Thomas Clifford WHITEOAK

28 January 1916

CONONLEY – Called Up

The following young men left Cononley on Saturday last, being called up in the first four groups under the Derby scheme, viz., G. Gott, C. Fielding, and A. Cooper. On Wednesday, H. Wilson and C. Whiteroak were called up.

21 July 1916

CONONLEY SOLDIER IN HOSPITAL

Writing from Newcastle-on-Tyne, Mr. Charles Walker, clerk to the Cononley Parish Council, says:– “On hearing that Pte. E.H. (‘Harry’) Brown had been wounded in the big push and that he was an inmate of the Northumberland War Hospital at Gosforth, near Newcastle; I paid a visit to that Institution on Saturday afternoon last. I was informed by one of the nurses that Pte. Brown had been operated on only about 1½ hours previous to my call. She, however, on paying a visit to the ward, found he had practically recovered from the effects of the drug administered to him and admitted me. He was, it is almost needless to say, delighted to see a Cononley friend. It appears that he had received a shrapnel wound in the calf of the left leg, and apparently the shrapnel had been somewhat deeply embedded. Private Brown was admitted to the hospital on Monday week, but the operation did not take place until Saturday afternoon last, as stated. In the meantime he had suffered much pain. The shrapnel was extracted and nothing serious is anticipated. He was very cheerful considering that the operation had only just taken place. He was wounded at the beginning of the big push on Thursday, July 6th, shortly before midnight.

It appears the regiment had been standing to in reserve, but were eventually ordered into the trenches. They had only been in the trench a short time when a bomb burst quite near and he was struck with a piece of shrapnel, as stated. Only a day or two previous to this happening his regiment marched into a village and Private Brown was delighted to meet, quite unexpectedly, half-a-dozen Cononley soldiers. They were Ptes. Joe Hudson (choirmaster, Cononley Parish Church), T.H. Reynolds, Ernest Lee (since wounded), C. Fielding, Henry Wilson, and C. Whiteoak, and a jolly evening was spent.

Pte. Brown enlisted, shortly after the outbreak of the war, in the 1/6th Duke of Wellington’s, and returned from the Front in April on leave, which was experienced owing to illness. He is the only son of Mr. Richard Brown, retired farmer.

25 August 1916

CONONLEY – PRIVATE WHITEOAK WOUNDED

Mrs. Whiteoak of North View, Cononley, has received official notice that her son, Clifford Whiteoak, was wounded in action on the 10th of August ‘somewhere in France’, but the nature and severity of his wounds are not stated. Pte. Whiteoak joined the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment on 26th January and was drafted to France in June. Much sympathy is felt for Mrs. Whiteoak in her uncertainty as to his condition. Pte. Whiteoak formerly resided at Lothersdale, but removed to Cononley shortly after the death of his father by accident about three years ago.

PTE. CLIFFORD WHITEOAK WOUNDED

A field postcard received by Mrs. Whiteoak of Royd Place, Cononley, intimated that her son, Pte. Clifford Whiteoak, has been wounded. Further information is anxiously awaited.

29 September 1916

CONONLEY – Reported Missing

Mrs. Whiteoak, of North View, Cononley, received an official communication from the War Office on Wednesday to the effect that her son, Private Clifford Whiteoak, of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, was reported as missing. Pte. Whiteoak was slightly wounded some time in July and returned to duty again on August 21st. On the 2nd September he wrote home and on the 3rd he again went into action along with Ptes. E. Lee and Cecil Fielding, both of Cononley, who were wounded and are now in hospita1 in England. Since then no communication has been received from Pte. Whiteoak, only the above report from the War Office.

Much sympathy is felt for Mrs. Whiteoak in her anxiety and distress.

20 July 1917

WHITEOAK – Reported missing since September 3rd 1916, and death now presumed to have taken place on that date, in the battle of the Somme, Private Thomas Clifford, only son of the late Alfred Whiteoak, of Fold Farm, Lothersdale, and Mrs. Whiteoak, North View, Cononley, aged 23 years.

“Sometime, Somewhere, we’ll understand.”

20 July 1917

CONONLEY – PRIVATE CLIFFORD WHITEOAK REPORTED KILLED

Mrs. Whiteoak, of North View, Cononley, has this week received an official notice from the War Office that, as her son, Private Clifford Whiteoak, has been missing since September 3rd 1916, and as nothing further has been heard of him, he must have been killed in action.

It was in the famous battle of the Somme when Pte. Whiteoak, along with many others, gave his life for his country. Several of his Cononley comrades remember him going over the top in a charge, but no further information could ever be obtained about him. He joined his regiment in January 1916 from Cononley, but he will be as well known in Lothersdale, where he resided up to two years ago. Previous to joining the Army he was engaged by Messrs. P. Green at the Station Mills as warehouseman, and was also a regular attender at St. John’s Church. Much sympathy is expressed with Mrs. Whiteoak in this sad loss of her only son.

27 July 1917

CONONLEY – MEMORIAL SERVICE

A service in memory of Private Clifford Whiteoak was held St. John’s Church on Sunday morning. Special hymns were sung, and the Rector, the Rev. J. J. Turner M.A, paid an excellent tribute to the departed soldier and all those who had so nobly made the supreme sacrifice in the deliverance of the world from the tyranny of German militarism.