Frederick Towers ELLISON

04 February 1916

8th STEETON SOLDIER KILLED

On Wednesday morning Mr. and Mrs. Ellison of Elmsley Street, Steeton, received the sad news, by letter, of the death of their son Pte. Fred Ellison, of the 16th Battalion Kings’ Royal Rifles Battalion (C. L. B. Batt.) who, since the autumn of last year, had been with his regiment on the Western Front. Quarter-Master Sergeant Lawrence, in a sympathetic letter, related the circumstances of how Steeton’s eighth son had made the supreme sacrifice. Pte. Ellison was struck by a fragment of a shell which fell and burst, inflicting numerous injuries to the deceased’s neck and side, and after 10 minutes unconsciousness he passed away. In his 25th year, Pte. Ellison was a well-known villager, and previous to enlisting in October, 1914, he was on the office staff of Sugden, Keighley & Co., spinners, Keighley. As orderly clerk to the St. Stephen’s Company of the C.L.B. and of St. Stephen’s Benefit Society, the fallen was closely connected with St. Stephen’s Sunday School. The fatal injuries were received on the morning of January 27th, and with all due respect the remains of the deceased were interred on the following day (Friday). Quarter-Master Sergeant Lawrence, whose lot it was to communicate the sad news, was a close friend of Pte. Ellison, previous to leaving England and during their sojourn “somewhere in France.”

14 July 1916

STEETON-WITH-EASTBURN – Local Casualties

The friends of Private Fred. Greenwood, of the Green Howards, during last week received an intimation that he was at Southampton suffering from a fractured leg through being kicked by a horse whilst serving on the Western Front. The injured soldier was in November of 1914 invalided home suffering from an injured knee received in the retreat from Antwerp. Private Greenwood is now in hospital at Lowerbourne, near Farnham, Surrey.

The parents of Sergeant William Brayshaw, of High Street, Steeton were informed on Saturday morning that their son was in a military hospital at Sheffield suffering from a wound in the shoulder. Fortunately the wounds are not of a serious nature. Sergeant Brayshaw is one of three brothers, all of whom have been in France for a considerable period, and his wounds were received in a German trench from a bomb. Previous to receiving his injuries the wounded Steetonian had assisted several comrades. One of three former Steeton Church Lads Brigade members who joined up in October 1914, the gallant sergeant is the last of the trio to bleed for his country. Private Fred Ellison, one of the trio, made the supreme sacrifice last January, and the other, Private J. Brooksbank, was wounded in December and is still unfit for service.

Another Steeton soldier to be put out of action for a time is Private Matthew Dove, of High Street, Steeton, who is in the Northumberland Fusiliers. He is also one of three brothers who are in France, Dove’s wounds are to the head and nose, and he is in a base hospital in France.

15 September 1916

CRAVEN VILLAGE INSTITUTES – IDEALS AND ASPIRATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

The quarterly meeting of the Craven and District Village Institutes’ Association was held at the Steeton Mechanics’ Institute on Saturday afternoon, under the chairmanship of the Rev. A.C. Blunt, of Gargrave, the newly-appointed president for the ensuing year. Delegates were present from Gargrave, Oakworth, Cross Roads, Kildwick, Steeton, Cononley, and Gisburn.

Mr. Alfred Stell, president of the Seeton Institute, extended a cordial welcome to the new president and the delegates…

Appreciative Letter from the Trenches

The Secretary (Mr. J. Holdsworth) next read the following letter from Captain Cedric F. Horsfall, the late president, written from the trenches in France:–“Many thanks for your letter which I received a few days ago in the front trenches. You have, of course, done quite right in electing another president, and just as I should have wished you to do. I feel as though I have been of little or no use during my two years of office, owing to the circumstances over which I have had no control. After the war I assure you and your Association that you shall have my active support, as I know there is much scope for your work, especially after this war, and when unavoidably the home ties of many of the men will be weakened. I can see some difficulty in preventing wholesale emigration from our villages to the towns and the colonies, and every inducement will be required to keep them in the villages. I think the Institutes might do much to meet this need. I wish you to convey to your Committee my sincerest thanks for the honour they have done to me in allowing me to keep the position of president during these two eventful years. I wish you every success in your work in the future and I am sure that you will get much valuable advice and assistance from your new president, Mr. Blunt. I hope it is not out of place if I add a word of admiration of the men in this Battalion, many of whom come from our villages, and most of whom have been members of the various Institutes. They have not had an easy time lately, but they seem to thrive on work and do it with a good heart, and shelling hardly disturbs them at all.”

STEETON’S ROLL OF HONOUR

Mr. W.J. Johns, of Oakworth, moved that the Association express its sincerest sympathy with the village of Steeton in the great sacrifice that it had been called upon to make in the prosecution of the war. Mr. Weatherall, of Cononley, having seconded.

The Secretary read a list of the Steeton men who have been killed and wounded as follows:–

Killed – W. Dawes, Herbert Dove, Prince Dawson, Wm. Brooksbank, James Dove, Fred T. Ellison, Spencer Cliff (missing), Joseph Hales, Ewart Myers, Thos. Fitzsimmons, Wm. Robson, Thos. Robson, Arthur Smith, Wm. A. Teale, Richard Nicholson, Norman Waterhouse, Clarence Wilson, J. Nelson, Wm. Naylor.

Wounded – John Brooksbank, Wm. Brayshaw, Matthew Dove, Robert Anderson, Percy Race, Fred Baldwin, Fred Greenwood, Frank Throup, Ernest Cooper, Robert Williams.

The Secretary added that many of the wounded men were back in the trenches again, and it was also stated that several of the soldiers had been members of the Steeton Institute.

The resolution of sympathy was carried by the delegates rising in their places…

12 January 1917

STEETON’S GALLANT DEAD

Happily there has during the closing months of the past year been few casualties amongst Steeton’s soldiers to report. Since the commencement of the war the following well-known local soldiers who have been residents in the village have given their lives for the cause of right and humanity.–Arthur Smith, William Dawes, Herbert Dove, Thomas Robson, James Walker (died in training period), Willie Brooksbank, Ewart Myers, Thomas Fitzsimons, Prince Dawson, Fred Ellison, R. Nicholson, W.H. Teale, William Naylor, William Robson, Joseph Hale, Clarence Wilson, Mathias Dove, James Dove, John Nelson, whilst to add to the above are the names of Spencer Cliff missing since the ever-to-be-remembered landing at Suvla Bay in August, 1915, and Wright Cockshott who has been included in the list of those missing since the early autumn of 1916. Several soldiers whose occupations necessitated residence in the village previous to the war have ‘made the sacrifice’ but are not included in the list.