16 or 17 at the outbreak of war and he went up to Sandhurst in 1916 as a cadet, leaving in 1917 when he joined the King’s (Liverpool) Regiment as an officer. He was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery in 1917 (see press cutting) when he was a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Battalion of the same regiment. His father Arthur also served in the war and was a Captain in the Army Ordnance Department.
He was killed in action on the the 24th March 1918 probably during the Spring German offensive of 1918 in the Arras area. His body was not identified and he is remembered along with 35,000 soldiers on the Arras Memorial at the cemetery of Faubourg-d'Amiens Cemetery in Arras, France. In 1920 his father received his medals and was still living at 7 Holly Terrace and the family appear to have moved to Scarborough by the 1930s.
Researched and written by Gavin Thomas.
Reginald Walker (1884-1918)
Reginald was born in York about 1884, the eldest son of John Phillips Walker (1855-1892) and his wife Sophia Fawdington (1857-1928). Both sides of his family have FFH connections, his mother’s family, the Fawdingtons, were from Fulford and Sophia's father Thomas (1814-1880) was a medical labels manufacturer and glass painter of Bay Tree House in Fulford who had a large family with 5 other children as well as Sophia. However, his father’s family, the Walkers, were probably one of the most important families in the Fishergate area in the mid-19th century as Reginald’s great uncle Ambrose Walker (1820-1896) was one of the major developers of the Fulford Road and a key figure in the growth on York south of the Fishergate Postern. Reginald's father, John Phillips Walker, was the son of Peter Walker (1826-1890), a butcher of Bleachfield, Heslington and his wife Jane Carlton Phillips (1831-1919) and Peter was a brother of Ambrose Walker. Their father, another Peter Walker, was also a butcher and in the 1840s he ran a butchers shop on the Little Shambles.
John Phillips Walker did not follow his father and grandfather’s trade as a butcher directly, but rather started as an army contractor providing meat and grain to the barracks. This is undoubtedly due to the influence of his great uncle Ambrose and when he was a young man in 1871 he lived with Ambrose in a newly built house on the north side of New Walk Terrace while Ambrose was buying and building property on this and surrounding streets. John married Sophia Fawdington on the 16th December 1876 at York St. Lawrence and they settled down in a house on Chelmsford Place (this is approximately opposite the Lighthorseman pub and close to New Walk Terrace where he had been living in 1871). They had a daughter Frances G born in 1879 and Reginald was born in 1884, the second of their two children.
Thanks to Steve Mattock for this picture
In 1885 JP Walker was caught up in a serious court case brought against him and Ambrose and three other gentlemen, including the quartermaster at the barracks, for defrauding the Barracks by not supplying as much grain and meat as they were contracted to. JP Walker was discharged by the magistrates but this was probably the stimulus for him to leave York as by 1891 the family had moved to East Langton in Leicestershire, where he was now a horse breeder. However, he died in 1892 and by the time of the 1901 census Sophia and family have moved back to Fishergate and are living at 5 Howard Street. Reginald is now 16 and is training as a solicitor’s clerk so must have had a reasonable education and his elder sister Frances is still living at home with them. Sophia must have been on relatively limited means as she had taken in a boarder, Alwyn A. Kingston, who was 29 and described himself rather mysteriously as a medical man.
Reginald continued to work in the City and by 1911 he was 27 years old and was a railway clerk. He was still living with his mother and they had moved back around the corner to 8 Chelmsford Place in Fishergate. It is not clear when he joined up, but he served in the West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own) as a Lieutenant. He was in the 1st/5th battalion. He was killed in action on the 25th April 1918, aged 34, and is buried on the Poelcapelle British Cemetery in Belgium.
Sophia later moved back to Fulford and was living at 3 St. Oswald’s Terrace at the time of Reginald’s death in 1918.
Researched and written by Gavin Thomas.
Reginald continued to work in the City and by 1911 he was 27 years old and was a railway clerk. He was still living with his mother and they had moved back around the corner to 8 Chelmsford Place in Fishergate. It is not clear when he joined up, but he served in the West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own) as a Lieutenant. He was in the 1st/5th battalion. He was killed in action on the 25th April 1918, aged 34, and is buried on the Poelcapelle British Cemetery in Belgium.
Sophia later moved back to Fulford and was living at 3 St. Oswald’s Terrace at the time of Reginald’s death in 1918.
Researched and written by Gavin Thomas.
Percival Willman Wright (1898-1918)
Percival was born in York in 1898, the eldest child of Richard Willman Wright (1865-) from his second marriage to Louisa Fanny Young. He grew up in the small streets opposite the Cavalry Barracks with his maternal grandparents living just a few houses away. In 1901, when just a babe in arms, he lived in a busy house at 83 Alma Terrace with both his parents, his elder step-sister Florence, step-brother George, uncle Fred and a 5-year old cousin Ernest. His father had a steady job as a Railway Carriage examiner for the North Eastern Railway (NER) and uncle Fred also must have brought in some money from his job as a painter.
Percival’s father Richard was born in Acomb, York, the son of Thomas Wright, a Railway Store Warehouseman, who had also been born in Acomb and his wife Mary. Richard was initially a joiner’s apprentice and later a general labourer before getting his job with the NER. He married Harriet Raper in 1885 and they had 2 children, but she died in 1897. In 1891 they were living at 27 Wellington Street (off Heslington Road) with their children Florence (5) and George (5 months) and Richard’s brother Frederick.
Richard remarried a year after Harriet’s death, to Louisa Fanny Young. She was a local girl who had grown up on Alma Terrace, although she was born in Driffield. She was the second of five children of Joseph James Young, a printer’s compositor, and his wife Rebecca. Percival was born in 1898 and in 1901 they were at 83 Alma Terrace. Percival’s step-sister Florence was 15 and a confectionary assistant, so the family were employed in both the railway and the confectionary industry - true Yorkies! By 1911 they have moved a few streets away to 52 Ambrose Street, a house with 5 rooms. Step sister Florence had left home and step brother George was now 20 and also now working in the confectionary industry as a sorter. Percival was now 12 and he has a younger brother also, Sidney Edward (1901-) who was 9.
He was killed in action on the 22nd April 1918 while serving as a Private in the 9th Battalion of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (regimental number 38785). He was 19 years old. He is buried at the Tyne Cot Memorial in Zonnebeke, Belgium [note he is incorrectly listed as Percival William Wright].
His younger brother Sidney Edward Wright died in 1983 aged 81 in Manchester.
Researched and written by Gavin Thomas.