Fred and Willie Newsome were the sons of George and Annie Newsome of Honley. They had one older brother Albert, a younger sister Maggie and younger brothers Ernest and Oliver.The family came originally from the Heavy Woollen area, George being employed in the dyeing trade. The family moved to Honley where Annie kept a sweet shop at 62 Thirstin Road, Honley, the family home before the war.

Both Fred and his younger brother Willie were woollen piecers, Fred at Thirstin Mills and Willie at Wrigley’s at Netherton. Albert, a sorting clerk and telephonist, was two years older than Fred. Maggie, being the only girl, remained at home despite passing her eleven plus examinations. Their father, George, had died aged 50 in February 1916 and Annie was left to cope with her large family and the thought of her sons going to war.

Conscription was introduced on 3rd March, 1916 and the two brothers joined-up together in the spring of that year, being given consecutive service numbers in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Fred later transferred to the Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort’s Own), although both brothers were in a number of battalions during their time in the army.

After being widowed, Annie moved from her home at Thirstin Road to 7 Lower Fold, where the remaining family, Maggie, Ernest, Oliver and Beauty the dog settled in. Oliver was keen on visits to the recently opened Palladium Picture House immediately next door and Maggie liked to dance at Hope Bank Pleasure Grounds, near Brockholes. Fred was an active member of the Holmfirth, Honley and Meltham Hunt and was devoted to his hound, Beauty.

Both brothers had strong family ties and sent many letters to their widowed mother and to their siblings, always enquiring about family members and friends still in Honley. They already had close friends in the army. Harry Gaines and Fred seemed inseparable during their training at Sheerness Camp. Willie probably had the more comfortable training at Wimbledon camp on Wimbledon Common.

When finally, at the end of June, their time came to transfer to France, Fred went to camp at le Havre. He described it as “better than Sheppey with plenty of bully beef and biscuits”. Then to ‘the lines’, the letters home became shorter and less informative (for

obvious military reasons). In the middle of August, Fred reported that he was still in the trenches, having a “tough time shell dodging”. However, optimism was strong that it would “all be over by Christmas”.

Willie, after joining-up, had been sent to camp at Hare Hall, near Romford in April 1916. The King’s Royal Rifles shared Hare Hall with the 28th County of London Regiment at that time. Willie would not be aware of the fact that war poet Wilfrid Owen was undertaking officer training with the 28th at Hare Hall at the same time as he and his mates were billeted there. The Honley men went on to their training camp at Wimbledon in mid-April.

In the letters to his mother, Annie, Willie told how their new home was a series of huts holding 20 men, spacious with a store room and (something to be remarked upon) electric lighting. The huts were laid out like a big town and included a YMCA building with a piano. The room there, he said, was twice the size of Honley Co-op hall.

Although he was able to return home once for his Sunday boots, Willie was soon back home for a second time and visited the local theatre. At that point he expected to remain in Wimbledon “for the duration”. Fred was able to visit him at camp and on one occasion they slept six to a bed in order to stay overnight.

In mid-May Willie joined a group on a bombing course and they had their photograph taken with a Brigade officer. At one point they went to Stamford Bridge sports ground
in London for a bombing competition.

Then came notification that 100 of the men would be going to the front on Monday 22nd May.

With their kit handed in and their wills made out (Willie left what little he had to his sister Maggie), they set off two days later for Folkestone and the boat crossing to Boulogne.

Willie found himself in the same tent as 13 others including his good friend from Honley, Willie Lindley. Willie Newsome kept a pocket book in which he kept the addresses of family and friends. He also noted (probably illicitly) his movements at the front.

For example, on 26th May, he left Boulogne camp for Etaples, further down the coast of the English Channel. In June, Willie wrote home that the first 40 were sent forward to join the battalion, but not the two Willies. Instead they found themselves swimming in the English Channel at Paris Plage.

Willie Newsome’s turn at the front came in the first week of July at the start of the Battle of the Somme, when he laboured in a trench at Ploegsteert across the Belgian border for almost five days, moving sandbags in a working party. There he found another Honley lad, Abe Chambers of Brooke Fold, who had enlisted in October 1915. (Abe survived much of the war but died on 24th August, 1918.)

He went back into the trenches at 7.00am on 16th July and came out on 23rd July at 6.00am. Annie sent her son a cake for his 21st birthday on Tuesday 25th July. He spent the day in the trenches, but was soon out again and on 12 days rest and recuperation.

However, the news reached him there of the death of two Honley men, Reggie Walker who was killed in action with the 2nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, on 1st July and John Townsend, a 2nd lieutenant with 12th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales Own) who was killed at Bazentin on 14th July.

By 3rd August, 1916, Willie was again in the trenches but came out on the 8th. This was followed by an inspection on 14th August. He then slept in a barn following some route marches. Willie’s group was pulled back and they were at Abbeville by 24th August.

They left again on 6th September by train to the town of Albert, back on the Somme, near the front. He wrote home on 8th September to tell his mother that he expected to be in the firing line next as the battle was very near. This was to be his last letter to Annie.

On Saturday 16th September, the 21st King’s Royal Rifles were advancing towards the village of Flers on the Somme as part of the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. This battle was notable as it was the first occasion on which tanks were used in battle, the attack being supported

by 49 tanks. During the course of the battle, Willie was struck by a gunshot to the head and was taken to 28 Casualty Clearing Station which had just been set up in a nursing home at Fouilloy, one of the principal British bases.

The sister-in-charge wrote to Annie to say that her son had never regained consciousness and had passed away peacefully a few hours after being hit. He is buried at Heilly Station Cemetery, Mericourt-L’Abbe, south west of the town of Albert.

Meanwhile, Fred, who was with the 13th King’s Royal Rifles, was concerned that he had not received a letter from his brother. His Company was also in the trenches on the Somme in mid-October as part of a renewed assault to regain battle objectives.

In atrocious weather conditions on the afternoon of 12th October, an unsuccessful attempt was made to gain a few yards when, at around 7.00pm, Fred and Lance Corporal Gilbert Weston were hit by the blast from a rifle grenade which landed close to them.

Later that evening, Fred’s sergeant, John William Stott, wrote to Annie to say that her son had been killed and that he had died without pain within a few minutes of being struck. Fred was however, admitted to 38 Casualty Clearing Station. Confusingly, the sister in charge reported to Annie that he died a few hours after admission but did not suffer at all.

Annie Newsome had lost two sons within four weeks. It had a profound effect on the whole family. Annie appears to have become ill, for later letters showed her in a convalescent home.

The Chaplain to the 13th King’s Royal Rifles, Rev Ernest W Trevor, wrote to Annie three days later to say that Fred had been laid to rest, side by side with L/c Weston in an official grave nearby. A cross had been placed at the head and its location marked by the Graves Registration Committee. All the officers and a large number of men of the Company were present at the funeral. Reverend Trevor, too, was killed on 14th November, just four weeks after officiating at Fred’s burial.

As a tribute to Fred and as a way of raising money for his mother, the Holmfirth, Honley and Meltham Hunt reprinted an epic poem about the members, which had first been written and published in 1915. Two new verses and a special chorus were added and the reprinted sheet was sold at twopence a copy. One thousand copies were made available, either from the committee or from the Express office in Holmfirth.

One of Willie Newsome’s pals, Willie Lindley, is included in several of the photographs taken in 1916. Willie Lindley was born in Brockholes in 1898, the son of Joe and Ann. Like the Newsome brothers, he had three brothers and a sister. They lived in Bright’s Buildings at Neiley. Willie worked at Gledhill and Roberts Bobbin Works at Honley Bridge, just behind Station Road and enlisted in Huddersfield where he joined the 10th Battalion King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He was killed in action over a year after his pal, on 30th November, 1917.

Fred and Willie Newsome were not the only brothers from Honley to be killed in France. Archie and Willie Munro, who lived in Magdale were both killed in 1916, October and July respectively. Archie Monro had received a gift from Honley and had sent a letter of thanks from Fencham camp in Farnham to George Borwell.

Brothers Ben and Colin Hanson, sons of Sergeant George Henry Hanson of Honley police and his wife Lucy, also lost their lives. Both were cloth finishers and were born in Barnsley just a year apart, moving to Honley when their father transferred to the village. The Huddersfield Examiner reported on the lives of the enlisted men and printed a letter which Lance Corporal Ben Hanson wrote on 14th May, 1915 to his father and mother at Ebor House, Highfield Terrace.

We have just come out of the trenches after being in four days and we were very glad to come out. Last night was the first time we had our clothes off for a week, so you can guess why we are pleased. I suppose it is the Holmfirth Feast; if we had been at home, we should have gone to the sing. It is very trying at times, as we are asleep after being in the trenches. I received the box of cigarettes from Messrs Brook’s dyeworks and was very pleased with them. It rained two days the last time we were in the trenches. I don’t know how they stood it last winter.

Ben Hanson was killed in action nine months later at Maily-Maillet on 7th March, 1916 and his brother was reported missing on 3rd May, 1917, the first day of the second Battle of Bullecourt near Arras.

Also from Magdale were Gunners Henry and Albert Parkin. Henry was killed in October 1916 and Albert in May two years later. Their father, Joe, was an engineer at Magbridge dyeworks. Henry worked at Eastwood Brothers’ Thirstin Mill and his brother Albert at Crowther’s Mill in Milnsbridge. Two more to lose their lives were the Hinchliffe brothers, Harold and Lewis, from Cross Street, in the village. As can be seen from the newspaper report on page 11, there was confusion over which brother had been killed in May 1917, although both died in the course of the year.