Herbert Watson Atkinson

Sergeant 8th Battalion (Duke of Wellington's) West Yorkshire Regt
Killed in action 14th September 1916 at Flers-Courcelette (Somme)

My maternal grandfather was born Herbert Watson Atkinson (known as Bert) at the family home at 2, Scarcroft Hill, York. He served a craft apprenticeship and became a fully-trained and highly-skilled coach builder. He followed his trade across the country, working for a number of companies in rapid succession. Between 1899 and 1902, the family moved from York to Lincolnshire - Shropshire - Leicestershire (Nanpanton) - Lancashire (unspecified) - Manchester (2 addresses, in Newton Heath and Boggart Hole Clough) and eventually Penwortham (Preston). It has been suggested that this peripatetic life style was forced on him because he was regarded by employers as a trouble-maker - he was a keen and active socialist and trade unionist. He was also a singer of arias (with a good voice), a happy man and a lover of the great outdoors. He took the family walking and cycling in the countryside. He also ensured that his children went to Sunday school - not just any Sunday school - in Preston it had to be the Independent Labour Party Sunday School in Preston Town Centre.

He married my grandmother Caroline (born Reynolds) in York in 1895 and they had 4 children - William (Bill), Doris, Edith (my mother) and Violet, who was born with a twisted spine.

In Preston, their first home was at 2, Lark Avenue, Penwortham and Bert worked at the Dick, Kerr and Co "United Electric Car Co" coachworks on Strand Road. In 1907, they moved to 6, Mornington Road, off New Hall Lane. The Penwortham house had been a modern property with all mod. cons, but the Mornington Road property was just a cottage (and cheaper to rent), with open fire for water heating in pans, outside wc (frozen in winter), gas lighting downstairs but candles up. In 1912, the first electric gadgets were installed - a lamp in the living room, and an electric boiler in the kitchen.

Bert volunteered for service in the Boer War, and did some training, but was not allowed to go to South Africa, because he was the father of a young family. When war was declared in August 1914, Bert volunteered immediately for the army, joining the 8th Battalion (Duke of Wellington's) West Riding Regiment, and was sent to France as part of the "rag, tag and bobtail" army . In 1915, he was gassed at Hill 60, and was evacuated to the Alder Hey Hospital in Liverpool to recuperate. Thereafter he was sent to the Dardanelles, and when that fiasco collapsed was sent to Egypt. Late in 1915 he was returned to France and by amazing coincidence bumped into his son Bill on his way in to the line! He was killed on 14th September 1916, at Flers-Courcelette on the Somme (his remains have never been identified).

He was posted on orders as "Absent without leave" and subsequently as a deserter, and consequently Caroline was refused a pension. As part of her fight against this injustice, she cycled from Preston to York on several occasions to progress her claim. Eventually, the War Office admitted that the situation resulted from its own mistake. Although still wearing his sergeant's stripes at the time of his death, he had already been granted a field commission and his papers had been dispatched to the War Office for him to be formally gazetted. It was this lack of paperwork at Regimental Headquarters that led to the misunderstanding. Caroline in fact got a pension as a Lieutentant's widow! His name (and rank as a sergeant) is on the Thiepval Memorial, and on the memorial in The Harris Library and Museum in Preston. He was 43 years old and should not have been in France.

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