Month: November 2016

ă 211052 Pte 412 Labour Corps., b 1885 Hathersage, lived at The Dale, a bricklayers labourer. He was one of 12 children but only 5 had survived by 1911.

✟ ≠ Pte 15/1885 Prince of Wales Own West Yorkshire Regt. KIA 1/10/1916. Remembered on Thiepval Memorial. Do not know of any UK memorial.  b 1887 Leeds. 1911C at Leeds, a carter. His father, William Higginbottom b 1862 Hathersage. He had two other brothers of military age but no details of them have been found.

ă Gnr R G A, wounded. (DC 26/6/1917 listed as wounded although this report may refer to the wrong brother?) (DC 11/9/1917 ‘Ill in Hospital’).  b 1896 Hathersage, lived at The Dale, Hathersage. Brother of John.

ă 99003 Gnr 67 Brigade R F A,  wounded and also caught malaria.  b 1883 Hathersage. Lived variously at The Dale, Nether Hall Lodge and Millers Bank, Hathersage, a gardener. Brother of Joseph. 1919 absent voters address, School Lane, Hathersage.

58602 Pte Leicestershire Regt.  Prior to enlisting he worked in one of the munitions factories in Sheffield, which was a reserved occupation. His own diary gives a detailed account of his moves. He joins the army 11/5/1918 and on 16 May arrives at North Somercotes Army training camp in Lincolnshire and is attached to the 4 Bn Leicestershire Regt. C Company. On 11/10/1918 ‘Arrived Calais’ and on 14th ‘Left camp for the line’. On 19 Oct William arrives at Bohain and on 20 leaves for the front line. ‘Left Bohain, went into action 1.30. Slightly wounded in neck and back’- The Battle of the Selle – William injured on 23/10/1918, the date of the fiercest fighting and, apparently the only battle he was in.  It is understand the Division was billeted around Bohain at the Armistice on 11/11/1918 and it was selected to march into Germany as part of the occupation force. They began to move 14-18 November to Solre-le-Chateau to assemble. The Division crossed the German border on 13 December and reached its destination at Bruehl on 23 December. However William was in Dieppe all this time, convalescing. He was in hospitals from Oct 1918 to Jan 1919 when he was at last sent on to Germany.

b 1890 The Dale, Hathersage, son of John D Hickinson & Martha (nee Wilson, daughter of James Wilson b London 1826). 1911C living at The Dale, a quarry stone cutter. Brother of Jack Cotterill Hickinson and nephew of Hugo Charles and George Alfred Hickinson.  He married Clare Emily McCain 12/4/1913. On 25/6/1918 there was a request to forward his marriage certificate and birth certificates of their children for Infantry Records, Leics Regt.  It appears that Clare may have been able to claim a grant when William was enlisted. His ‘slightly wounded’ amounted to shrapnel wounds in his neck –– they didn’t operate, possibly too dangerous to do so. According to his son it caused him a problem throughout his life afterwards – especially when shaving!  At home William was secretary to the Hathersage Band, and a member of the Fire Service.

In WW2, he served again by working in munitions, this time at Bamford, in buildings next to the (now demolished) Marquis of Granby Hotel, taken over by Metro Vickers. Most of this information has come from his granddaughter who has his diary. She also has some letters written home during the war, and his X rays taken in hospital, the postcards he sent home to his wife from Germany in 1919, together with a copy of the Hathersage Band rules which he wrote up, and various photos of him in the band. In his younger days he was easily identifiable as a very dapper young man in a cap and with a bow tie.

Pte 70032 Tank Corps. b 1888 Stannington.1901C at Stannington.1911C a bricklayer at Sheffield. Father Joseph, b Hathersage 1864, brother of Alfred Hickinson above.

ă Enlisted 25/2/1916,  335452 Pte 1/9 (Highlanders) Bn Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. He joined the battalion at the front in France, probably late 1916 or early 1917. Between 29/2/1916 to 4/3/1916 the 9th Royal Scots joined the 51st (Highland) Division.  The Division was moved to the Somme on 12 July and took part in a three division attack on High Wood on the night of 22/23 July 1916. The attack was repulsed. The Division took part in the Battle of Ancre on 13/11/1916 where the successful assault on Beaumont Hamel gained it a huge reputation. Through 1917 the Division fought at Arras, the Third Ypres/Passchendale and the Battle of Cambrai. In the Battle of Arras the role of the Division was to capture the southern shoulder of Vimy Ridge, facing a heavy enemy barrage and in places four lines of trenches. It was involved in the First Battle of the Scarpe, the Second Battle of the Scarpe, the Battle of Pilckem, and the Battle of Langemark, where probably John was injured. He was badly wounded in both legs. (DT 13/10/1917 with a photo of him, reports he is in hospital in Brighton and gives details of injury to one leg by an explosive bullet, and to the other by a bullet passing through it) He must have spent several months in hospital in France before being transferred to Kitchener’s Hospital Brighton. (DT 29/9/1917 ‘is being transferred to base’).

After Kitchener’s Hospital he was sent up to Longshaw Auxiliary Red Cross Hospital, near his home for recuperation, where he was photographed with William Henry (see below) and his wife prior to William’s enlistment in May 1918. He is pictured on a bed in the grounds of Longshaw Lodge. Longshaw’s historian told grand-niece Kate, that he had possibly been gassed and was outside as much as possible. John was officially discharged on 7/6/1918 according to his Medal Card. (DC 25/5/1918; ‘Discharged from further service due to wounds’.  b 1898 Hathersage. 1911C living at The Dale, son of John D Hickinson & Martha, (nee Wilson, daughter of James Wilson b London 1826), and brother of William Henry Hickinson and nephew of Hugo Charles and George Alfred Hickinson. His address on the 1918 absent voters list is Downing Row, Hathersage. Employed at Co-op Stores. He died in 1967 at Ashford-in-the-Water, Derbyshire. Father of Brian and Desmond. Brian lived on Downing Row, Hathersage and for many years played the drums for the AD4 Dance Band. He died in 1981.

122754 Pnr R.E. 294550 Pte Lab Corps.  b 1873 Hathersage, 1881C living at Nether Hall Lodge, 1911C at The Booths. Brother to George Alfred Hickinson and uncle to Austin Hickinson, John Cotterill Hickinson and HICKINSON, William Henry.

Z/12967  R N V R.., joined late in the war and after training at Crystal Palace ‘H.M.A. Victory VI’,  he spent a very harsh winter at Scapa Flow naval base in the Orkneys. He was discharged from the Navy in Feb 1919. It is possible he would have seen the arrival of the German Fleet at Scapa Flow in Nov 1918 to Jan 1919, but would not have witnessed its infamous scuttling on 21/6/1919.  b 23/6/1900 Aston, 1911C at Thornhill.  His father William was born in Hathersage, and in 1925 Kellys Directory; he farmed at Tor Farm, Hazleford. 1911C his grandfather George had Broadhay Farm. Sometime after 1912 the family moved back into the village, probate record states Leadmill Farm.  He died in 1950 from lung cancer, the probate record states; of Leadmill Farm

ß ă Щ  187733 Acting Sgt  Works Bn D L I, later A.S.C. (DC 21/9/1918; ‘Sgt, Army Service Corps Observer, ‘home on leave this week’).  b 1879 and lived 1 Crossland Road, Hathersage, a joiner and decorator. Father of Austin Hickinson, brother to Hugo Charles Hickinson, uncle of John Cotterill Hickinson and William Henry Hickinson. Wife; Gertrude.