John Richard Hill, Private 15/1524, 15th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment

The initial information on J Richard Hill came from two pages copied from a book by an un-named author.  This stated that he was the son of John and Susannah Hill, of 105 Peel Street, Farnley, and born around 1894.  It also mentioned that the family had not been found on the 1891 Census.  When I started to look I could not find them either in 1891, or in 1901 or 1911.  There was a little more information gathered from Rolls of Honour and Memorial lists, plus some details about his early life and schooling.  His name is also on our list of Pals, with his service number, 15/1524, and his death, KIA 1/07/16.  None of these details produced any useful facts.  His army service record had not survived, only the medal records, and the War Graves Site gave no details of parents or home address.  Then I found his entry on the Register of Effects, made up for each man who was killed.

Farnley War Memorial

On the Register was a Next of Kin for John, named as his mother, Rose, and as this would have come from the man himself I thought it likely to be correct.  So I looked for John Richard Hill etc. in conjunction with Rose, and found a 1901 Census which gave the following.

Living at 105 Peel Street, Farnley, a known Hill address, was John Hill, age 27, a corporation labourer, with his mother Sarah Hill, a widow, his sister Rose Hill, age 25 and born in Deen, Northants, his nephew Richard Hill, age 5, born in Farnley, and a boarder, John W Peel, age 18, a carter, born in Farnley. 

There were other Hill siblings, but all younger than John or Rose, and none as likely to be the mother of John Richard as Rose., who was unmarried.

Then came the 1911 Census.  John Hill is still the head but Sarah Hill tops the list of names, and Richard is now given as grandson, a finisher in a cloth mill.  Rose is there, still unmarried, and finally there is John Willie Mawson, a boarder, age 28, a carter, born in Farnley.  Two questions present themselves.  Firstly, was Rose the mother of Richard?  To which I think the answer is probably.  Secondly, were John Peel and John Mawson the same person?  This time I thought possibly, and I believed this pinned down John Richard Hill, who appears to have been known to the family just as Richard. Could it even be that John was the father of Richard?

In fact I was only half right.  A pension document confirms that Rose was Richard’s mother, and Sarah his grandmother, but his father was Lewis Firth, of 529 Bowling Back Lane, Bradford.  He applied for, but did not get, the pension when Richard was killed, his application being opposed by Sarah. Rose continued to live with her mother and appears again on the 1921 Census, working as a charwoman. She died on 4th January 1939, just short of the registering for the next war, and still unmarried.

There is no reason to reject the background information on Richard, and no way to confirm it either at present, so we accept that he went to Farnley Council School, and was a member of Farnley Parish Church, appearing on their War Memorial, and probably on the Roll of Honour.  He also appears in the baptismal register, as being baptised on 27th October 1895, with a birth date of 18th May 1895.  In the space for parents’ names just Rose is written, no father, but at least we have a starting point.  After that almost nothing until the war begins.  Richard was 19 when it was declared, but didn’t join up immediately.  His number indicates that he signed up in the first part of 1915, and would have gone to Colsterdale for his basic training.  He is listed on the Roll drawn up during this period, and it shows him in D Company, No.13 Platoon.  This was followed by more training at Ripon and Fovant, before the battalion took ship for Egypt on 6th December 1915, to guard the Suez Canal against possible Turkish attacks.  They were not needed, and on 3rd March they sailed again, this time for France, and the Somme, landing at Marseilles on 8th.

This was for the Big Push, which was going to break through the German line, roll up their army, and end the war.  It was to be preceded by a bombardment that would destroy the German barbed wire, trenches and morale, leaving our troops the task of simply walking across and occupying their positions.  But it didn’t work like that.  At 07.30 on the morning of 1st July 1916 around 750 Leeds Pals climbed out of their trenches, to be met with a barrage of rifle and machine gun bullets.  Very few of them got far at all, and probably none as far as their objective, the village of Serre.  When it was over and casualties had been added up, 209 O/Rs had been killed, and 13 officers.  All the other officers were wounded, making a total of 24, and the same number of men later died of their wounds.  It was the first of a number of disasters for the Pals.  What made it worse was that at the end of the day many men could not be accounted for, and one such was Richard. 

On 14th July the Armley and Wortley News reported that three local men were missing.  A week later they reported that local soldiers had said they were dead, but not until 17th March 1917 was Richard’s their death finally confirmed officially.  The Germans had withdrawn to new positions, the Hindenburg Line, leaving the British to advance across the old Somme battlefield, and many bodies were found, casualties of the previous year.  Richard was one of them, and he was buried in Serre Road Cemetery No.3, along with so many other Pals, the nearest they got to Serre.

Photo courtesy of David J Owen

After the war Richard was awarded the 1914-15 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.  These would have been sent to his mother, Rose, along with a Memorial Plaque and Scroll.

Sources:

Ancestry – Census Records, Medal Records, Register of Effects, Baptismal Record

Find My Past – Census Records

CWGC – Death Records

Information provided by Charlie Turpin

Researchers: Peter Taylor and David J Owen

Please Note:

  • All opinions and inferences are the researcher’s own.
  • Please refer to our Glossary of Terms for further information on the terms and phrases used in this post.