Robert John WOOFF

06 July 1917

WOOFF – Killed in action. June 17th. Lance-Corporal Robert John Wooff, of the Durham Light Infantry, son of Mr. and Mrs. Wooff, of Cheapside, Settle, aged 21.

06 July 1917

SETTLE – LANCE-CORPORAL R. J. WOOFF KILLED

Much sympathy is felt in the Settle district for Mr. and Mrs. Wooff, of Cheapside, Settle, and the family in the sad loss of their second son at the war. Lance-Corporal Robert John Wooff was killed in action on June 17th last. The deceased soldier, who was 21 years of age, was first posted to the West Yorkshire Regiment when he joined up and soon received a stripe. He was afterwards, when in France, transferred to the Durham Light Infantry. Prior to the war deceased worked in the office of Messrs. Hector Christie, Ltd., at the Langcliffe Mills. He was of a very studious nature, and devoted his spare time for the betterment of his position. The following letter has been received by Mrs. Wooff from the officer of his regiment who was wounded at the same time as Lance-Corporal Wooff:– “I ought to have written before this, but I have been very busy, and then I was wounded; so at last I find time for a few lines, to express to you my sincere sympathy in your sad loss. I can assure you we are all sorry to lose your dear son – Lance-Corporal Wooff – for he was a most promising N.C.O., a most conscientious and dependable fellow. He was always at his post of duty, and even in the most dreary of circumstances, he always bore a cheerful smile. But I shall miss him perhaps more than any of his other officers, for the Christian lads are so far and few between, and I am sure the perpetual cheeriness of your son came from a heart at peace with God. But we must learn to resign ourselves to the will of God, and I pass on to you the words of St. Paul that ‘Ye sorrow not as others who have no hope.’ A Christian has the hope of meeting again before the throne of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we shall see him face to face to meet those of our loved ones who have gone before. May God Himself bless and comfort you at this time of sorrow and also all who are near and dear to your son. Assuring you again of my sincere sympathy.” It is just twelve months this week since Mr. and Mrs. Wooff’s eldest son Ernest was killed in France.

04 January 1918

SETTLE’S FALLEN HEROES

Memorial Service at the Parish Church

A memorial service for the Settle soldiers who have fallen in the war was held at the Parish Church last Sunday afternoon. There was a large congregation, and the service was conducted by Rev. W. E. Linney (vicar). The hymns ‘God of the living in Whose eyes,’ ‘Jesus lives,’ ‘On the resurrection morn,’ and ‘ O God our help in aged past’ were sung, and the ‘Last Post’ was sounded at the close of the service by two of the local Cadets. The organist (Mr. F. Lord) also played appropriate music as the congregation assembled and left the church.

The Vicar, in the course of his sermon, said they were met to remember the Settle soldiers, men, and boys – some indeed little more than boys – who had laid down their lives for the country at the war, whether during the year which was just drawing to a close or in the earlier stages of the conflict. When he asked them to remember those heroes that day, he knew that he was asking them to do what they were always doing. They were their own dear ones united to many of them by ties of blood – husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, as well as friends. How could they forget them? Were they not reminded of them day by day by the gaps in their home circles, which could never again be filled by them? They all desired in their hearts that God would bless and keep them, and give them peace. and happiness. The Vicar then read the following list of the Settle men who had laid down their lives:– John Edward Bell, Geo. S. Belles, Fredk. Baldwin, John Barrett, Robert Bateson, William Bradley, Frank Bulcock, George R. Bullock, Herbert Clark, John Cokell, Edward Ellershaw, Jas. Ewart, Wm. Ewart, Fredk. Frost, Harold Goss, Alfred Gower, Joseph Lord, John Morphet, John Packard, Chas. Peachey, Thomas Howarth Preston, Albert Ralph, Thos. Stackhouse, George Edward Turner, Derwent Turnbull, Wm. Troughton, Harry Walton, John Edward Wilson, Ernest Wooff, and Robert Wooff. Proceeding, the Vicar said they had a responsibility with regard to those men. They owed them a debt, and he trusted and believed that they were wishful to do all that they could to repay it. “ Our lives are being saved by their death. If we have any future before us on the earth it is because they gave up their futures to secure it. Their right to survive was as good as our own. Many of them would have been of far more use in the world than we can hope to be. The future stands to be only poorer for our surviving in their stead. We are debtors to them for all they have given us. To the future think of all it has lost in them.” How were they going to pay the debt, and in paying it to honour their heroic dead? Surely there could be but one answer – to live to give effect to their ideals. When they were asked what those ideals were, they might be well put in the words of Bishop Walshaw How’s hymn written for the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria, “To make the world a better world for man’s brief earthly dwelling.” If Prussian militarism should gain the ascendancy the world would be scarcely a fit place to live in. What they wanted was the triumph of right and liberty. That was the task they had begun, and many of them, fired by the enthusiasm of a noble cause, literally went singing to their death. The old life which had no loftier aim than a high standard of material comfort had been felt to be unsatisfactory. To ardent youth the higher spirit of self-sacrifice, which was the spirit of Christ, beckoned onward with irresistible attractiveness, and they followed the gleam. They had yet to complete the great task to which they dedicated themselves. That was the way they could honour the memory of their fallen heroes, and with confidence that they had not died in vain.

A collection taken on behalf of the Red Cross Society realised £5 15s.