EYRE, Wilfred

✟ ≠ Щ 18726 Pte. Served with 1st & 2nd Bn Y & L, wounded soon after arriving in France. D of W 21st April 1916. (DC 13/5/1916; listed as Pte K.I.A. Article goes on to say ‘Mr & Mrs Samuel Eyre’s son of Abney, of York & Lancaster Regt killed in France. He had been previously wounded twice. The intimation of his death has been conveyed by letter from one of his comrades’). Grave; Essex Farm Cemetery, Belgium. See photo of him in 2 Eastern General Hospital on p 15 WHW2W after having been wounded for the first time. b 1892 Millhouse Farm, Abney. (baptized 4/12/1892 Hathersage) son of Samuel Eyre and grandsons of Jacob Eyre of Derwent Woodlands. 1901C at Hope Woodlands. 1911C shows him with James Jacob and Rose (both b Hathersage) with their Uncle Joseph Stubbs and Aunt Ruth at Laneside Farm, Hope Woodlands. He was living with Thomas Wain at the Strines Inn at time of enlistment, and is remembered on both Abney and Derwent Woodlands Memorials. His mother, Fanny Wilson was born at Nether Hurst, Outseats.

Samuel Eyre’s family moved to Abney in 1911 when all farmers, (tenants of the Duke of Norfolk) in and around the Howden Dam were evicted once the dam began to fill.  Until then Samuel Eyre’s father Jacob rented Marebottom Farm, next to the Dam wall and from quite a young age Sam was at Bank Top Farm. It is said that all the livestock were walked from Bank Top, Derwent, to the new farms at Abney, in appalling weather, and, (according to anecdotes gathered from Derwent Valley Water Board workers,  gleaned from them during breaks between drives when Grouse beating on Ronksley moor), the horses returned to Bank Top several days later, and were seen swimming across the water in a direct line to their old pastures.

Samuel’s other sons were James Jacob, George Arthur and Benjamin Wilson, of his daughters; Ruth committed suicide in 1933, aged 42, during a fit of depression due to ill health. It was Ruth who was sent Wilfred’s effects, so she must have been his next of kin at that time. His other daughter, Rose Ann, married William Bramall of Broad Hay Farm. Their son Wilfred (husband of Jacqueline Gregory) was named after his uncle.