Sapper Foy, Gillingham 1917

Ernest Bracewell wrote "Sapper Foy, Manchester" on the back of this photo.  It was taken at the Parisian Studios, 161 High Street, Gillingham in 1917 or the beginning of 1918.

 

Sapper Foy was one of Ernest Bracewell's fellow sappers undergoing training with the Royal Engineers in 1917.  He looks very young and the only Sapper Foy in online military records who seems to fit the bill is Herbert William Foy, b 1896 in Salford - his regimental number was 299446 and Ernest's was 299440 which fits the theory that they joined the REs around the same time.

If I've got the right man, Sapper Herbert William Foy was born on 3 August 1896 and was the son of Peter and Dora Foy who were living at 63 Duke Street, Manchester at the time of the 1911 census. Herbert had left school by then and was following in his father's footsteps, working as an apprentice brazier and sheet metal worker.

It looks like he survived the war and died in Salford in 1974.

Sources: military, census and death records on www.ancestry.co.uk.

John Joseph Jefferson, Royal Field Artillery

Ernest Bracewell's collection of photos includes one of a lad with fair hair in hospital blues with "Joe Jefferson" written on the back. Another photo shows an unidentified teenage soldier and two younger boys. Comparing the two photos, I'm sure the teenager in the left hand photo below is Joe.

I think Joe is John Joseph Jefferson, the younger brother of Ernest's friend Coates Jefferson. Joe was born on 21 December 1897 in Meanwood, then a rural area on the edge of Leeds. He was the third son of Hodgson Coates Jefferson, a dairyman, and his wife Eleanor. The censuses for 1901 and 1911 show the family living on Tunnel How Hill, Meanwood (known locally as King Alfred's Castle). However by 1911 Joe had left home and was living not far away on Magson's dairy farm in Moortown where he helped deliver milk. He later trained as a blacksmith which looks to have stood him in good stead when he came to join the army.

Joe enlisted in King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry on 8 September 1914 at the tender age of 16, using his first name of John, before being transferred to A/95 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery on 19 December with the rank of driver and roll number 88395. On 18 April 1915 he acquired the rank of shoeing smith and he left for France in September of that year with A/97 Brigade.

The left hand photo above, showing Joe in his Royal Artillery uniform, was probably taken at some point in 1915 before he went to France. The boys sitting in front of him must surely be his younger brothers Albert and Fred. Albert would have been 11 or 12 in 1915 and Fred 9 or 10.

Joe rejoined A/95 Brigade on 30 August 1916 but returned to the UK shortly afterwards and spent the following year in the reserves - first with 5C Reserve Brigade at Charlton Park, Woolwich and then 4B Reserve Brigade (from 1 March 1917) with the rank of gunner. On 7 August 1917 he was transferred to the Royal Garrison Artillery as a driver (with a new roll no. of 183751) before being posted to India on 24 September 1917 - he joined 68 Howitzer Brigade a couple of months later on 26 November. He wasn't in India for long as he was back in the UK on 14 January 1918, joining the Marine Expeditionary Force to begin with and then moving to 384 Siege Battery a month later. He became a shoeing smith once again on 8 January 1919. He spent some time in South General Hospital Birmingham around 27 May 1919 - this may well have been when the photo showing Joe in hospital blues was taken.

Joe was demobbed on 11 July 1919 but re-enlisted with the Royal Field Artillery on 3 October 1919 and went on to serve in the Black Sea and Egypt.  He was certified as a 1st Class Shoeing Smith and 1st Class Carriage Smith in 1921 and qualified as a 1st class farrier before transfer to the reserve on 2 October 1925.   Joe's address on being demobbed was in Hounslow.

I am not certain what happened to Joe in later years but a John J Jefferson married in Lewisham in 1927 and was still living in that area after WW2. Coates Jefferson, Joe's elder brother, also lived in the south east after WW1- he married Sarah Smith in Kent in 1917 and settled in St Mary Cray.  Younger brother Albert played rugby league for Bradford Northern.

Sources: censuses, birth/marriage/death records and military records which are available on www.ancestry.co.uk and birth/marriage/death records from www.freebmd.org.

Asiago Plateau, June/July 1918, daily life at the Cesuna Tunnel

This photo was taken by an Italian officer June/July 1918. The location is a railway cutting leading to the Cesuna Tunnel, just behind the front line on the Asiago Plateau in northern Italy. The tunnel was used to shelter battalions held in reserve.

The two men in the centre of the photo, minus helmets, are Italian and the face at the window of the sandbag hut is Sapper Harold Atkinson (no. 277413) of Section 2, 54th Field Company, Royal Engineers. Sapper Ernest Bracewell, whose face had swollen up like a football due to a gum boil, is lurking in the shadows to the left of Atkinson. The soldiers in kilts were described by Ernest as "a tough bunch of the 2nd Gordons - and I mean tough" who had taken over the Cesuna section of the front line on 15 June 1918.

The hut housed a Petter Junior oil engine which powered a dynamo providing lighting in the tunnel for specified periods each day. The chimney of the engine is sticking out of the roof on the left. Next door was another shed used as a cookhouse.

54th Field Company had arrived on the Asiago plateau on 5 April 1918 and were based at Magnaboschi, a mile and a half from the front line near Cesuna. They were withdrawn on 30 May 1918 and, when the Austrians attacked on 15 June, were undergoing training at Mt. Grumo (just to the north of the village of Pedemonte Grumolo, near Thiene). Up on the plateau, the enemy made some inroads but were successfully repulsed after some hard fighting.

The REs arrived back at Magnaboschi on 24 June 1918 and the following morning, Ernest, Atki and another sapper called Francis were despatched to the tunnel to operate the engine.

Although things had quietened down at the front, there was still the odd gas alarm or rumour of imminent attack to keep everyone on their toes.  Ernest recorded that they lay ready all night on 30 June (his birthday) expecting another raid.

Although the engine hut was "cosy", the tunnel itself was "draughty and rat-infested". When an ammo dump blew up nearby, throwing Atki off his feet, the wooden superstructure in the mouth of the tunnel was disturbed along with a rat's nest. Ernest watched the mother transfer her litter of baby rats to safety on the other side of the cutting and didn't have the heart to kill her.

A group of the 2nd Gordons were standing around the mouth of the tunnel when the Italian officer arrived with his camera and an English-speaking orderly. The officer took a photo of the tunnel entrance (possibly this one at http://www.cesuna.it/archivio-notizie/98-foto-archivio-scozzesi-in-galleria.html) and Ernest and Harold asked if he would take a photo of their hut as well. He agreed and his orderly returned with the photo a week later.

Ernest was not short of advice on how to treat his gum boil and the 2nd Gordons recommended their battalion dentist. Having suffered the pain of fitting his swollen face into a gas mask on 11 July, he knew could put it off no longer and visited the 2nd Gordons' first aid station, finding "a brawny kilted six-footer" who "turned out to be a broad Cockney". Sitting the patient on a dentist's chair (consisting of two Mills bomb boxes with rope handles to hold onto), the dentist took a pair of forceps from his tunic pocket, got Ernest in a head lock and extracted the tooth with some difficulty. He was keen to remove the tooth next to it as well but one was enough for Ernest.

The sappers took turns to walk to Magnaboschi each day to draw rations and rum but it turned out they had a supply of rum closer to hand. Three or four rum jars had been abandoned near the hut and everyone assumed they must be empty. One day Ernest decided to take a look and found one was about a third full. Suspecting a practical joke, he removed the cork and smelt the contents - rum. He poured a little out - it looked like rum. He poured a drop in his palm - it tasted like rum. It was rum! Needless to say, that evening "the sound of song was heard in the land" until the Adjutant of the resident infantry battalion sent his orderly to tell them to be quiet or he'd have them arrested. They took the hint and slept soundly.

The little pencil drawing of the entrance to the tunnel was done by Ernest during a quiet moment.

The three sappers were recalled to Magnaboschi on 24 July 1918 and found that their spell at the tunnel had been a lucky break. The rest of Section 2 had been put to work repairing gaps in the barbed wire where the enemy had broken through. With no wiring gloves, their hands had been lacerated with many cuts turning septic. This depleted the ranks so much that only Ernest, Atki, Francis and the NCOs turned out on parade one morning.

The Cesuna tunnel is still in existence, close to the site of the old station (now demolished) and forms part of a walking/cycling route. Several recent photos of the tunnel can be found on the internet and one end is visible on Google Street View on the Via Ka Balla, just to the right of the Bar-Restaurant Baita-Jok and opposite a children's playground.


Sources:
Papers of Ernest Bracewell;
War Diary of 54th Field Company Royal Engineers;
MacKay, Francis, Asiago, 15/16 June 1918, Battle in the Clouds and Woods; Pen and Sword Books, 2001.

54th Field Company Royal Engineers, Italy 1918

This photo of a group of tanned Royal Engineers belonged to Sapper Ernest Bracewell of 2 Section, 54th Field Company RE. It shows members of the company in 1918, somewhere in northern Italy. Ernest explains on the back that he had wandered off and doesn't appear in the picture.  However he helpfully added the names (or nicknames) of quite a few of his comrades - although not the middle row for some reason. From his handwriting, the notes were probably written at the time or not long after. The note on the bottom was written in later life.

So the back row comprises (L to R) : "Marie" Studholme, Bert Charman, Jimmy Keyes, "Matey" Castleton, "Boss" Friend, Brent, Jock Webster, Atkinson, Alf Watts, and "Busty" Hill.

Then in the front row we have (L to R) : Cyril Full, "Yorkie" Harrop, "Young" Jack Cobb, "Tug" Wilson and Jack "Fruity" Newton.  Despite all the nicknames it has been possible to find out more about at least some of the men in the photo. 

Marie Studholme

I think this must be 2nd Corporal Samuel Wilson Studholme, no. 146600 from Heathwaite nr Windermere whose papers show he was a member of 54th Field Company RE. It was probably inevitable that he would be given the nickname Marie after the Bradford actress Marie Studholme who had appeared on Broadway in the 1890s. Samuel (b.1888) was a carpenter and joiner and married in November 1915 just before he joined up. He died in Westmoreland in 1971.

Jimmy Keyes

Jimmy was referred to by Ernest as "Sapper Jimmy Keyes of London Town". I haven't been able to track Jimmy down - there was Sapper James Frederick Keyes but he was killed in 1917.  He might be Driver James Keys (no. 52689) but I'm not certain that's the right man.  It may be that James was his middle name or that Jimmy was just a nickname.

Matey Castleton

WW1 medal cards include one for Sapper William Caselton (rather than Castleton), no. 18045 who had served with 54th Field Company RE since 1914. This must surely be Matey who Ernest described as a "regular soldier and fine war sapper". Matey was born in 1886 in the Bromley area in 1886 where his father, Edward, was a bricklayer. By 1911, the Caselton family had moved to Plumstead although Matey was not with them - he had joined the Royal Engineers and was stationed in South Africa with 55th Field Co.

Matey had been the section cook since 1914 but he got into trouble when he and his pal Jock (probably Jock Webster, shown in the above picture) heard that a party of Italian Pioneers stationed near 54th Field Coy in Magna Boschi (Asiago Plateau) had a supply of grappa which they were prepared to sell to the British lads. Matey and Jock paid the Italians an evening visit with the result that the whole section  of 32 men went without their breakfast the following morning and Matey lost his job.

After the war he returned to Plumstead where he lived at 91 Alabama Street (a house shared with other members of his family) until his death in 1931.

Boss Friend

Boss has one chevron on his sleeve indicating he was a 2nd corporal (RE equivalent of a lance corporal). He could be Bert Friend, no. 480570, whose medal card describes him as A/2/Cpl, or possibly George W Friend, also A/2/Cpl or Willie Friend No 84075, 2/Cpl.

Brent

Brent has two chevrons on his sleeve so he was a corporal. I wonder if this is Frederick Edmund Brent - a photo posted on Ancestry could be the same man in later life and a Frederick E Brent was in the Royal Engineers (no. 255257).  However Frederick E's medal card just gives his rank as Driver and not Corporal.

Jock Webster
No further details about Jock except that he was probably Matey Castleton's best mate in 2 Section as mentioned above.

Atkinson

Ernest's papers only referred to Atkinson or Atki and didn't give his first name.  However, the Worcestershire council website provides a helpful list of Absent Voters in 1918 including Sapper Harold Atkinson,  no. 277413, 54th Field Company, Royal Engineers.  It looks like Harold was born in Evesham, Worcestershire on 21 Jan 1890 and was living with his parents William and Maria in Nursery Road, Worcester in 1911.  His occupation is given as wood-turner.  Harold survived the war and appears to have died in Worcester in 1974.  

Alf Watts

Ernest had a note of Alf's address in Coventry (East St) which enabled him to be tracked down in parish records and censuses. Alf was Alfred Joseph Watts who was born in Coventry in 1895 to parents Harry and Elizabeth. He had an elder brother, also Harry, born in 1891. Alf's father was a cycle fitter in 1911 although Ernest mentions elsewhere that he was running the Peeping Tom pub in Coventry in 1918.  It looks like Alf married Beatrice Alice Swann after the war and died in Coventry in 1958.

Busty Hill
Busty Hill was Ernest Hill, a carpenter from Parish Land Farm, Spraxton (near Bridgwater) in Somerset. He was the son of William and Mary Ann Hill of Waterpits, Spraxton and had married Susan Pocock in the last quarter of 1917. Sadly Busty Hill did not survive the war - he died on 1 November 1918 (of Spanish flu according to Ernest Bracewell) and was buried in the military cemetery in Cremona.

Cyril Full
Cyril was Cyril Henry Victor Full, no. 168126.  He was born in 1897 in Totnes, Devon and was living with his grandparents at 1 Eiffel Place, Totnes in 1911. Cyril survived the war and married Edith Jeffery in 1923. He died in Birmingham in 1973.

Yorkie Harrop

Yorkie has an inverted chevron on his sleeve denoting a good conduct award.  He looks to be one of the older members of the group.

"Young" Jack Cobb

Ernest had written Jack Cobb's address in his notebook - the entry says "W J Cobb, Bradfield Cottages, Easthorpe, Southwell, Nottinghamshire. A search for "Jack Cobb" from Nottinghamshire drew a blank in military records, the 1911 census and birth records so it looked as though he was officially a John rather than a Jack. There is a 12 year old John Cobb in Easthorpe in 1911 who seems to fit the bill.  He was the son of George and Annie Cobb of Easthorpe and birth records for 1898 show his name was registered as John William. According to medal records, John W Cobb was a Sapper in the Royal Engineers, no. 487246 (it looks like Ernest got the initials the wrong way round in his notebook) and he was subsequently transferred to the Notts and Derby Regiment.  Jack survived the war and, as far as I can tell, died in the Newark area in 1969. 

Tug Wilson

Unfortunately Tug's surname is too common for him to be tracked down easily. I'll keep working on it.

Jack "Fruity" Newton

Ernest's papers included Jack Newton's address in 1918/19 which was 9 Mottram Road, Stalybridge.  My best guess as to Jack's identity is that he was John Newton, the elder son of Edwin and Sarah Elizabeth Newton who lived at 73 Stocks Lane, Stalybridge, about 5 minutes walk from Mottram Road, in 1911.  

Jack was born in Stalybridge in 1895 and by 1911 was an apprenticed to a tin smith.

He was back in Stalybridge by 23 January 1919 as he sent Ernest a postcard of Early Bank Wood, Stalybridge bearing that date which said he was reporting to Chatham.  It was addressed to "Sapper Well Braced" and signed "Kind regards, Chummily yours". 

Source: papers of Ernest Bracewell and information available on ancestry.co.uk, findmypast.co.uk and freebmd.org.uk.

Sapper J E Markland, Royal Engineers

The following photo was given to Sapper Ernest Bracewell by Sapper J E Markland in February 1918 - they had been room-mates during training with the Royal Engineers in Chatham. Ernest described him as a "grand old man" who wanted to avenge the death of his eldest son on the Western Front. 


I think "J E Markland" is Sapper John Edward Markland from Bolton, Lancashire - his papers show that he was training at Chatham at the same time as Ernest and his signature is very similar to that on the postcard.

John was born in 1861 so he would have been 56 when Ernest first met him in 1917 - well past the age when men were expected to fight. According to the 1911 census, he worked as an electrician at a cotton mill and lived at 3 Swan Lane, Bolton with his wife Eliza, two sons (William and Harold) and 76 year old father John, a retired mill worker.

John's eldest son, William, was killed on 9 June 1917 fighting with 8th Battalion The Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and is commemorated on the Menin Gate at Ypres. Second son Harold was in the same regiment but survived the war.

John had actually signed up with the Royal Engineers in December 1915, well before his son's death, and, looking at the medal ribbon on his uniform, he had previous military experience although I haven't been able to find any records of his earlier service.

Comparing the medal ribbon with pictures on Wikipedia, the first of the four medal bars, on the left, looks to be the India General Service medal which was awarded from 1856 up to 1895. Although John was at home at the time of both the 1881 and 1891 censuses, he did not marry until 1892 when he was aged 30/31, so there was a period of ten years during which he could have joined the army and served abroad.

It looks as though John was in the UK through much of the 1890s - he and his wife Eliza (nee Sankey) had three children (all born in Bolton) during that period - William (b. 1893), Harold Sankey (b.1895 d. 1896) and Harold (b. 1899).  However, he must have remained in the volunteers as the second bar on the ribbon looks like the Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee medal. I understand this was presented to men involved in the Jubilee procession on 22 June 1897 or the military review which took place a few days later at Aldershot in the presence of the Queen (London Gazette 14 March 1898). Several Lancashire regiments were represented in the Jubilee celebrations including the Loyal North Lancashires (Morning Post, 15 and 28 June 1897) - perhaps John's son William joined his father's old regiment when he enlisted.

The other two medals on the ribbon could well be the Queen's South Africa medal and the King's South Africa medal. So, by the turn of the century, John must have been back in the army, fighting in the 2nd Boer War. It seems that the King's South Africa medal was awarded to men who served in South Africa on or after 1 Jan 1902 and who had completed 18 months service in that campaign. However, there must have been a break in his period of service as he was living with his parents at 3 Swan Lane, Bolton at the time of the 1901 census, whilst his wife and children were at her parents' house in the High Street. Perhaps Eliza she had moved in with them whilst John was overseas and they didn't have the room for him when he got back, particularly if he had returned unexpectedly because he was wounded.

In any event the family were all back together in 1911, living at 3 Swan Lane with John's widowed father.

When WW1 broke out, John was so keen to do his bit that he gave his age as 35 rather than 55. It seems very unlikely that the recruiting officers believed him but they were obviously prepared to go along with it, possibly because he had useful skills. He joined 5th Provisional Field Company to begin with and was mobilized at Chatham on 12 October 1916.  His trade is described as "Fortress engine driver" and his classification "superior". John joined B Company on 21 July 1917, 6 weeks after the death of his son, and immediately went through training in drill and musketry. He was posted to Mesopotamia in February 1918 and was subsequently transferred to India in March 1918.

This is a photo of the Mesopotamia draft taken at Chatham before departure overseas. John is in the 3rd row, 5th from the right, just behind the two officers.

John Markland survived the war and was discharged on 6 June 1920. He died in Bolton in 1932 aged 71.

Information was taken from military, census and BMD records on Ancestry.co.uk and the British Newspaper Archive.

RSM George Armstrong, Leeds Rifles

This photo is from the collection of Leeds postman Tom Wheldon (also spelt Weldon) who served in 1/8 Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment during WW1 and was a veteran of the Boer War. 

Tom Wheldon received this photo in 1905 in the form of a postcard from his brother-in-law Harold Shillito who was away at camp. The photo shows "G Armstrong Sgt-Major" although I am reliably informed his uniform is, in fact, that of a Regimental Sergeant Major. "G Armstrong" was George Armstrong, a career soldier and mainstay of the Leeds Rifles for many years. He received his discharge in 1905 after nearly 35 years service but it seems he still hadn't had enough........................

George was born in Mullingar, Ireland, in around 1854 and, by 1858, was living in the barracks in Chester with his father William (an army pensioner, ex-14th Regiment of Foot, and a sergeant in the militia), mother Dora (or Dorothea), elder brother William and new-born brother Samuel.

George followed in his father's footsteps, enlisting in 14th Regiment of Foot at Sheffield in 1871. He claimed he was 17yrs 6 mths but, assuming his age was correct in the 1861 census, he was probably a year younger.

He made an encouraging start with rapid promotion to corporal but some sort of indiscretion (a last night out maybe), before a posting to Aldershot and India, saw him demoted to private. He spent four years in India, where he was stationed at Sutapore (Sitapur) and Ranikhet and then a year in Aden. During his time in India, he was promoted to lance corporal, then corporal, and was made a lance sergeant on his return to the UK just before Christmas 1879. He was stationed at Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, and it was there that he signed up for another 21 years in March 1880 with a promotion to sergeant.

Weymouth and nearby Portland were his next postings (from Feb 1881) and it was probably around this time that he was sent to Hythe in Kent on a musketry course - he married Annie Stone in Aldington (about 7 miles from Hythe) on 14 December 1881.

A transfer to 1st West Yorkshire Regiment followed, along with promotion to colour sergeant and a move to Bradford (where son Sydney was born in Oct 1882). However they were soon on the move again - first to the west coast of Ireland (Castlebar and Galway) and then Dublin (where another child, Dora, was born).

On 10 Feb 1887 George was transferred to 7th West Yorkshire Rifle Volunteers and moved to Leeds with a promotion to acting sergeant major. Their third child, Frank, was born in Leeds four months later in June 1887.  In 1892 he was given permission to extend his service beyond 21 years and he was eventually discharged on 10 Sep 1905, by which time he was regimental sergeant major in 3rd Volunteer Battalion West Yorks Regiment (the Leeds Rifles).

Although it looks like he originally intended to retire to Kent, his association with the army continued - by 1911 he was living at 188 Burton Lane York and working as a clerk for the Territorial Force.

On the outbreak of war in 1914, George, by then about 60, lost no time in enlisting. On 7 Aug 1914, he signed up as a private for four years service with 5th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment. So keen was he to serve, that he seems to have been slightly economical with the truth, giving his age as 52 years 15 days and his birthplace as Chester rather than Ireland.  His address is correct though - 188 Burton Lane, York - so it is the same man.  His medical report described his apparent age as 52 and declared him fit for service.

He was rapidly promoted to sergeant but remained in the UK and was transferred to the reserves and then 26th Provisional Battalion. Sadly, he was discharged on 8 Oct 1915 as physically unfit (his discharge papers gave his age as 63) and he died in York late the following year.  

Sources: military service papers, censuses and birth, marriage and death records relating to George Armstrong are available on Ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk.

Rev. Archibald Ean Campbell MA

This photo is from the collection of Leeds postman Tom Wheldon (also spelt Weldon) who served in 1/8 Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment during WW1 and was a veteran of the Boer War.  

Rev. Archibald Ean Campbell (1856-1921) was Vicar of All Souls, Blackman Lane, Leeds, from 1891 until 1901 and acted as chaplain to the Leeds Rifles. All Souls is not far from the centre of Leeds and close to Carlton Hill Barracks, the former home of the Rifles.

The son of a colonel, Rev. Campbell was educated at King William's College, IOM, and Clare College, Cambridge. After being ordained in 1881, he became a curate in Aberdare, and then rector of Castle Rising in Norfolk, before his move to Leeds.

He was Provost of St Ninian's in Perth from July 1901 and was elected Bishop of Glasgow and Galloway at the end of 1903, taking up the post the following year.

According to Dr Patricia Morris in her 1983 thesis on the Leeds Rifles* "[his] passion for Volunteering led him into joining musketry practice and field days at every opportunity" and it seems he "remained in post as assistant chaplin when he became Provost of St Ninian, Perth (in 1901) and even after becoming Bishop of Glasgow (in 1904), resigning with the greatest of regret on 31 March 1908, when the new TF regulations compelled him to do so.”

She describes him as "immensely popular" and quotes the Yorkshire Post on 17 Aug 1900 which said "The Rev A E Campbell, the cheery chaplain, has so popularised his ministrations that the entire corps has voluntarily attended his early morning short service preceding the working day". He was also "very active in the Temperance Movement" and was appointed chaplain to the Leeds Battalion of the Church Lads' Brigade on its founding in 1897. 

*Leeds and the Amateur Military Tradition: the Leeds Rifles and their Antecedents.  The University of Leeds School of History 1983.  This can be found at http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/880/

The Lucas family

These photos are from the collection of Leeds postman Tom Wheldon (also spelt Weldon) who served in 1/8 Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment during WW1 and was a veteran of the Boer War.

The only indication of the identity of the family in the first four photos was the message "With Mr & Mrs Lucas & Family's Compliments" on the reverse of the family group. 

However, three photos of a wedding in the 1920s made it possible to find out more about the Lucases. The first is a picture of newly-weds and has "With Mr and Mrs V T Brooks Compliments" written on the back. Then, in the second, Mr and Mrs Lucas are standing on the right.  From a search of 1920s marriage records, it seemed very likely that these photos were of the wedding of Victor Tom Brooks and Nellie Lucas at Burley Parish Church on 10 February 1923 and this has since been confirmed by one of their nieces and her son.  Nellie's parents were Harry and Annie Maria Lucas who lived in the Burley Road area of Leeds.  Nellie was born in 1898 and her brother William Harry in 1899. 

The line up in the wedding photo above is as follows -

Back row: Tom and Clara Ellen Brooks (Victor's parents), William Harry Lucas (who was one of the witnesses), Annie Maria and Harry Lucas.

Front row: Probably Nellie Moss (nee Brooks) who was Victor's eldest sister, Victor and Nellie Brooks, probably Clara Holden Rushforth (another witness) who was a cousin of the bride.

The records of Woodhouse Cemetery (transcribed on the Yorkshire Indexers site) tell a sad story as far as the Lucases are concerned.  It seems Nellie and William Harry were the oldest of Harry and Annie Maria's children and the only ones to survive childhood.  Four more boys and two girls, all born between 1900 and 1911, had died by 1912.  Arthur was 14 months old when he died of TB in 1904, his sister Dorothy Mary four when she died of diphtheria the following year, convulsions took Albert in 1908 when he was only eight weeks old, May was premature and lived only three days after her birth in 1910, Fred was born in 1911 and survived only eight hours, and finally poor Walter reached the age of five but succumbed to scarlet fever in Seacroft isolation hospital in March 1912.

Thanks to Richard for his assistance in identifying the members of the Brooks family.

PC 428 John Henry Watkinson?

This photo is from the collection of Leeds postman Tom Wheldon (also spelt Weldon) who served in 1/8 Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment during WW1 and was a veteran of the Boer War.  

There is nothing on the reverse of this photo to identify the subject of the photo but the badge on his helmet shows that he was a member of the Leeds Police Force and the number "42" appears on his collar with the edge of a third number just visible.

A list of members of the Leeds Police Force who died in WW1 is included in Ewart W Clay's The Leeds Police 1836 - 1974. The list includes only one man with a number beginning 42 - he is PC 428 J H Watkinson.

Further investigation revealed that a Private John Henry Watkinson of 16th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (1st Bradford Pals) died on 3 May 1917 (during the Battle of Arras). It seems very likely that this is a picture of John Henry.

In 1911, John Henry (aged 23) was lodging with Mr and Mrs Kendall in Clyde St, New Wortley. His parents John and Ellen  lived in Sheffield with his brothers and sisters. Sadly his younger brother Walter, a Corporal in the 2/4 Battalion York and Lancaster Regiment, service no 201196, was reported wounded and missing on the same day as his brother was assumed killed. The brothers are listed on the Arras Memorial - John Henry in Bay 4 and Walter in Bay 8.

Salvation Army

These photos are from the collection of Leeds postman Tom Wheldon (also spelt Weldon) who served in 1/8 Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment during WW1 and was a veteran of the Boer War.  The handwriting on the face of some of the photos is Tom's.

Margaret Jane, one of Tom Wheldon's sisters, joined the Salvation Army and is shown here with Tamar Stafford (on the right). The photo was taken in Scranton, Pennsylvania, probably in the late 1880s. In the autumn of 1886, Scranton received a visit from William Booth, making his first tour of North America since Lieutenant Eliza Shirley held the first Salvationist meeting in the US in Philadelphia in 1879.

Margaret was born in Easington, Co Durham in 1864 but her family moved to Bishop Auckland in the early 1870s and eventually to Leeds.  

Tamar was born in Blyth, Northumberland in 1861 and moved to Newcastle in 1879 with her parents, Bolton and Alice Stafford. An obituary for Bolton in 1915 describes him as a former master mariner who gave up the sea in the late 1870s, joining the Salvation Army in Blyth in 1879. He was to become one of their "pioneer workers" in the North East. Bolton briefly ran a Temperance Hotel in Blyth which was badly damaged by fire in 1879 and presumably resulted in the move to Newcastle where he worked as a warehouseman. Several of his family members also joined the SA. These included son Bolton, who was a bandsman, daughters Tamar and Jane (whose husband Harry Rogers became a brigadier) and a number of his grandchildren.

The following photo of Margaret was also taken in Scranton. 

There are also two "tintype" photos - the one on the left is definitely Margaret and the one on the right looks like Tamar. They are both wearing their Salvation Army badges and elaborate bonnets.  There is no indication of the location of the photos in this case.

Both Tamar and Margaret subsequently returned to the UK. Tamar married blacksmith Frederick Wilson in Northumberland in the summer of 1890 and eventually returned to North America - she died in British Columbia in 1923. However, Margaret did not have long to live - she died of tuberculosis in Leeds, Yorkshire on 30 January 1891 and was buried in St Mark's Church, Woodhouse, Leeds four days later. 

The final photo of Margaret was taken in Bishop Auckland so it looks like she was in the Salvation Army before the family moved to Leeds.  She appears older here than in the Scranton photos.

The following photo was taken by the same photographer in Bishop Auckland but the subject remains unidentified.

Another unidentified member of the Salvation Army appears in a photo taken in Willington on Tyne (on the north side of the Tyne near Wallsend).

Finally there are pictures of the Booth family - first of all William Booth.

And this is his wife Catherine.

I think this one is their daughter Emma - the dedication written on the back reads "To our darling Weldon who will always be true to God and the S.A".

This looks like another daughter, Evangeline.

And finally I think this is probably William and Catherine Booth's youngest son, Herbert.