Soldiers Died check needed please,

[Tony Lund]

The name James H. O’Brien, appears on the Holmfirth Secondary School Memorial Plaque. So presumably he must have attended the school at some point during his childhood. But he is not mentioned on any of the district’s larger memorials.

There are two men named James H. or J. H. O’Brien on the CWGC website so with luck he should be one of these. I have already seen the local paper for the relevant years and I have not seen any reports of any servicemen of this name. There is just one mention of a (presumably older) man who worked as a manager for the Hinchliffe Mill Co-operative Society at Holmfirth near Huddersfield.

The CWGC information is:

O'BRIEN, JAMES HENRY - Private - 3/7890 - 28/09/1916 Yorkshire Regiment

O'BRIEN, J H - Private - 40315 - 13/11/1916 West Yorkshire Regiment

Hopefully one of them will have an obvious Holmfirth connection, but if not the details of both would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks,

Tony.

[ian turner]

40315 James Hadcock - born? Enlisted London, resident Huddersfield.

3/7890 James Henry - born and enlisted Middlesbrough, resident ?

That's all

Ian

[Tony Lund]

Thanks for that, my money is on the Huddersfield lad, I’ll check the Huddersfield newspaper.

Thanks again.

Tony.

[ian turner]

1901 Census has a 17 year old James O'Brien born Huddersfield, resident at Lockwood, Yorkshire. No Occupation given.

I've not downloaded the image, but it looks like this chap's family had a father William (from Ireland), mother Rose Ann from Manchester and two other brothers: Joseph and John W. All the boys were born Huddersfield.

There is a Sgt 240944 Joseph Patrick, (SDGW=born Huddersfield) also on CWGC....

Ian

[Tony Lund]

Thanks, something to think about there. Lockwood is at the Huddersfield end of the old Holmfirth - Huddersfield railway line and there is a small station there. Men from Holmfirth did use the train to get to work there, and vice versa, it is only a few miles and there was no tram link. Maybe his family were in Holmfirth while he was a schoolboy and moved down the road a bit later?

Geographically speaking, this is certainly in the right area.

Also some people from Holmfirth have always given their address as Huddersfield whilst others get very locally patriotic and insist on using Holmfirth. The argument about whether it is a town or a village seems to have been going on a least since before the Great War. So to a certain extent the terms Huddersfield and Holmfirth can be interchangeable.

Tony.