Help Identifying a Soldier with NUM/Rowntree Connection

[LesleyScarborough]

Yesterday I visited Low Hall, Scalby, Scarborough which was built by Joseph Rowntree's son John Wilhelm in 1905 as a family home after failing eyesight caused him to retire from the family firm in York.  He never lived there since he died on his way to New York for pioneering eye surgery but it became the home for his wife Constance and their children Margaret, Laurence, Antoinette, Violet (who died in 1906) and Jean.  Laurence had a fascinating military career which I have researched and written about on www.scalbywarmemorial.wordpress.com and died as a 2/Lt in the RFA on 25 November 1917 not far from where Tyne Cot now stands.  Jean, who was a Quaker aid worker in Prague & the UK during WW2 and pioneer BBC radio & adult education died in 2003 aged 97. In 1926 the family sold Low Hall to the NUM and it is still a Miners' Holiday Home, designed by Fred Rowntree with the Arts & Crafts character of the building largely unchanged.  I explained my interest in the Rowntree family as Laurence's family home and was surprised to be lent a paper written by Jean about family life at Low Hall, given to the manager by one of her nieces on a recent visit from Australia.  Along with the paper the manager had 3 family photos which had names written on the reverse, and the attached photo which, disappointingly, had nothing written on it at all.  He had no idea why the photo had been given to Low Hall, although I pointed out to him the pick and rifle collar insignia.  

 

I'd be most grateful for any information or ideas about the man in the photo - he does not look like anyone I've seen in Rowntree family photos but may have been a family friend?  Perhaps a Conscientious Objector working in a Pioneer Battalion?

 

Lesley

 

 

[FROGSMILE]

On 27/07/2019 at 12:56, LesleyScarborough said:

Yesterday I visited Low Hall, Scalby, Scarborough which was built by Joseph Rowntree's son John Wilhelm in 1905 as a family home after failing eyesight caused him to retire from the family firm in York.  He never lived there since he died on his way to New York for pioneering eye surgery but it became the home for his wife Constance and their children Margaret, Laurence, Antoinette, Violet (who died in 1906) and Jean.  Laurence had a fascinating military career which I have researched and written about on www.scalbywarmemorial.wordpress.com and died as a 2/Lt in the RFA on 25 November 1917 not far from where Tyne Cot now stands.  Jean, who was a Quaker aid worker in Prague & the UK during WW2 and pioneer BBC radio & adult education died in 2003 aged 97. In 1926 the family sold Low Hall to the NUM and it is still a Miners' Holiday Home, designed by Fred Rowntree with the Arts & Crafts character of the building largely unchanged.  I explained my interest in the Rowntree family as Laurence's family home and was surprised to be lent a paper written by Jean about family life at Low Hall, given to the manager by one of her nieces on a recent visit from Australia.  Along with the paper the manager had 3 family photos which had names written on the reverse, and the attached photo which, disappointingly, had nothing written on it at all.  He had no idea why the photo had been given to Low Hall, although I pointed out to him the pick and rifle collar insignia.  

 

I'd be most grateful for any information or ideas about the man in the photo - he does not look like anyone I've seen in Rowntree family photos but may have been a family friend?  Perhaps a Conscientious Objector working in a Pioneer Battalion?

 

Lesley

 

 

 

 

 

Lesley you are quite right that your photo shows a member of a pioneer battalion, as marked by the unique collar badges, but these were battalions of standard line infantry regiments, and unlike the later Labour Corps, did not have any conscious objectors serving with them.  Pioneer battalions were assigned on a ratio of one per Division and not all regiments had them, but generally those whose traditional recruiting areas had some regions with mining industrial concerns, although there were a few with other associations.  

Your man has a curved shoulder title and given the association with the chocolate factory at York this might relate to a Yorkshire County regiment.  The regiment associated with the City of York was the West Yorkshire Regiment, whose Depot and HQ was at Fulford, and whose curved shoulder title I enclose.  The West Yorks did have a pioneer battalion, whose identifying title was the 21st (Wool Textile Pioneers) Battalion.

 

“21st (Service) Battalion (Wool Textile Pioneers)
Formed in Halifax on 24 September 1915 by the Lord Mayor and City of Leeds.
Moved to Skipton in February 1916.
June 1916 : moved to France.
2 June 1916 : came under orders of 4th Division as Pioneer Battalion.”

 

Pioneer battalions were specialised units trained to fight as infantry, but that also had skills with spadework that made them especially useful for rapidly creating communication trenches, and railway lines that connected existing front lines with new gains after successful offensive action.  They were equipped with a larger than usual number of Lewis Guns in order to defend those new gains from the common German tactic of almost instant counter attack.  The collar badges were their identifier and a source of considerable pride.

Edited 17 August , 2019 by FROGSMILE

[LesleyScarborough]

Thank you so much for your very helpful and interesting reply.  I will ensure that the information is kept with the original photo when I make a return visit to Low Hall next month.  I'm sure it will interest some of the friendly retired miners and their wives who holiday there.

 

Apologies for my late reply - I had expected to be notified of any replies to my post but wasn't!

 

Lesley