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Remembered Today:

21at Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corp


DDP1955

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Hi there

Could somebody tell me where the above regiment were between 05/05/1916 and 30/06/1916 and what battles they would have been involved in?

I am researching Leonard and William Crossley C/12390 and C/12391, two of my lads who were born in Wheldrake, Yorkshire

Many thanks

Dianne

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Dianne, both those men feature in one of my books. You are probably aware they are buried side by side? They were killed by shell fire in a quiet sector; there was no major battle going on at the time.

Have you come across photos of them?

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Dianne,

Are you aware that Ruth aka Baileyjack, a relative of the Crossley brothers, has posted here on the Forum?:

Ruth's post in the 'Two brothers who died on the same date' Classic Thread

You might also be interested in Ruth's Topic about her grandfather Rfn Frank ARNOLD, also of the 21/KRRC (Yeoman Rifles) who survived the War and is who is on the Wheldrake Church Roll of Honour:

Looking for further information, Rfn Frank Arnold, 21st (Yeoman Rifles), Kings Royal Rifle Corps

The Crossley brothers were Frank Arnold's cousins on his mother's side. The Topic also has some general background to the Yeoman Rifles (21/KRRC).

Another Topic worth a look at is:

Rfn Bentley, 21/KRRC & the Yeoman Rifles memorial in Helmsley

For your info, 21/KRRC were in 124th Brigade in 41st Division. They arrived in France on 4th May 1916, spent about three weeks in billets near Bailleul before going into the line at Ploegsteert (S of Ypres), remaining there until the middle of August, at the end of which they moved to the Somme.

There is no further detail than this in the 1916 KRRC Chronicle and I do not have the 21/KRRC War Diary.

HTH!

Cheers,

Mark

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Hi Paul

MBrockway has kindly sent me a PM to say that you and DianneD are discussing the Crossley twins {thought my ears were burning!!] - who were my grandfathers cousins - I have previously passed on all the info I have of them to DianneD but in your posting I note that you say they are mentioned in your book - could you tell me what you book is called and where I may find a copy of it. I haven't come across any photos of the Crossleys - if you do I would be forever grateful to get a copy.

Regards

Ruth

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Could somebody tell me where the above regiment were between 05/05/1916 and 30/06/1916 and what battles they would have been involved in? I am researching Leonard and William Crossley C/12390 and C/12391, two of my lads who were born in Wheldrake, Yorkshire

Thank you for all the replies

As you will have read BaileyJack has been helping me by providing information on the Crossley twins prior to WW1

I am specifically trying to find out which particular battle the Crossley twins were involved in at the time they died

Dianne

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I am specifically trying to find out which particular battle the Crossley twins were involved in at the time they died

Dianne

Dianne,

As Paul said earlier, the twins were killed by shellfire while manning the front line near Ploegsteert. Unfortunately this was a regular hazard during everyday "routine" trench life.

There was no specific Action or battle taking place at the time.

What we don't know yet is whether the brothers were killed by the same shell, though this is presumably a strong possibility.

I'm sure I have a photo of their adjacent graves somewhere, but have so far failed to find it - sorry :mellow:

Cheers,

Mark

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Hi Paul

MBrockway has kindly sent me a PM to say that you and DianneD are discussing the Crossley twins {thought my ears were burning!!] - who were my grandfathers cousins - I have previously passed on all the info I have of them to DianneD but in your posting I note that you say they are mentioned in your book - could you tell me what you book is called and where I may find a copy of it. I haven't come across any photos of the Crossleys - if you do I would be forever grateful to get a copy.

Regards

Ruth

Thanks for that. I will drop you a PM.

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Dianne,

By a very strange serendipity I have just come across an article about the Crossley twins in the 2003 edition of the KRRC Association Journal.

It's by Fred Hawkins, a KRRC Rifleman, and is an absolute gem!

I'm sure the KRRCA would not mind me transcribing it below:

BROTHERS IN ARMS

By

Fred Hawkins

DURING A RECENT trip to the WW1 battlefields and Cemeteries on the Ypres Salient and Passchendaele, I was obviously interested in the graves of members of our regiment. Whilst I was in the Hyde Park Corner (The Royal Berks Cemetery) I came across the graves of 2 Rfn of the KRRC. The graves E20 and E21 were of C/12390 Rfn W. Crossley and C/12391 L. Crossley, both killed on 30. 6. 1916. Noting the regimental numbers and of course the name I assumed that they were related, most probably brothers.

This intrigued me so I decided that I would do some investigating to see what I could find out about these Rfn. I gave Richard Frost [MBrockway: Richard is the Hon Sec of the KRRC Association] a call and asked him what he knew about them. He looked through his books and told me that they were both in the 21st Bn KRRC (The Yeoman Rifles) and that they were enlisted in Thirsk, North Yorkshire. He also told me to write to the Regimental Archivist in Winchester, Colonel (Retd) McCausland. I wrote to him and he replied that the" Rifle Records Winchester" were disbanded long ago I would benefit from a visit to The Public Records Office, Kew, for details of individuals record of service, date of birth, etc. He also told me that Anthony Eden was in the 21st Bn and that he had written a book about his experiences during WWl. The book called "Another World" was very difficult to get hold of but I managed to get a copy from the British Library, through my local library. Gerald Dennis who was the Secretary of the 21st Bn Old Comrades Association also wrote his recollections of WWl. These were published and called "A Kitchener Mans Bit ". This I also obtained from the British Library.

I read both these books with great interest and obtained a great deal of information about the "Yeoman Rifles", A number of Yeomanry Regiments were already in existence in the autumn of 1915 and of keen first class material and it was important to raise more units of Yeoman. Kitchener or the War Office decided that such an appeal was more likely to succeed if accompanied by a promise that yeoman who volunteered should serve together as one unit. The Northern Command was chosen as the area for the experiment and Lord Feversham, then commanding the Yorkshire Hussars, became the 1st Commanding Officer of the new battalion. It was to be known as the Yeoman Rifles and to form part of the King's Royal Rifle Corps (60th Rifles).

Lord (Charlie) Feversham was a family friend of the Eden's who lived in the Durham area, so he invited the young Anthony to raise his own platoon of Rfn from the Durham area. This was how the Bn was raised, by getting local gentry to recruit from their own areas, so in the autumn of 1915 the 21st Bn KRRC was born.

The Bn were recruited mostly from farms:

A Coy - North East Riding

B Coy - West Riding

C Coy - Northumberland & Durham

D Coy - Lincolnshire, Leicestershire & Northamptonshire

Full establishment was reached in December 1915. The new recruits were instructed to report to Duncombe Park in Helmsley, N Yorkshire, the home of Lord Feversham. They were billeted there until January 1916 when they moved to Aldershot. Regular battalions helped out with the supply of senior officers and NCOs, but with the best will in the world that was all they could do. The rest was up to the Yeoman Rifles to do the best that they could. They could not choose NCOs by age and experience because they had very little of either - but by ability as best they could with very little training over a short span of time.

During the time in Aldershot they underwent 4 months of intensive training at company, battalion, brigade and divisional level. At the beginning of May 1916 the battalion moved across the channel and were billeted at Bailleul in France. They were there for 3 weeks before moving up to the front line.

Plugstreet

A few miles south of the Ypres Salient, but still just in Belgium lay Ploegsteert Wood, known as Plugstreet by the British Tommies. The 21st Bn moved to Plugstreet around 25 May and remained there until August 1916. Leonard and William Crossley were part of A Coy at the time and were killed on the 30th June 1916 at Plugstreet.

The trenches in Plugstreet were well built and had strong points, communication and support trenches. In the early morning the birds sang and war did seem a long way off.

Some of these features made Plugstreet Wood seem a useful training ground for an unfledged division from England.

After some hard marching and counter marching, presumably to deceive the enemy, a party of officers and NCOs were detailed for a spell in the front line with the Scottish Division, that were holding that section of the front. This was with a view to take over from the Scots.

In the following months there were long periods of trench warfare routine. Two weeks in the line, one in support and one in reserve. All this was done in Plugstreet Wood.

As the summer advanced the front livened up and the German artillery began heavy shelling, in particular around the dangerous hour before dawn. It was through this shelling that Leonard and William Crossley were killed.

During my research into this story I had to make various visits around the country. I first went to the PRO office in Kew and spent a day finding as much as I could about the brothers from N Yorkshire and about the 21st Bn. I spent a long time looking for their service records and it was then that I discovered that they were in fact twins, born in 1884 in Wheldrake, Yorkshire.

William and Emily (Nee Fairburn) Crossley met and married and raised 4 sons and 2 daughters in the village of Wheldrake. William who was a 1st class tailor went to work for a very prominent tailor in Thirsk and moved his family into a terraced house in St James's Green, Thirsk. The family were settled in the area and the children were educated in the local schools. When they left school William went on to become a bricklayer and Leonard an electrician.

When war broke out the 4 brothers were all in employment and the whole country thought that the war would be over by Xmas so many young did not enter the army straight away. However, when hostilities did continue the war office then needed more young men to serve their country.

This is when the Crossley family became part of the British army. The twins were recruited into the 21st Bn The Yeoman Rifles and began their military service at Duncombe Park, and became members of A Coy. As the brothers were in the same company, most of the duties that they had were done together. There were always plenty of fatigues to do, guards and many other regimental duties that we as Rfn were familiar with during our own service.

I really wanted to find out more about how they were killed, so I asked for the war diaries for the 21st Bn during the period that they were in Plugstreet.

The entry for the 30 June 1916 written by the hand of Lord Feversham read:

'Our artillery bombarded the enemy lines during the day and the Bn remained near its strong positions in readiness for retaliation. From 10hr until 1230 midnight our artillery bombarded heavily and gas was sent to the enemy lines by the Hampshire's. The raid followed this. The enemy retaliated on our front line, support and reserve billets. The Bn remained in its strong positions. The barricade remained until normal conditions were resumed. During the bombardment we had 2 men killed and 4 wounded, 2 being slight wounds not interfering with effectiveness on working parties',

The two men that were killed were the Crossley twins.

I now had a lot more parameters to the story. When I discovered that they were brothers my thoughts were that they had joined the army together, served together, died together and were buried together. In fact it went a lot further than that as they were born together, educated together, grew up together, worked together, joined up together, fought together, died together and were buried together.

I was so intrigued with this I phoned BBC York and was interviewed on their help line in the hope that I could find somebody that was related to the Crossleys. I had also made the decision to spend some time in Yorkshire, so I packed a bag and headed north on the Sunday after the Winchester Reunion.

My first port of call was to the Yorkshire records office at Northallerton on the Monday morning to look at the electoral register for the Thirsk area for 1916. I was given this huge volume of the register which I could hardly lift onto the table. I spent over an hour looking through the register noting all the Crossleys that lived in the area at the time. There were plenty, but I did not know if there was any connection with the family that I was interested in, so I thought that maybe a trip to Thirsk and a look at the present electoral register would help.

When I arrived in Thirsk, I found the market square hoping to get some inspiration as to where to start looking. I just started looking around not really knowing where to start when just off of the square I noticed a sign saying Thirsk Museum. Maybe this is just what I had been looking for so I ventured in. Once inside I asked if there was anything there about the people of Thirsk that had been killed during the Great War. There was nothing really but when I explained what I was looking for the curator said that there was a Crossley living in the town. I thought that I would maybe look through the phone book and try to find some connection, when the curator called to me and said that he somebody by the name of Crossley on the phone.

When I explained who I was and what I was after he said, " You are talking about my Dads brothers". I was so excited that I was speechless for a few seconds, and I think that he was fairly shocked himself. I really wanted to meet this man so I asked if he was nearby and could I go to see him but he suggested that I wait where I was and he would come to me.

About 30 minutes later this man came into the museum carrying a bag of photographs and Bingo there he had a photo of "A Coy 21st Bn KRRC Aldershot 1916". I could now put a face to the twins and they were identical. He introduced himself as Maurice Crossley and that he had never known Leonard or William because they were killed before he was born but that his Dad was always talking about his twin brothers. Because he was now retired himself we were able to spend the rest of the day together. He took me to the church where the memorial to those people of Thirsk who were killed during the Great War was. I saw their names on the memorial and noticed that there were in total 61 names there. That was quite a lot considering that the population of Thirsk would be a lot less than it is today.

I wondered if St James Green (where they used to live) was still there and not only was the Green still there but the house that they used to in was still there, so I was taken to see the house as well.

During the time that I spent with Maurice Crossley we were both asking plenty of questions of each other and one question that he asked me was where are the graves. I told him where they were but was surprised that he did not know. He did tell me that he knew that the same shell had killed them both, so this reiterated my earlier statement that they always did everything together.

Because the photograph he had was the only one that he had of his uncles he said that he could not let me have it but I was quite welcome to have a copy done. Once we had managed to get the copies I had to say my farewells to Maurice and the curator of the museum and be on my way because I wanted to get to Helmsley that same day.

I made the short trip to Helmsley and once again I really did not know what I wanted to look for but I just wanted to be there, out of curiosity I suppose. When I arrived in the town I saw a sign pointing to Duncombe Park which has been opened to the public in recent times, so I made my way towards the park. On entering the gates to the grounds, I was confronted by acres of beautiful parklands and woods. There were flocks of sheep grazing on the area that was at one time the deer park. I could picture the scene 87 yrs ago with lots of Rfn all living under canvas.

I went to the large house at the top of the grounds and established that the final guided tour of the day had just begun so I needed to come back the following day to see inside the house.

Next morning I left Harrogate nice and early and once again headed for Helmsley. I arrived in Helmsley and decide to look around the town before I went to the park. Helmsley is also a small market town about 15 miles east of Thirsk with the market square the main hub of the place.

After a look around the place I went back to Duncombe Park so that I could join the tour of the house. I was hoping to see more about the "Yeoman Rifles" but the majority of the tour was mainly about the history of the house and previous owners. There were a few photos of the Former Lord (Charlie) Feversham and there was a brief mention about the fact that he had served and died during the war but not as much as I would have expected when you consider the part that the park had played during the Great War, in fact I was not sure that the guide knew the real history regarding the raising of a great battalion of Rfn. I really had to put the record straight, so I had a long talk with the guide and she was so surprised because she was not aware of what I had to tell her. She has now got the story of the 21st Bn KRRC in her itinerary and at least any visitors to Duncombe Park in the future will be aware of the "Yeoman Rifles".

On the day that I left Yorkshire, I went via Wheldrake and found that this was a very tiny village a few miles south east of York, with probably only about 200 houses, and a village post office. I noticed that some of the houses were very old and I wondered if maybe the house that they used to live in was still there. Who knows?

All sorts of useful leads there for you!

I've sent a copy of the original to Ruth aka Baileyjack to see if she is in touch with Maurice Crossley, who I think would be her cousin once removed (??)

Cheers,

Mark

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Mark

I have only just seen this. What a read!

The description of Thirsk, the town I grew up in, is spot on!

I want to go home now, and spend some more time there!!!!!!

Thank you so much for posting this, it answers a lot of my questions ...

Dianne

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Mark

... it answers a lot of my questions ...

Dianne

Dianne,

Ruth (Baileyjack) is following up some leads opened by this article, so we may well have yet more progress soon :rolleyes:

Cheers,

Mark

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Ruth (Baileyjack) is following up some leads opened by this article, so we may well have yet more progress soon :rolleyes

Thanks Mark. If any research needs doing at the Thirsk end ... I will be in Thirsk in April. My family all live in Thirsk and surrounding areas and I will be staying with my aunt who lives near the train station, before going to Wheldrake to try and follow up on some of my ancestors who lived there ...

If anybody has the details of the Vicar of St Helens or St Johns at Wheldrake, I would be extremeley grateful

Dianne

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Thanks Mark. If any research needs doing at the Thirsk end ... I will be in Thirsk in April.

Dianne

Dianne,

I'd drop a PM to Ruth aka Baileyjack.

Cheers,

Mark

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  • 7 months later...

Pals,

In another thread, liverpool annie has posted a link to this picture of the Crossley brothers' grave markers in the Berkshire Cemetery Extension:

post-20192-1255650424.jpg

Thought it good to repeat it here in their main thread.

For info, both brothers have their Service Records available on Ancestry.

Cheers,

Mark

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If anybody has the details of the Vicar of St Helens or St Johns at Wheldrake, I would be extremeley grateful

Dianne

Dianne,

Here's a few nuggets from The Times ...

21 August 1919:

post-20192-1255652499.jpg

16 August 1924:

post-20192-1255652788.jpg

confirming that Rev Cardale was now the Rector at Wheldrake and presumably therefore, that Rev Stromberg was his predecessor.

27 January 1925:

post-20192-1255653139.jpg

so a Rev Benjamin Lamb held the benefice some time earlier from say 1865 onwards.

30 December 1926:

post-20192-1255653451.jpg

Rev Stockdale now the Rector at Wheldrake.

Returning to Rev Stromberg who was outgoing Rector in 1919: he shows up in Hull on 05 June 1902:

post-20192-1255654007.jpg

and a William Webster Stromberg of Selwyn Hostel is shown being awarded Master of Arts at Cambridge on 16 Jan 1890; while on 08 Jun 1887 a William Webster Stromberg, of Selwyn Hostel, Cambridge, B.A., and the Theological College, Ely, is listed as being ordained Deacon to St. Paul's, Jarrow, in the Diocese of Durham.

I cannot find any info on when Rev Stromberg was appointed in Wheldrake, nor his predecessor, nor when Rev Benjamin Lamb (d. 1925) held the benefice.

Some leads for you anyway.

Cheers,

Mark

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