Erasmus Darwin was born on the 7th December 1881 in Cambridge and lived at ‘The Orchard’. He was the only son of Horace Darwin FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society) who was Chairman of the Cambridge Scientific Society. He was also the grandson of the famous naturalist Charles Darwin.
Erasmus was educated at Horris Hill School near Newbury and at Marlborough. He then went on to Trinity College, Cambridge University to study Mathematics. On leaving Cambridge he worked at Mather and Platts in Manchester, a hydraulics and pump engineering company. He then moved on to work for Bolckow, Vaughn & Co Ltd Iron and Steel in Middlesbrough, whereby, at the outbreak of the war he was Secretary of the Company. He lived at the time at Saltburn on the north east Yorkshire coast.
As soon as war broke out he joined up and was gazetted on the 12th September 1914 as a 2nd Lieutenant the 4th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment. Apparently just before he left England he was summoned to the War Office and offered a Staff appointment at home in connection to munitions work. Though the work was important he opted to stay with his unit making the case that there were plenty of older men equally qualified for the work.
The 4th Battalion arrived in France on the 18th April 1915 and were straight away into the 2nd Ypres offensive which started on the 22nd April. The Battalion was involved in the Battle of St Julien in the heart of the Ypres Salient. During an attack at a location called Fortuin on the 24th Erasmus was killed. His commanding office, Colonel Bell, said of him: ‘Loyalty, courage and devotion to duty, he had them all. He died in an attack that gained many compliments to the Battalion. He was right at the front. It was a man’s death’.
Erasmus has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate. He was 33 years of age.
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Thomas Tidyman
Information submitted by Lynne Pengelly. Thomas William Tidyman known as Bill (although this may have only been after he moved to Bradford) Born 1st November 1896 in Norton, Stockton on Tees the 2nd child, eldest son of John and Mary Tidyman The 1911 census shows him living and working on a farm in Agglethorpe (possibly Brecongill) with his parents and 6 siblings, his older sister is listed as a diarymaid. He enlisted on 24th May 1918 at the age of 23 into the 9th battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment and was wounded by a gunshot in his right forearm sometime in September 1918, he was transferred to the Bangour War hospital in Edinburgh and was discharged on 19th June 1919. Carl at the Green Howard’s museum was able to tell me that my grandad had been a marksman when he saw the badge on his uniform and also explained about the silver war badge given to injured men to wear after they had been discharged as unfit for further war service. After the war he returned to the farm his father died in 1920 and his mother died in 1927, at sometime he met my grandma who was visiting some friends who had relocated to Coverdale and they were married in Bradford on 7th December 1929. He was a tenant farmer at Harrop Edge Farm in Allerton Bradford until 1942 and then the family moved to Allerton village and he had a milk round. He worked for the War Ag…
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Matthew Bell
Matthew Bell was born in West Scrafton, Coverdale on 21 October 1895. He served with the Yorkshire Regiment, initially joining before the war with the 4th Territorial Battalion, probably around 1912 according to his regimental number (3899). He later served with the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (235593) before returning to the Yorkshire Regiment later in the war. He went to France on the last day of September 1915 and survived the war, being awarded the 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal for his service. Matthew died aged only 40. Two of his children are still alive and living in Leyburn but they don’t remember him. His youngest child was born posthumously which must have been very hard for his widow.
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Norton Elliott
Submitted by Paul Elliott. My grandfather, Norton Elliott, was born in Rothwell, near Leeds, in 1890 and worked as a miner. In August 1914, at the outbreak of was, he joined the RAMC, but transferred to the RFC in July 1915. He became a mechanic and was promoted to Sergeant in August 1916 and to Flight Sergeant and Chief Mechanic in 1918. He subsequently became a specialist driver and served in the RAF until 1923. He married Evelyne Dobson in 1919. I know nothing of where he served or in which squadrons. At the outbreak of World War 2 he ran away from home to re-join the RAF at the age of 49. My grandmother was reputed to be something of a dragon. He again achieved the rank of Flight Sergeant and served until 1944. He died of cancer in 1970 at the age of 79.