THE HARTSHILL WAR MEMORIALS

HARTSHILL CHURCHYARD
The Memorial was dedicated and unveiled on Saturday 19 March 1921 by Colonel John Ward CB
CMG, the MP for Stoke-on-Trent, having been first considered in June 1919. and listed the names of
104 men of Hartshill, Basford and Cliff Vale who died in the Great War. One name has disappeared,
probably through vandalism at an unknown date. The missing name is E Hemmings but there is a
complication in that there are two candidates for the one place, Edward and Ernest Hemmings,
cousins. Edward Hemmings, a regular soldier, was killed 24 October 1914, his family had lived at 2
Baggs Row (Kingswell Road) and later at 9 Stoke Old Road. His brother Thomas was also killed, but
he is not recorded on the memorial. Ernest Hemmings died on 26 February 1916, married and living
then in Newcastle, though his parents still lived at 634 Hartshill Road. His brother, Bertie was also
killed 21 March 1918 and again his name is not recorded. The last name chronologically is Dent
Poole who died 14 November 1918, though has is pointed out above, there are apparent omissions,
of names of soldiers who died before that date, seven of whom are buried in Hartshill Cemetery, (if
the names of three from Basford in the original pre-1915 parish are included).
All of the soldiers have been identified There are 11 sets of brothers on the Memorial (Adams,
Attwood, Cartlidge, Eardley, Foster, Grindey, Moran, Mountford, Price, Shuker and Smith), as
well as two half brothers: William Bennett and Harry Ingles and their brother in law John Heeks.
Walter Henshall and Thomas Simmons were cousins. John Sturge and Frederick Till shared a
common grandmother, though had different grandfathers.
A few facts known about those listed, including both possible E Hemmings - 68 have graves and 37
only a memorial. 89 are in France or Belgium (56 graves, 33 memorials), 7 in Iraq (4 graves 3
memorials); 5 in England and 1 each in Guernsey,Turkey (memorial), Egypt and Pakistan. The
memorials in France or Belgium with the 33 names listed on the Hartshill War Memorial are Loos 9;
Thiepval 9; Tyne Cot 5; Menin Gate 3 Ploegsteert 3; Arras 2; Pozieries 1 and Vis-en-Artois 1. The
graves are in 53 different cemeteries, only those in Fins New British Cemetery at Sorel-le-Grand, with
two and at Foncquevillers, for two killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme, contain more than
a single burial. In some cases the present burial place is not the original because many bodies were
exhumed from smaller burial places and concentrated in larger cemeteries after the Wars end. It is
the case that the details provided in the cemetery registers, of next of kin , where given, was that
which was obtained some years after the War, allowing for changes of address and the problems of
identification that that can cause.
There are many soldiers named on memorials as missing, might actually be buried but only Known
unto God. For example the Tyne Cot Memorial in Tyne Cot Cemetery north-east of Ypres as 11,953
burials of which 8,366 are unidentified. Dud Corner which houses the Loos Memorial has over 2,000
burials of which more than 50% are unidentified and Pozieres Cemetery with the Pozieres Memorial,
2,758 burials with 1,380 unidentified.
Of the known ages: 22 were 20 or under, the youngest being John Averill age 15 years 354 days.
Also in that category were 5 members of the original Hartshill Scout Troop formed in 1913 Leonard
Binns; Robert Eabry; Albert Evans; Frank Lawley and William Stone. 27 were aged 30 or over,
the oldest Thomas Coomer age 42.
It is likely that 23 of the soldiers were married men and that 17 were fathers. John Moran had six
children; William Bennett, Charles Hulme and Frederick Till each had four children.

THE MEMORIALS IN HARTSHILL CHURCH

ROYAL GARRISON ARTILLERY MEMORIAL
The North Midland (Staffs) Heavy Battery Royal Garrison Artillery was a Territorial Force unit
formed in 1908 which was first based in Etruria, but which moved to the new Drill Hall in Wilfred Place
in 1911. There are 100 names on the memorial, but only three can be positively identified as living in
Hartshill, Alfred Daykene, Harry Rodger and Frank Smith. Alfred Daykene and Frank Smith are
named on the Churchyard War Memorial, but for some reason Harry Rodger is not. The Memorial
was unveiled 12 January 1930 by the Reverend Tubby Clayton who founded Talbot House Toc
H for the benefit of soldiers on leave in Ypres during the War. Although only three are definitely from
Hartshill, ten can not be readily identified, but of those that can, 47 of the 90 are from Stoke-on-Trent
nd/ st
or Newcastle. On 27 September 1916, 12 members of the 2 /1 Battery were killed, including eight
from Stoke-on-Trent and Wolstanton and are buried in a row in Hebuterne Military Cemetery..

ST STEPHENS MISSION CHURCH CLIFF VALE ROLL OF HONOUR

This Roll of Honour in the Church is from the former Mission Church in Garner Street and has names
of those who served as well as those killed. It also has names from the Second World War added.
From the Great War, eleven, Normam Attwood; Percy Attwood; Stephen Dale; Thomas Hand;
Walter Henshall; Charles Malkin; William Melbourne; John Moran; Joseph Moran; Thomas
Simmons and Alfred Wright are listed on the Churchyard Memorial, of the remaining five, only two
can be identified readily, Harold Beach of Bank Terrace, Etruria Road, who later lived in Gloucester
and G (George) Hemmings, a regular soldier, like his brother, Edward and once of BrickKiln Lane,
both survived the War. John Dobbs, Leonard Parry, Vincent Sargent and D Whitehouse can not,
though a Thomas Henry Whitehouse from Garner Street, a discharged soldier, who died 17 July
1918, and buried in a War Grave in Hartshill Cemetery, might be intended. There was a Samuel
Thomas Sargeant, born in 1886, who lived at 4 Bailey Street, Cliff Vale in 1911, and at 33 Garner
Street on the 1918 Electoral Roll, but whether or not he served in the War is not known,
ST MATTHEWS MISSION CHURCH KINGSCROFT HARTSHILL (WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN)
The whereabouts of this Memorial, which formed part of the altar screen, at the former church, is at
present unknown, a photograph being the only record. It is dedicated to The members of the Sunday
School, Choir and Congregation of the Church who gave their lives in the Great War Of the 26
names, 20 are on the Churchyard War Memorial, on the first panel are named John Averill; William
Bennett; John Brooksbank; Frank Bryan; Frank Caddy; George Cliffe; Robert Eabry; John
Eardley; William Eardley; Charles Ellison; the next two names obscured by drapery on the first
panel, are probably Albert Evans and John Heeks; The second panel names Harry Ingles; Albert
Roberts; Joseph Shuker; William Shuker; Ernest Smith; Frank Smith and Frederick Till., There
is also the name of one of the Hemmings family but the initial is unreadable. Whether this is the E
Hemmings who name is lost from the Churchyard Memorial is impossible to say.
Those not listed on the Churchyard War Memorial are: J Davies; J Johnson; W Johnson; WA Lunt
and RW Roberts.
.
Of those named above, William Alfred Lunt lived at 767 Hartshill Road and died 21 June 1918,
th
serving with the 13 Battalion The Royal Scots and RW Roberts is probably Reginald William
Roberts, formerly of 33 Albert Street, Newcastle, and baptised at Hartshill in 1892, whose family had
moved to Runcorn by 1911. His family lived in Victoria Street in 1891. He died 15 July 1916, serving
th
with 10 Battalion Cheshire Regiment.
Details of J Davies J Johnson and W Johnson are at present unknown and may prove impossible to
identify on the Commonwealth War Graves website there are 531 J Daviess; 441 J Johnsons and
367 W Johnsons.