ARMITAGE, Joshua

ă  3/2872 Pte 3rd Bn K O Y L I. Sent to France 13/11/1914 as he was in the Territorials before the War. (DC 8/6/1915; J Armitage, Bamford, wounded). Discharged 4/4/1916.

Article in the Derbyshire Courier 5/6/1915; Private J Armitage, whose home is in Main Road, Bamford, is in Hospital at Thorpe Hall, Thorpe-le-Soken, having been seriously wounded. The most recent letter to his wife and mother (Mrs Devlin) at Bamford say he is feeling a bit better, but his wound is so ugly and painful. He has to take morphia every night to induce sleep. He says he should walk straight into death if he went out to the front again. ”I have done my duty to my country, and with God’s help I have pulled through it, leaving hundreds of my comrades dead upon the field. I have gone out in the night and risked my life many times to bury a comrade and put a little wooden cross where he lies, and volunteered to fetch water and rations. I have never feared danger because I felt I had God’s hand to guide me. I have knelt in the trenches many a time when we have made a charge and said a prayer, thinking it would be my last chance. It has taken the dogs six months to wound me but it has cost them dear. Many a one have I sniped and stuck, so I have had my revenge for myself and one or two of my poor chums. Whether I will be able to see the finish I do not know, but I will go with a good heart if I can only think my wife and children and you are in good health and comfortable. God knows we have suffered through the terrible war, but I was in good health then and plenty of blood in my body, but I am weak now, and the blood is sapped out of me, but with plenty of nourishment and fresh air I will pull through it all”.

Interestingly he sends the letter also to his mother a Mrs Devlin, and is all the more poignant when one looks at his life both before and afterwards.

b 1886 Walton on the Hill, Liverpool father Samuel Armitage, mother Annie, who became Ann Devlin. (SDT 1/10/1904; Living at 28 Rawson Street, Sheffield, convicted for stealing lead along with Robert Lilley, who was chased into the river by a police constable. Each fined 20/- or 14 days in default. Obviously he defaulted for he ended up in Wakefield prison). He married Rose Beatson in 1906 (who was possibly underage at the time, as she was b 1890 Sheffield).  1911C; living at Bamford, a labourer, next door to Ann Devlin (his mother?). 1918 Absent voters list address 2 Hilltop, Outseats, but gives no military information as he was out of the Army by this time. (Sheffield Evening Telegraph 19/11/1917 ‘H Armitage, Hill Top, fined 40s for losing 64½ hours, by the Sheffield Munitions Court) It is thought this is a typing mistake, and almost certainly refers to Joshua. (DC 24/1/1920 ‘Joshua Armitage ex-soldier fined for smashing windows in the Station Hotel, Hathersage). (Belper News 30/1/1920; In a fit of passion because he was ejected from the Station Hotel, Hathersage, the young soldier smashed two plate glass windows after closing time on January 1st. Sent to prison for a month and ordered to pay £15 cost of the windows. He had done odd jobs at the Hotel. He had been existing on 22/9 per week and thought his wife and children would have to go into the workhouse). and again (Belper News; 8/10/1920; ‘summoned for not sending his three children to school. Ordered to send them to Hathersage School and to pay costs’) and (DC 21/5/1921 ‘in court through not sending his children to school’, he said he had a wife and five children and was disabled and had been shot through the ankle during the war). (Derby Daily Telegraph 11/8/1928 ‘arrested for theft’ but goes onto say he was wounded at the battle for Hill 60 (Ypres April/May 1915). There is also a string of convictions for his wife’s family! He died 1967 in the Workhouse in Sheffield.

APPLEYARD, James

9289 Pte 17 Bn Manchester Regt. Died of Wounds 22/9/1916. (SDT 29/9/1916; Leg shattered by a shell and has died of his wounds in a Manchester hospital.) Buried in Manchester Southern Cemetery, Manchester.

b 1879 Baulk Lane, Hathersage, youngest son of James and Hannah Appleyard formerly of Oddfellows Row, Hathersage and brother of Clara, mother of Sydney Hind, below. 1911C; Living at Rusholme, Manchester, James was the husband of Mary Alice of Prestwich, Manchester and he was a member of Manchester Police Force and uncle to Wilson Eyre Appleyard below.

 

ANTHES, Charles Edward Frederick Alfred

ă 66126 Pte 5 Signal Coy R.E. G/44287 Duke of Cambridge Own, Middlesex Regt. He enlisted, age 34 in December 1915 but was not called up until March or April 1917 to join the R.E. In October 1917 he was slightly wounded in France, although he had recovered by November. By 1918 he may have been recalled back to his Signal Unit R E as they wanted to keep the better, more experienced soldiers. and this is possibly why he appears on the 1918 Absent Voters list as; 165358 Pnr R.E. Sig H Corps Heavy Artillery, his address given as 1 Roslyn Road. He was abroad until early 1919 and was officially demobbed 1/5/1919. He was awarded the two standard WW1 medals. His exact postings and duties are not known.

b 1881 Georgenhausen Hessen, Germany. Name anglicised from Carl Authes to Charles Edward Friederick Alfred ANTHES. His mother was Emily Del Strother, which ties in this family with the Del Strothers family below. In 1903 he married Nima Louise Roberts b 1873 Sheffield. Her sister Jessie Mabel Roberts married Arthur Dobney King (see below). Charles’s daughter Margaret married Edward del Strother. (see below). Charles died in Lincoln in 1959.

His wife’s family (Roberts) was living at Moorseats, Hatherasge, 1876/1881 according to Kelly’s Directory, then later at Sheffield.

Charles, working as a foreign correspondent for a steel manufacturer, and Nima lived at Retford and then Knowle Cottage, Nether Padley, (1911C) and were the parents of a Denis del Strother Anthes b 1910 and Margaret Jessie Anthes b 1906. Charles and Nima later moved to ‘Bankwood’ (Ninelands Road) Hathersage. They lived there until Nima’s death just after VE day in 1945.

During WW2 Charles was a night watchman at an engineering works in Bamford, probably the Vickers works, where William Henry Hickinson worked? (DT 21/6/1924; ‘his wife was running the Hathersage Mothers Union’). Several other articles refer to her membership of various Hathersage committees. (DT 7/10/1933; Engagement of their son Denis Del Strother Anthes lately of ‘Bankwood’ Hathersage, to Patricia Carter, younger daughter of Mr & Mrs T Carter of Brookfield Manor. (Denis was awarded a MBE in WW2). Many details came from his great grand daughter.