John William VARLEY

11 December 1914

VARLEY – Killed in action on November 13th, John William Varley, aged 24, of the Expeditionary Force.

11 December 1914

SKIPTON'S ROLL OF HONOUR – PRIVATE JOHN WILLIAM VARLEY

The tragic side of the story of the war is making itself felt with awful sadness among the homes of Skipton. Many firesides will this Christmastide miss the faces of loved ones who have patriotically shouldered arms, and have gone forth to fight for the country they hold dear. To those whose relatives are in the fighting line the bitterness of the parting is tempered by the hope of speedy re-union, but for those, who have fallen in death, there has been the first bitterness of despair.

Such a home as this is Pembroke Street, from which one of the last Skiptonians to answer his country's call went forth John William Varley, a private in the 1st Batt. King's Royal Rifle Corps.

Mrs. Varley has received official intimation that her husband has died as a result of wounds received in action, and with it has come the Royal letter of sympathy.

Varley had more recently returned home after having put in five years service in the army. He had still eighteen months of this time to serve, John returned home having been hastened by special permission -obtained so that he could attend the funeral of his father. It was while on leave that he saw the military notice on the Church door ordering the general mobilisation of the troops. Without waiting for a private notification he answered his country's call. In fact, he did not waste a moment. The notice read, he hurried home and changed his clothes. His wife accompanied him to the station; but she was not allowed to see him depart. Admittance to the station was denied her, and she declared that although her soldier-husband offered to purchase ticket for her, the railway officials persisted in their refusal to allow her upon the platform. Thus the last farewell was said at the station gates.

Before joining the army Varley was in the employ of the English Sewing Cotton Co:, and numbered among the expressions of sympathy the widow has received is a letter from that firm. Another communication of sympathy to brighten the widow's woe is one from the Congregational Young Men's Class of which the deceased had been a member. He was a member of the Skipton Military Band and was connected with the Skipton Old Band before he enlisted, his instruments having been the E flat bass and the euphonium.

DECEASED'S LAST LETTER

The Rev. L. H. Gaunt received the following letter from Pte. Varley on November 15th, the letter having been written only four days before his death:–

"Dear Mr. Gaunt, – Just these few lines in answer to your most kind and welcome letter, which I received on the 1st inst. I thank God that I am spared to write to you. I was very pleased to know that my minister took such an interest in me. I believe in what he says that wherever we may be prayer brings us close together, for we are all under the care of God. I shall do my best to fight the good light, and I hope to return to England a true soldier of God. I am very pleased to tell you that since I came out here I have bad the best of health. I feel certain that if you saw me you would think I looked a new man. We have had a few rough times, but I have managed to pull through all right. I shall write to you as often as I can and give you an account as to how I am going on. I am glad that my baby is going on all right, and I hope he will continue to do so. I hope I shall be seeing him soon. Hoping to hear from you again.
I remain yours faithfully, J. W. VARLEY."

The Congregational community will hold a memorial service in the Town Hall, Skipton on Sunday evening when a detachment of soldiers will be present and a bugler will play the ‘Last Post’.

25 December 1914

SKIPTON – IN MEMORIAM: Private J.W. Varley

In connection with the Congregational Church a memorial service was held in the Town Hall on Sunday evening in honour of the late Private J.W. Varley of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, the news of whose death at the front was published in last week’s Craven Herald. Private Varley had been brought up in close connection with the Congregational Church and had been a member of the young Men’s Class up to the time of his enlisting. The announcement of the memorial service has aroused a great deal of interest in the troops, as was evidenced by the crowd which filled the hall to its maximum capacity. People were standing around the sides and in the aisles, whilst scores were turned away. The Skipton Orchestral Society’s Band was in attendance and played several pieces during the service. Private Varley having been at one time a member of the band. A detachment of soldiers from the 6th Duke of Wellington’s Reserves was also present to testify their respects to a comrade who had given his life for his country.

In the course of a brief address the Reverend L.H. Gaunt said they had not met there to mourn but to thank God for a brave man who had laid down his life for his country. In their minds the name of J.W. Varley stood for the valour and sacrifice of the British army. When they read that wonderful report of Sir John French ----- they had felt proud of Varley and ----- Skipton men who were in the great -----.

[Original article damaged and unreadable.]

26 October 1917

IN MEMORIAM – BROUGHAM STREET SCHOOL HEROES

At the Congregational Church, Skipton, on Tuesday evening, an impressive musical service was held in memory of the teachers and old scholars of the Brougham Street Council School who have fallen in the first three years of the war. Particulars of the deaths of these brave lads have appeared in our columns from time to time, and their names are as follows:– Willie Barraclough, C.D. Bennett (teacher), Arthur Bruce, Sam Cairns, Cyril Calvert, Ennie Clarke, Tom Clarke, Harry Ingham, Tom Langman, Reggie Pollard, Lewis Sedgwick, Joe Stewart, Harry Tindall (teacher), and J.W. Varley.

There was a large and sympathetic congregation, including relatives of those in whose honour the service was held. Conducted jointly by the Rev. L.H. Gaunt and Mr. A. Townsend (headmaster of the school), the service, in addition to special prayers, hymns, collects, &c., comprised anthems by the Brougham Street School Old Scholars’ Choir (under the direction of Mr. Townsend), solos by Miss D. Wear and Mr. Clifford Townsend, and an address by Mr. Gaunt.

In a few introductory remarks Mr. Townsend explained the object of the service, which he said was one of praise rather than of sorrow for the splendour of the lives that had been laid down. – The anthems were ‘O God, protect with Thy strong hand’ (Greig), ‘Rest for the Weary’ (Gounod), ‘The Lord is my Shepherd’ (Smart), and ‘Peace to the Souls of the Heroes’ (Callcott), and in all these and in Nicholson’s setting of the ‘Magnificat’ the girls’ voices blended with pleasing effect, the singing being marked by a very fine tone and clear enunciation, showing evidence of careful training. Miss D. Wear sang most acceptably the exacting solo ‘I know that my Redeemer’ (Handel) and Mr. Clifford Townsend gave a meritorious interpretation of ‘The trumpet shall sound’ (Handel). In addition to playing the organ accompaniments with the customary taste and efficiency, Mr. W.H. Green contributed as a solo the ‘Hallelujah Chorus.’

In his address the Rev. L.H. Gaunt expressed his pleasure that the Congregational Church should have been used for a service of that kind and said he would rejoice if it could be used more frequently for public gatherings in which not only comparatively small circle of their own congregation might join, but in which the whole town might feel that it had some part. He also expressed his agreement with what Mr. Townsend had said as to the view they ought to take of the death of their boys, and said he felt that the Bishop of London – despite the fact that he had been taken to task for his expression of opinion – was right when he said that they ought not to think of the death of their boys as sheer calamity and overwhelming sorrow. They ought to think of them as having made a sacrifice bravely and heroically at the call of their country and for humanity, and those who were left behind to cherish their memory would honour them best by thinking of that sacrifice as a victory and not as a disaster; and their remembrance of them should come as a call to follow their example, to live so that they would be worthy of the sacrifice of their loved ones, and to bring to their lives into harmony with the great high note that they had struck in their sacrifice. They thanked God for what their boys had done and suffered, and most of all for what they had been and were now, and to ask His grace to follow in their train.

A collection was taken on behalf of the proposed new memorial of the Brougham Street School, which will probably take the form of a scholarship fund.

23 February 1923

ODDFELLOWS’ WAR MEMORIAL

UNVEILING CEREMONY AT A SKIPTON LODGE

OVER 200 WHO SERVED

There was a large attendance of local members of the Independent Order of Oddfellows at the Friendly Societies’ Hall, Skipton, on Saturday afternoon, on the occasion of the unveiling of a war memorial to the members of the Loyal Traveller’s Friend Lodge, I.O.O.F, M.U., who fell in the war.

The Memorial takes the form of a beautifully designed scroll within an oak frame with a glass front, the work of Mr. H. Spencer, junr., and it bears the inscription:–

LOYAL/TRAVELLER’S FRIEND LODGE,/SKIPTON DISTRICT ./I.O.O.F. ROLL OF HONOUR M.U./OF/THOSE MEMBERS OF THIS LODGE WHO FOUGHT FOR THEIR KING AND COUNTRY TO UPHOLD THE SACRED CAUSES OF BROTHERHOOD AND HUMANITY IN THE GREAT WAR, 1914–1918.

Below the inscription are the names of 173 members who served in the war, and of the 40 members who were killed. The names of the fallen occupy a central position on the scroll, and above them are the following words:–

IN MEMORIAM
OF THOSE WHO MADE THE
SUPREME SACRIFICE.
THEIR HEARTS ARE LIFTED UP
THEIR HEARTS
THAT HAVE FOREKNOWN
THE UTTER PRICE,
THEIR HEARTS BURN
UPWARD AS A FLAME
OF SPLENDOUR AND OF
SACRIFICE

The names of the fallen are as follows:– H. Armstrong, J.J. Brown, J. Barrett, Robt. Brown, W.W. Bell, A. Clayton, W.H. Coles, T.C. Chew, Tom Downes, T.M. Drummond, Jos. Emmott, Thos. Edmondson, J. Easterby, F. Gallagher, J.W. Garwood, G.E. Godwin, S.J. Hargreaves, M. Hargreaves, A. Hebden, J. Hebden, A. Hawkswell, T.E. Inman, M. Lund, R.C. [R.G.] Metcalfe, Hbt. Maudsley, Hy. Maudsley, A.J. Pimnock [Pinnock], H.Y. [Harry] Riley, T.W. Storey, J.H. Stewart, R. Spencer, J.W. Shuttleworth, Wm. Tempest, Hbt. Thompson, Fred Thornton, J.W. Varley, John Ward, J.A. Whittaker, J.W. Whittaker, and R.D. Whittaker.

The Unveiling Ceremony

The unveiling ceremony was presided over by Bro. Thos. Bellamy, and was performed by Bro. Amos Culpan, Prov. C.S., and a simple service included the singing of the hymns, ‘O God our help’ and Kipling’s Recessional, ‘God of our fathers,’ and the reading of a portion of Scripture, and the offering of a prayer by Bro. James Greenwood, of Bradford, and formerly of Skipton.

Bro. Bellamy observed that those members of the Lodge whom they were met to honour went into battle, suffered untold privations, and, in many cases, made the supreme sacrifice. They gave their lives in defence of their homes and their country. Further than that, they gave their lives for justice and freedom, and in order that we might live. It was the duty of Oddfellows, equally as much as other sections of the community, to do everything within their power to make the country better for that sacrifice. “In the time of our prosperity,” concluded Bro. Bellamy, “never let us forget those who served us in the time of our adversity.”

A Lesson of the War

Prior to unveiling the memorial, Bro. Culpan described the ceremony he had been asked to perform as one not unattended by sorrow. It was an occasion upon which one felt a desire to make their Order better for the sacrifice of its members, and to extend the true spirit of brotherhood. In nearly 4,000 of their Lodges they would find a roll of honour. Over 22,000 of their members made the supreme sacrifice, and thousands of others were ruined and shattered in health and without prospects for the future. Each and all of them ought to perform some daily service that would make the sacrifice of those men worth while. One result of the terrible ordeal of 1914 to 1918 was the creation of a better feeling between men, and a desire to break down the class barriers that formerly existed. That was one of the great lessons of the war.