Beckingham Roll Of Honour

The Roll of Honour records the names of seventy eight men from the Parish who went to fight in many parts of the world in defence of freedom. With only 112 households (as recorded in the 1901 census) the total population of Beckingham in the second decade of the last century would have been much smaller than today (now there are over 500 properties) and those seventy eight names would have represented a considerable proportion of all the males in the village – as they left and went off to join their regiments one can, nearly one hundred years later, only think what effect their absence would have had on what was at that time a small farming village.

Many joined local regiments such as the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, the Lincolnshire Yeomanry, the Yorkshire and Lancashire or the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiments; one found himself in the Field Bakery Services and yet another, A Roland Payne, is recorded as serving in the Imperial Camel Brigade.

There is another Roll of Honour in the church that records the names and photographs of ten of the seventy eight who never returned to the village. They were killed in action in battle areas all over the vast field of conflict and their names are also recorded in the Portland stone of the War Memorial where they will be remembered for evermore – today 89 years after the Armistice the Parish continues to hold a Service of Remembrance both in All Saints Church and at the Memorial where the traditional silence is observed and a wreath of poppies is laid. Click here to be directed to the church pages.

It is, perhaps, a matter for some regret that no Roll of Honour has ever been drawn up for those men and women who went from Beckingham to serve in the Second World War and one name that would surely have been included would be George Alma Brumby who died 29th March 1946. He died from war injuries after the end of the 2nd World War.  In March 2012 Beckingham and Saundby History Group arranged for his name to be included on the Portland Stone Memorial. He was an aircraftman 2nd class, 2216901, serving with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve force and was aged 21 when he died in Sheffield Hospital. Son of George Albert and Eva Brumby and remembered with honour in Beckingham All Saints’ Churchyard extension.

In addition to the Roll of Honour the Parochial Church Council dedicated a new Litany Desk “In thankful remembrance of the courage and self-sacrifice of the loyal sons of this parish who took part in the Great War 1914-1918, and of the many prayers and thanksgivings offered here in those anxious days”.

Below is a full list of the seventy eight men that appear on the Roll of Honour and who served for Beckingham, including the 10 men that did not survive.

Arthur, Leslie W – Cadet Lance Corporal Nottingham Officers Training Corps

Such heavy casualties were caused to the Battalion, and the Battalions on each side of them, that the order to retreat was given.  Out of five hundred and seventy eight soldiers in the 6th Battalion, over four hundred of them became casualties, including Percy Ballance, who has no known grave. His name appears on the Helles Memorial, Turkey.

Barnhurst Coles, Frederick – Corporal 2nd Lincolnshire Regiment – wounded and discharged, frost bitten, 1915
Barnhurst Coles, George – Corporal 5th Lincolnshire Regiment – blinded and wounded in Acheres
Barthorpe, James – 5th Lincolnshire Regiment
Batty, Frank
Batty, Walter – Royal Garrison Artillery
Beaumont, Benjamin – Corporal Australian Army Service Corps
Beaumont, Frank – Lance Corporal, Matabeleland Mounted Police

Berry, Oliver Edwin
42865 Private 4th North Staffordshire Regiment
Died Wednesday 8th May 1918 – aged 19, son of William and Rose Ada Berry.
Oliver Berry was a casualty in one of the Field Hospitals close to the town of Rouen, France.

He died from either wounds or illness, and is buried in the St Sever Cemetery Extension, which has over eight thousand soldiers buried there.

Bee, John – Gunner Royal Garrison Artillery
Bee, William – Sherwood Foresters, prisoner of war in Germany 1918 – 21.05.1918
Bell, Frederick – Royal Fusiliers
Bell, Percy – Garrison Guard Company
Brumby, Herbert S – Sherwood Foresters
Brumby, Percy – North Staffordshire Regiment, discharged after wounds
Brundell, Joseph – 3rd Lincolnshire Regiment
Burden, Henry – 10th Royal Hussars
Byron, Joseph A – Sergeant Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry

Clark, Henry Thomas
4th South Staffordshire later Worcestershire Regiment
Died 23rd April 1917 – aged 25, son of Mary Clark and Thomas Clark
In the spring of 1917 the British Army was attacking the strong system of German defences called the Hindenburg Line.

Many casualties resulted, among whom was Henry Clark, whose name is on the Arras Memorial in France with no known grave.

Carver, Ernest 0 Corporal Australian Army Service Corps – later Royal Flying Corps
Carver, George Frederick – 3rd W Yorkshire Regiment – severely wounded October 1918
Clark, Frederick J – 8th Notts & Derbs Sherwood Foresters
Clark, Walter – Driver Royal Garrison Artillery – later working on munitions September 1918
Clarke, Albert Henry – Field Bakery Services

Clarke, Sims
1287 Lance Corporal
Died Saturday 28th April 1917 – aged 23, son of J J & Mrs E F Clarke of Westwoods, Sturton by Stow
On the 28th April 1917, the 10th Lincolnshire Regiment, who were part of the 34th Infantry Division, attacked the town of Roux, in France. The Germans counter-attacked, and the Battalion had over four hundred casualities, killed, wounded and missing.

One of them was Sims Clarke who along with Henry Thomas Clark (above) is also commemorated on the Arras Memorial with no known grave

Dixon, Laurence
Garner, Walter – Driver Royal Field Artillery
Gosling, Jonathan – 12th Gloucestershire Regiment

Greenside, Christopher
15318 Private with 1st Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment
Died Thursday 3rd June 1915
On this date the 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment were supporting the 6th Cavalry Brigade in the areas of Hooge Wood and Zouave Wood, near Ypres, Belgium.

At the time of death the regiment would have taken part in the second Battle of Ypres which began in April 1915 when the Germans released poison gas into the Allied lines.  Christopher Greenside’s name is on Panel 21, at the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres with no known grave.

Heathershaw, Frederick – Tank Corps
Heathershaw, Samuel – 6th Scottish Rifles
Heathershaw, William – Sergeant Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry
Hill, William H – Army Service Corps

Harrison, William Henry
58319 Private – 1st Battalion, Leicestershire Regiment
Died Tuesday, 8th October 1918 – aged 21, son of Herbert and Louisa Harrison of The Woods Farm. The village of Montbrehain France was in the front line, and changed hands several times.

High Tree Cemetery, Montbrehain, where William Harrison is buried, is just outside the village, and contains 48 graves (3 of which are unidentified), all of whom were killed in October 1918.

Leaning, Lewis
17967 Corporal, 1st Royal Marine Light Infantry, Royal Naval Division
Died Saturday 23rd March 1918
Because of very heavy casualties among infantry soldiers, a Division of Infantry was formed from Sailors and Royal Marines, who were sent to fight in the trenches instead of at sea. A very sudden German attack in force in the spring of 1918 caused thousands of casualties, one of whom was Lewis Leaning. He is commemorated on the Arras Memorial and has no known grave.

Leaning, Robert – Army Service Corps
Matthews, George – Corporal Remount Service
Matthews, Walter – Royal Marines

Matthews, Frederick Richard
26093 Private in the 2nd Duke of Wellingtons West Riding of Yorkshire Regiment
Died Wednesday 10th October 1917 – aged 34, son of Thompson and Elizabeth Matthews of Beckingham and husband of Mabel Matthews of Hyson Green, Nottingham.
The Duke of Wellingtons Regiment took part in the First Battle of Passchendale in October 1917. The area of fighting was very muddy, with water-filled shell holes, and swept by rifle and machinegun bullets, plus shells exploding both in the ground and in the air.

Many soldiers bodies were never recovered, and Frederick Matthews would have been reported firstly as ‘missing’ and later as ‘presumed dead’ as he has no known grave. His name appears on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium which is where many of the remains from the battlefields of Passchendale and Lanjemarck were brought and which bears the names of almost 35,000 officers and men whose graves are not known.

Thompson, Frank
22146 Private in the 9th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (The Notts & Derby Sherwood Foresters Regiment)
Died Thursday 4th October 1917 – aged 27, son of Mrs Lucy Thompson, husband of Martha Thompson of Beecher Lane, Beckingham.
The Sherwood Foresters were involved in the battles in the Ypres area in late 1917, and many soldiers’ bodies were never identified. Frank Thompson is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium, and has no known grave.

Thompson, William
1174 Private in the 1st/8th Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derby Regiment)
Died Thursday 14th October 1915
William Thompson’s name is on a panel of the Loos Memorial, in the Pas de Calais area of France, as he has no known grave.

The Memorial commemorates over twenty thousand soldiers who were killed in this area during the war, and have no graves.