Barnbow Lasses Remembered

[Roger Thompson]

Hi there Pals,

Some while ago I found 3 of the Barnbow Lasses graves or unmarked sites in the West Yorkshire area and also Vivien Isabel Knapton's grave in Harrogate, I took some photo's of them.

Yesterday(10/11/2007)I revisited them and showed my respects by putting a Rememberance poppy cross on them and retook the photo's, please enjoy them.

Cheers Roger.

[Kitty VAD]

Only just found this, how sad -even though I know of the memorial, for them to be in unmarked graves?

Very sad.

Thanks for posting.

K

[Roger Thompson]

Hi there K,

It looks like I made a boo boo, I meant to post them all, the one showing is Elsie Bruce's at Sharlston Cemetery.

Cheers Roger.

[Guest KevinEndon]

as civilian war workers are they not intitled to a commonwealth war grave. If you pm Terry Denham he will be able to tell you if they qualify for one or not.

Kevin

[Roger Thompson]

Hi there Kevin,

Duly asked, will enjoy the answer either way.

Cheers Roger.

[Jim Strawbridge]

as civilian war workers are they not intitled to a commonwealth war grave. If you pm Terry Denham he will be able to tell you if they qualify for one or not.

Kevin

Unfortunately they don't. Although they were doing war work they were not serving under a recognised organisation such as the Joint War Committee. Australian munition workers were the only exception at the request of the Australian Government. .

[Simon R]

Did you have to go through cemetery records/burial registers to identify these plots?

Were they once marked and the stone has gone or never marked at all?

[Terry Denham]

As Jim says, they are not entitled to CWGC commemoration.

Civilians are not entitled - essentially because they are not military. CWGC's Royal Charter requires it to commemorate members of His Majesty's armed forces. Members of certain civilian organisations can qualify if they died on duty AND of a war cause but not unless their organisations are on the recognised list. UK war workers are not on the list. The organisations on the list worked alongside the military in war zones, came into contact with the enemy or worked under military control.

Australian War and Munitions Workers can qualify under the extra rules stated above as they were organised into a body for overseas service. Such workers do not qualify if they died in Australia. They are therefore treated as a quasi-military body by the Australians for war grave purposes.

Note that the extra conditions mean that not all members of the recognised civilian organisations will qualify.

[Nigel Marshall]

Good work Roger,

I hope your crosses marking the plots make passers by stop and think.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Peter Bennett]

Did you have to go through cemetery records/burial registers to identify these plots?

Were they once marked and the stone has gone or never marked at all?

Simon, it is a mixture of both. Some are buried in communal graves with their names on the headstones, some in communal graves with no headstones, some in family graves and others in graves which have disintigrated over the years.

It must be remembered that most were from very poor families who could not afford the cost of a grave/headstone.

Peter

[Guest KevinEndon]

The Ian Hislop programme on the Barnbow lassies was brilliant, its a shame he didn't follow up on where they are buried. It could have been a fitting end to the programme and to these lassies that were killed when the munitions factory exploded or for the lassies who died of TNT poisoning.

K

[Ozzie]

The often forgotten, and unknown ones, are they not.

And yet they contributed and died.

Very sad.

Thanks for bringing them to the fore.

Kim

[Roger Thompson]

Hi Simon,

I had a lot of help in the first place from Jim Strawbridge who provided the Cemetery and plot numbers where known, then it was a case of contacting people for location finding then a case of walking the sections and snapping away and you have the results.

I still have another 5 to do in the Old West Riding of Yorkshire to do.

Cheers Roger.

Hi Kim,

Believe it was my greatest pleasure doing it.

Cheers Roger

[Roger Thompson]

Hi Nigel,

I wouldn't thinkso as the one of Amelia Schofield is in St Matthews Church Yard Chapel Allerton Leeds,which as been closed down and demolished and a mixture of low life pass through or congregate there.

The churchyard is at the back of what was the Chapeltown Police Staion, Harrogate Road.

Rightly or wrongly I marked the crosses above the poppy GWF, below the poppy The Pals.

Cheers Roger.

[Nigel Marshall]

Rightly or wrongly I marked the crosses above the poppy GWF, below the poppy The Pals.

That's how I see it Roger. I'll always be happy to see an act of Remembrance carried out especially, if by adding that it is from a group to which I belong, I am included in it in some way. So, for doing this and remembering these lasses, on my behalf, Thank you.

I used to work at the Vickers Defence Systems Barnbow works, which was situated about three quarters of a mile from the site of the original munitions factory. I grew up in Scholes and roamed the fields around there as a kid so I'm familiar with the old site.

Thanks again,

Cheers,

Nigel

[michaeldr]

Not forgotten

from today's newspaper - see  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/10/barnbow-national-filling-factory-female-workers-first-world-war

[Roger Thompson]

A short time ago they built a housing estate on the old site or very near it and named all the roads after the lasses, I believe the development is not a complete thing yet.

 

Cheers Roger.