Harry Thornton PICKLES

19 March 1915

BARNOLDSWICK NEWS

Friends of Mr. Harry Thornton Pickles, M.A., L.L.B., son of Mr. Stephen Pickles, C.C., and formerly lecturer in English law and jurisprudence at Manchester University, who joined Kitchener’s Army as a private soon after the outbreak of war, will be pleased to learn that on March 18th he was gazetted a Second Lieutenant and was posted to the ‘D’ Company, 10th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment. Up to that date he remained in the same regiment as a private. He is now reported to Bedford for two or three week’s training.

05 May 1916

BARNOLDSWICK OFFICER KILLED IN ACTION

The sad news was received on Sunday morning in a telegram from the War Office of the death of Second-Lieut Harry Thornton Pickles, second son of Mr. Stephen Pickles, J.P., C.C., cotton manufacturer of Raygill, Barnoldswick. The telegram stated that he was killed in action on April 26. He was 26 years of age. A young man of exceptional talents, with every prospect of a brilliant future, he responded to the call of his country by joining the army in September 1914, enlisting as a Private in the 10th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment. After a period of training at Frensham Camp he was promoted to the rank of Second Lieutenant, and transferred to the 3rd Reserve Battalion at North Shields, where he was given a position of responsibility in training and organising the despatch of troops to the front. He was drafted out to France in January last, and after a brief training in grenade throwing was given charge of a Battalion. He was married on January 20th, at Lewisham, to Miss Ada Heuf, of New Eltham, Kent. On Saturday last his parents received from him a cheerful letter (dated April 25th, the day before his death), saying he was quite well and feeling very fit.

Second-Lieut. Pickles was educated at Silcoates School, near Wakefield, where he spent five years, leaving at the age of 17 with all the scholarships the school had to confer. He then went to Victoria University, Manchester, where he carried all before him, taking his B.A. degree with honours before the age of 20. The M.A. degree was conferred upon him the following year. Six years ago he began to study for the law, and was articled to Messrs. Goulty and Goodfellow, solicitors, Manchester. Early in 1914 he secured the University degree of LL.B., with first-class honours. While at Manchester Mr. Pickles maintained a keen interest in sport, playing with the Varsity Association team, of which he was captain in 1911-12. In his final examination as solicitor he outdistanced all competitors being the only one in the list who passed with ‘first-class’ honours, and secured the Stephen Heelis Prize for Manchester and Salford Students in the form of a massive gold medal, awarded by the Manchester Law Society.

An estimate of the value set upon his intellectual attainments may be formed from the fact that shortly after leaving the University the authorities selected him from amongst a large number of applicants for a vacant lectureship in English Law and Jurisprudence, on which he was to have commenced with the winter term of 1914, but which he was destined never to occupy owing to the outbreak of war and the more insistent call of patriotism.

A letter received on Wednesday morning from Private James Mudd, another Barnoldswick man in the same battalion, states that Lieut. Pickles was killed by concussion from a bursting shell whilst going through the trenches to see that his men were all right. A bombardment from the enemy’s heavy guns, lasting nearly 3 hours, was in progress at the time. Private Mudd adds that Lieut. Pickles was not struck by the projectile nor disfigured in any way, and that had he stuck to his dugout he would doubtless have come through scathless.

12 May 1916

AN EARBY SOLDIER KILLED

A letter received from an Earby comrade last weekend conveyed the sad news that another Earby soldier, belonging the 9th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, had been killed in action. The letter ran as follows:–

May 4th, 1916.

“You must excuse me not writing before. We have been having a rough time of it lately. We lost about 100 last week. No doubt you will have heard about J. Walsh getting killed, and Lieut. Pickles (son of Mr. S. Pickles of Barnoldswick, whose death was reported last week) who used to be with our Allan. Well, dear mother, we went to see the graves of the boys we had lost last night. We are now out for a rest. It is a grand place where they are buried; Walsh and Lieut. Pickles are laid side by side. You must tell Mrs. Walsh I am getting some flowers to put on their graves, and shall see they are all right every time I come out of the trenches. Jim had not been with us long, but he was liked by all the Company. It was a blow to me when I got to know.”

Private James Walsh (9th Duke of Wellington’s), official notification of whose death has since been received, was the eldest son of Mr. Thos. Walsh, 79, Colne Road, Earby. He was 25 years of age, and unmarried. Originally attached to the Dardanelles Expedition, he was wounded at the Suvla Bay landing last summer, and after recovering spent four weeks at home before going to France two months ago. He was for several years a member of the Earby Brass Band.