Geoffrey Garnett HORSFALL

‘Clitheroe Times’ (22 October 1915)

(Kindly supplied by Shirley Penman of Clitheroe and Dorothy Falshaw of Gisburn)

SERGT. G. G. HORSFALL

KILLED AT THE DARDANELLES

Clitheronians were surprised and pained to find in Monday’s casualty list from the Dardanelles the name of Sergeant G. G. Horsfall, of the 10th Light Horse Regiment, elder son of Captain and Mrs. Horsfall, of Church-street, who was stated to have been killed in action.

His relatives had no news concerning Sergeant Horsfall at the time but on Wednesday morning a telegram was received from Lieutenant Throssell, bearing out the official notification in the newspapers.

Sergeant Horsfall was educated at Clitheroe Grammar School and at Tonbridge. When the war broke out he was in business at Singapore, but with a fine spirit of patriotism, he lost no time in proceeding to Australia, the nearest way, as it were, into the firing line. There he joined the Light Horse Regiment and left for Europe with the second contingent. While in Egypt he was promoted to sergeant, and late proceeded to the Dardanelles. He was killed in the same engagement in which Lieutenant Throssell won the Victoria Cross, and in every probability was with the lieutenant during the exploits which earned the reward.

Sergeant Horsfall leaves a widow and two children, with whom the deepest sympathy is felt and which is equally extended to Captain and Mrs. Horsfall. Since the outbreak of war, Mrs. G. G. Horsfall has been residing in Clitheroe.

TONBRIDGE SCHOOL AND THE GREAT WAR OF 1914-1919: A Record of the Services of Tonbridgians in the Great War of 1914 to 1919

HORSFALL, GEOFFREY GARNETT

SERGNT / 10TH AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE

Died at 29 August 1915

Biography:

SERGT GEOFFREY GARNETT HORSFALL, 10TH AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE. KILLED IN ACTION AT WALKER'S RIDGE, ANZAC, GALLIPOLI, AUGUST 29TH, 1915. AGED 31. At the School 1896—1901 (Judde House). Sergt. G. G. Horsfall was the elder son of Alfred Horsfall and Mrs. Horsfall, of Clitheroe, Lancashire. On leaving School he went out to Singapore, where he was in an export and import office for a time, and then was with Linggi Plantations, Ltd., at Seremban, Malay States, until 1910, when he married, and became partner in a firm of brokers at Singapore. He came home in 1913, and then went out to Australia. He was a devoted husband and father, and left his widow with two children, a son and a daughter. His son died on February 9th, 1917. When war broke out he applied for a commission in the 10th Light Horse; but, as there was some delay, he joined as a trooper and went with the Regiment to Egypt in March. He had a severe attack of pneumonia in Egypt, and his CO. advised that he should stay behind, but he refused, saving that he was "out for the V.C," and in his last letter home said that if he fell it must be remembered that it was in a good and just cause and that he wanted to fight. When the Regiment went to the Gallipoli Peninsula early in August, they left their horses behind in Egypt and went as infantry. They were continuously in action from August 6th to 10th, and he was killed in the action at Walker's Ridge, Anzac, on August 29th, 1915. The only information that was available as to the circumstances under which he met his death had been obtained from his officer, Lieut. Throssell, V.C., of the 10th L.H., who was in hospital in England. It is evident that Sergt. Horsfall displayed that reckless bravery which has been so conspicuous in this War, and not least on the part of our colonial troops. The following account of what Lieut. Throssell told his visitor was sent to Sergt. Horsfall's mother, and is taken from the local paper:— "On the morning of Sunday, August 29th, they had orders to take a trench and hold it. They had a hard task, and in the fight the 10th Light Horse won a glorious name. Only twenty-five men were left out of eight hundred. They had been fighting for a few hours when Sergt. Horsfall fell. He was shot through the forehead and rolled back near Lieut. Throssell, and died instantaneously. He was standing firing at the time, and could not have had a more glorious end." Lieut. Throssell said that Sergt. Horsfall was one of the bravest men he had ever met. He was simply amazed at the reckless bravery he displayed.

‘Clitheroe Advertiser’ (16 February 1917)

(Kindly supplied by Shirley Penman of Clitheroe and Dorothy Falshaw of Gisburn)

DEATHS

Feb. 9. Geoffrey Newstead Garnett Horsfall, Church street, 5 years.

‘Clitheroe Advertiser’ (16 February 1917)

(Kindly supplied by Shirley Penman of Clitheroe and Dorothy Falshaw of Gisburn)

[Untitled article]

Mrs. Geoffrey Horsfall, Church street, who has suffered several bereavements since the war began, lost her only son, a bright little fellow of five years, last Friday. The interment took place in St. Joseph’s Cemetery on Saturday. General sympathy will be extended to Mrs. Horsfall in the sad circumstances of her bereavement. In two years she has lost her mother, her husband, two brothers, and now her only boy has been taken.

England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966

1927

HORSFALL Mary of Beanstalk South-drive Wokingham Berkshire (wife of Alfred Horsfall) died 14 January 1927 Probate London 30 April to William Garnett and James Newstead Garnett cotton manufacturers. Effects £440 12s. 11d.

HORSFALL Alfred of Beanstalk South Drive Wokingham Berkshire died 27 September 1927 at Hollenden Exmouth Devonshire Probate London 3 December to James Newstead Garnett manufacturer and Leonard Cresswell King-Wilkinson solicitor. Effects £19917 15s. 1d. Resworn £19652 5s. 10d.

100 Years On Guard

A Grenadier Guard in full battle dress and mourning pose has stood in a leafy and flower-filled Memorial Garden, keeping guard over the town of Clitheroe, for almost a century. Unveiled on 18th August 1923 by the Mayor of Clitheroe, Alderman John Thomas Whipp, the sculpture was the work of Frederick Louis Roslyn R.B.S. of London, who attended the unveiling. Two identical statues stand at Slaidburn and Denholme and are amongst the many memorials which Roslyn created in the British Isles plus one as far afield as Jamaica. The Scots granite plinth was designed by Mr. A. E. Blezard, Clitheroe Town Council’s surveyor, who also oversaw the construction of the cenotaph and the memorial garden. The finance for the cenotaph at Clitheroe Castle was sourced from part of the public donations which the citizens of Clitheroe had raised for the purchase of the castle, and the six point four hectare grounds surrounding it, from the Duke of Buccleuch as a war memorial for the princely sum of £9,500. His Lordship had asked for more but reduced the sum when told that the purchase was for a war memorial. More cash was accrued after this time to pay for making the grounds into a public park.

The money was collected in many ways – millworkers had one penny (1/2 p) stopped from their wages each week; school children sold bunches of wildflowers for a penny; mill owners provided multiples of tens of pounds at different times and there were fayres, bazaars, dances and auctions held to swell the funds. On the momentous day, almost 1,000 servicemen, – some horribly wounded or disfigured – lined the street through the town from the mayor’s parlour in Church Street to the entrance to the castle at the aptly named Castle Gate. The mayoral party, made up of the Mayor and Mayoress, Aldermen, Corporation councillors, magistrates, Town Clerk, Sergeant of the Mace and halberdiers, and members of the War Memorial Committee made their slow and dignified way between these men who grieved for their lost companions until they reached the locked gates of the castle grounds.

The little market town’s losses had been great – a goodly portion of the next generation gone for ever. Hardly a family or a street had been spared, with drawn curtains at many of the cottages in the little back-to-back houses in the Salford area, including the homes of the three Fielding brothers and the three McHales, – all of Harrop Street. Mrs. Annabella Park of High Street, Low Moor lost three of her sons, – one of whom enlisted from Canada to fight for the “mother-country”, one whilst a prisoner of war and one, so inhumanely treated whilst a prisoner of war, that he came home terminally ill and took his own life. Less than a hundred yards away, the aging Alston parents were left with only one son and a daughter from their family of five. The Boothman family of Pimlico, lost two sons, Frank and Bertram, both of whom worked in the offices of the local authority; the two Durham brothers, Joseph and Thomas from Brownlow Street, both unskilled workers. Many were the names and tragic stories of these “lost boys”; the very fabric of the township’s life was changed by these blows – the churches and Sunday schools, the football teams, cricket teams, industries and businesses. The lives of the parents, wives and children of all these brave men and boys had been changed forever; and so the mood was sombre as they gathered on this day of remembrance.

Here at the gates were waiting the Subscribers’ Committee, who had handled the weekly savings and the purchase of the castle, headed by Alderman Tom Garnett J.P. Whilst handing to the mayor the deeds to the castle and a key with which to open the gates, he voiced the hope that “the memory of the great dead would remain treasured and cherished in their hometown until time shall be lost in eternity.”

In the name of all Clitheronians, Mayor Whipp accepted these tokens of custody and said that “the Castle would stand as a perpetual reminder of the great deliverance wrought for our land by those who fought in the Great War. The Corporation would carefully guard the Castle and grounds as a sacred trust and would hand it on as a precious heritage to future generations.”

So began the council stewardship of the splendid and unique war memorial which the castle had become. Once more the mayoral party, followed by the servicemen and onlookers, made their slow, reverential way up the castle drive to the Garden of Remembrance where-in the Memorial, covered by the Union Jack, stood. Relatives of the fallen had been granted two tickets per family as entrance to this garden; other onlookers had to squeeze into every other available nook and cranny. A solemn unveiling by Mayor Whipp was followed by the Last Post, a two-minute silence and Reveille but then, instead of laying the first, Clitheroe citizens wreath himself, the mayor handed it to Mr. Thomas Snape and said, “Please, you have more right to lay this wreath than I.” Mr. Snape walked forward and took the beautiful arch of white lilies grown in the castle greenhouses which had the words “In Remembrance” picked out in purple flowers and laid it at the foot of the memorial. He, who had lost four sons and a son-in-law in the vicious five-year fight for peace, did indeed deserve this honour. The service continued with prayers, choir anthems, readings and hymns; culminating with the hymn “Abide with Me” and the National Anthem. Everyone was now allowed to place their own tributes at the foot of the Guard on his lofty, granite plinth. By the evening of that day over 400 floral tributes formed a beautiful token of love, gratitude and remembrance. Wreaths, anchors, crosses and cushions – had been laid in memory of the 334 men of the town who went away singing never to return.

Researched by Shirley Penman. August, 2023