The stories behind eight local men who lost their lives in action during the First World War

AS WE remember in this centenary year all those who gave their lives in the First World War, we must not forget the man whose foresight began the records which we can readily access today.

Fabian Ware was too old for army duty, but he commanded a mobile unit of the British Red Cross.

From 1914 he realised the need to record the graves of the fallen and to care for them. The Grave Registration Commission of 1915 became the Commonwealth War Graves Commission of today.

It is all too easy to forget the vast amount of time effort and skill which was necessary to compile these details. As early as 1916 Ware also enlisted help from distinguished horticulturalists from Kew and famous architects of the day.

The cemeteries we have today are the result of his vision.

Now the CWGC is responsible for the upkeep of the graves, memorials etc. and they provide the records and registers of 1.7 million burials and commemorations in most countries throughout the world.

These beautiful gardens of remembrance are cared for by this wonderful organisation and are a fitting tribute to a lost generation. We owe them so much.

In February 1915, John Blezard serving with 2nd Border, was posted missing as of October 26, 1914.

A regular soldier whose wife and two children lived at Gilpin Yard, Kendal, he had been in France less than a month.

Nothing more was known of John until July 1920. The original Burial Return, just a minute portion of the meticulous records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, shows three bodies were found.

Miraculously John’s was identified by his pay book. He now lies in Zantvoorde British Cemetery, killed during the 1st Battle of Ypres.

Strangely, exactly three years later, his brother James was killed in action on October 26, 1917, about one mile from John’s place of death.

Private Leonard Close, age 25, served with 11th Border Regiment (The Lonsdales). Following their disastrous attack on July 1, 1916, Mrs Close received a letter from one of Leonard’s comrades, which stated: “All is not well, there is no news of him”.

In December 1916 his mother Susannah, of 42 Oak Street, Windermere, received a letter from the chaplain, confirming their worst fears. Enclosed was Leonard’s identity disc and he wrote: “I was able to identify him myself, and laid him to rest in the burial place of the Lonsdales”

Leonard and 1,500 others now lie in Lonsdale Cemetery, Aveluy.

Many soldiers were properly buried but their graves were then lost.

Twenty years old Lt Frances Hawkesworth, serving with the 2nd Bn Welch Regiment, was killed on January 25, 1915 during a German attack on Givenchy in Northern France.

He was buried in the churchyard at Givenchy and a cross placed on his grave.

Over the next four years, Givenchy was devastated by enemy shelling, so no remains could be found after the war. His name, with 13,500 others, is inscribed on the Le Touret Memorial in the Pas de Calais.

Francis was educated at Craig school, St Bees and Queen's College Oxford. He was destined to be a missionary. His father was vicar at St Mary’s Ambleside.

Of the 42 local men who died during the eight-month-long, ill-fated campaign against the Turks at Gallipoli, only eight have graves.

The others are named on the Helles Memorial, along with 20,906 British and Indians. Many of those never even set foot on the Peninsula, but those who died at sea as they were heading there, are also named.

Reginald Hickman, from Pull Wyke, Ambleside, serving with 1st Border, was on board HMT Royal Edward when she was torpedoed and sunk by UB 14 on May 13, 1915. The ship was carrying re-inforcements to Gallipoli. The number of dead from Royal Edward is estimated at more than 900.

Hugh Park, of South Road, Kendal, an old boy of Kendal Grammar School, was a 33-years-old Lance Corporal serving with 4th Border.

He was very well known in Kendal, a keen sportsman who played rugby for Kendal and the county.

He was one of the Border men to volunteer to join the Mesopotamia campaign, surely one of the most futile and unnecessary campaigns ever in the history of the British Army. It was led by Major General Townshend.

On April 19, 1916, 13,000 of Townshend’s men surrendered to the Turks after being besieged at Kut El Amara for 147 days. During their forced march from Kut to Samarrah about 7,000 of them died, suffering unspeakable hardships.

Six local men died in this campaign. None have graves. Hugh's date of death is recorded as November 27, 1916. His name is on the Angora Memorial in Baghdad North Gate War Cemetery Iraq.

Tyne Cot cemetery in Belgium, with 11,956 British and Commonwealth graves, is our largest war cemetery in the world.

There are also four German graves. These are men who died nearby during the 3rd Battle of Ypres - almost 70 per cent of them are unidentified soldiers, brought in from the surrounding battlefields.

One identified Kendalian rests here. Harry Postlethwaite, serving with 7th Royal Irish Rifles, was killed near Frezenberg on August 8, 1917 about three miles from Tyne Cot.

His body was found in October 1919 and his identity disc was still with him.

Harry’s family lived at 4 Shuttleworth Brow. He had worked at K Shoes factory, before moving to Barrow.

2nd Lt Fawcett Storey, 5 Border was killed on April 25, 1917 during the Battle of Arras.

He was buried at the time by his comrades in a small cemetery and in September 1919 his body was exhumed and moved to London Cemetery, Neuville-Vitasse. This was a normal procedure as hundreds of small “comrades” cemeteries were concentrated into larger more easily maintained burial plots.

Born in New Zealand, he grew up in England. On leaving Kendal Grammar School he became a poultry farmer in Yorkshire and later at Grange-over-Sands.

His mother lived at 7 Parkside Kendal and he is named on the war memorials at Kendal, Grange-over-Sands and Old Hutton.

His cousins, Arthur and John E. Fawcett, are also named on Old Hutton.

September 15, 1916 was, during the Battle of the Somme, the first day in which tanks were used in battle.

Tom F. Wilson was in the tank numbered D15. This tank had travelled about a mile from the British Front line when it was hit by a German shell.

Scrambling out, two of the eight men crew, Hoban and Coles, were killed.

Tom was badly wounded, taken to hospital at Heilly where he died a week later, having had his leg amputated. He was 28, son of Tom Wilson, builder and contractor, of Fieldside Grasmere.

Heilly Station Cemetery was begun as a place to bury the dead from the nearby hospitals. There are now about 3,000 soldiers buried here, and it is unusual because many headstones are engraved with up to three names, having multiple burials in each grave.

"So the curtain fell over that tortured country of unmarked graves and unburied fragments of men.

Murder and massacre, the innocent slaughtered for the guilty. The poor man for the greed of the already rich, the man of no authority made the victim of the man who had gathered importance and wished to keep it.

David Starret

9th Royal Irish Rifles