Thiepval Memorial

Centenary

The War Memorial in Murray Street has been given a facelift for the hundredth Remembrance Day. I took a photo on the way home from the supermarket a couple of days ago.

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Mrs Annie CULLEY was given the honour at the Memorial’s unveiling ceremony in 1921. Two of her sons had died in the war.

BrightH_newThe bronze panels have been buffed and some of the blue-green patina has been replaced by brownish tones. Harry BRIGHT was not Filey-born but came to the town before the war and courted a local girl. When the war began he went back to his home area to enlist in the Hunts Cyclists – and the unit was posted to Filey. He has a page on the Wiki, to which I’ll add some of the information I’ve turned up this week.

Harry was already on the FamilySearch Tree but is still without his wife and son. One curious aspect of his brief service details on the CWGC website is the absence of any mention of parents or spouse. If you read the Wiki entry you’ll see that I’m not completely certain I have the right man. But Harry from Huntingdon came from a large family, and after his father died young his mother married a widower. At the 1911 census, Harry was in a household with five half and four full brothers and sisters.

Harry’s widow remarried too and had five children with John William HOLMES. She died aged 43 (or 44) and is buried in St Oswald’s churchyard.

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Note: The link to the CWGC website is throwing up run-time errors, possibly a temporary glitch but I’ve removed it. If you are interested, search for Harry Bright 20702, Royal Warwickshire Regiment.

Remembering Jenkinson Haxby

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record states that Jenkinson died on the 7th July 1916. His body was not recovered for burial and he is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial with 1,463 others. I’ve looked carefully down the list and he is the only casualty serving with the 2nd Battalion Yorkshire Regiment.

He is also remembered on the headstone of his grandparents, Matthew and Jane HAXBY in St Oswald’s churchyard but the inscription records his death on the 8th. Only 354 deaths are recorded on the Thiepval Memorial for that day but there are a number of men from the 2nd Bn Yorkshires. I haven’t been able to establish where Jenkinson was killed but after several days of little action in the Battle of Albert the attempt to capture Trônes Wood began on the 8th, so maybe that is where and when he fell with some of his brothers in arms.

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And their beloved grandson L/C JENKINSON HAXBY, 2nd Yorks. Regt., killed in action July 8th 1916, aged 23.

‘Wars bitter cost, a dear one missed.’

(On the Memorial Plaque in St Oswald’s, Jenkinson is among Filey men who died in 1917 and is recorded as serving with the West Yorkshire Regiment.)

I did some work today on his father’s birth family but not enough to put Jenkinson or his mother Elizabeth Ann JENKINSON on the FamilySearch Tree. Grandfather Matthew HAXBY 1834 – 1902.