Thomas Neil ROBSON

02 July 1915

Steeton Soldiers Gassed and Wounded

News is to hand that Private Harry Sayers, of Queen Street, Steeton, is in hospital somewhere in France, having been gassed. Private Sayers, who enlisted in the Second Life Guards last November, was sent to the Front in May.

Another Steeton soldier – Private T. Robson, 2nd Scots Guards, who also enlisted in November, was with another five of his regiment in a dug-out when a shell burst and five of his comrades were killed or wounded and Private Robson had to liberated from the fall of earth very little worse for his experience.

Previous to joining the Army both Sayers and Robson were in the employ of John Clough and Sons, manufacturers, and were popular with their fellow workmen.

29 October 1915

A STEETON SOLDIER’S DEATH

On Tuesday morning a letter from the War Office conveyed to Mrs. E. Robson, of 20, Elmsley Street, Steeton, the sad news that her son, Private Tom Robson, of 1st Battalion Scots Guards, had died in France from wounds received in action. Private Robson, who would have been 21 next week, died on the 7th of October, and in a letter sent on the 5th to his mother stated that he was just leaving the hospital, having been indisposed. It was evident the young fellow had gone straight to the firing line, there to receive the wounds which within a few hours caused his death. Popular to a marked degree amongst his many Steeton comrades, the deceased soldier enlisted a year ago, being at the time an apprenticed overlooker in the spinning department at Messrs. John Clough and Sons, manufacturers. Private Robson is the fourth Steeton soldier to meet his death fighting for Right against Might.

15 September 1916

CRAVEN VILLAGE INSTITUTES – IDEALS AND ASPIRATIONS FOR THE FUTURE

The quarterly meeting of the Craven and District Village Institutes’ Association was held at the Steeton Mechanics’ Institute on Saturday afternoon, under the chairmanship of the Rev. A.C. Blunt, of Gargrave, the newly-appointed president for the ensuing year. Delegates were present from Gargrave, Oakworth, Cross Roads, Kildwick, Steeton, Cononley, and Gisburn.

Mr. Alfred Stell, president of the Seeton Institute, extended a cordial welcome to the new president and the delegates…

Appreciative Letter from the Trenches

The Secretary (Mr. J. Holdsworth) next read the following letter from Captain Cedric F. Horsfall, the late president, written from the trenches in France:–“Many thanks for your letter which I received a few days ago in the front trenches. You have, of course, done quite right in electing another president, and just as I should have wished you to do. I feel as though I have been of little or no use during my two years of office, owing to the circumstances over which I have had no control. After the war I assure you and your Association that you shall have my active support, as I know there is much scope for your work, especially after this war, and when unavoidably the home ties of many of the men will be weakened. I can see some difficulty in preventing wholesale emigration from our villages to the towns and the colonies, and every inducement will be required to keep them in the villages. I think the Institutes might do much to meet this need. I wish you to convey to your Committee my sincerest thanks for the honour they have done to me in allowing me to keep the position of president during these two eventful years. I wish you every success in your work in the future and I am sure that you will get much valuable advice and assistance from your new president, Mr. Blunt. I hope it is not out of place if I add a word of admiration of the men in this Battalion, many of whom come from our villages, and most of whom have been members of the various Institutes. They have not had an easy time lately, but they seem to thrive on work and do it with a good heart, and shelling hardly disturbs them at all.”

STEETON’S ROLL OF HONOUR

Mr. W.J. Johns, of Oakworth, moved that the Association express its sincerest sympathy with the village of Steeton in the great sacrifice that it had been called upon to make in the prosecution of the war. Mr. Weatherall, of Cononley, having seconded.

The Secretary read a list of the Steeton men who have been killed and wounded as follows:–

Killed – W. Dawes, Herbert Dove, Prince Dawson, Wm. Brooksbank, James Dove, Fred T. Ellison, Spencer Cliff (missing), Joseph Hales, Ewart Myers, Thos. Fitzsimmons, Wm. Robson, Thos. Robson, Arthur Smith, Wm. A. Teale, Richard Nicholson, Norman Waterhouse, Clarence Wilson, J. Nelson, Wm. Naylor.

Wounded – John Brooksbank, Wm. Brayshaw, Matthew Dove, Robert Anderson, Percy Race, Fred Baldwin, Fred Greenwood, Frank Throup, Ernest Cooper, Robert Williams.

The Secretary added that many of the wounded men were back in the trenches again, and it was also stated that several of the soldiers had been members of the Steeton Institute.

The resolution of sympathy was carried by the delegates rising in their places…

12 January 1917

STEETON’S GALLANT DEAD

Happily there has during the closing months of the past year been few casualties amongst Steeton’s soldiers to report. Since the commencement of the war the following well-known local soldiers who have been residents in the village have given their lives for the cause of right and humanity.–Arthur Smith, William Dawes, Herbert Dove, Thomas Robson, James Walker (died in training period), Willie Brooksbank, Ewart Myers, Thomas Fitzsimons, Prince Dawson, Fred Ellison, R. Nicholson, W.H. Teale, William Naylor, William Robson, Joseph Hale, Clarence Wilson, Mathias Dove, James Dove, John Nelson, whilst to add to the above are the names of Spencer Cliff missing since the ever-to-be-remembered landing at Suvla Bay in August, 1915, and Wright Cockshott who has been included in the list of those missing since the early autumn of 1916. Several soldiers whose occupations necessitated residence in the village previous to the war have ‘made the sacrifice’ but are not included in the list.

22 June 1917

STEETON-WITH-EASTBURN – Memorial Service

The service at the Wesleyan Church on Sunday morning took the form of a memorial service to the memory of the late Private Tom Spencer and Trooper Clifford Cockshott. The suspense of the last-named soldier’s parents was turned into grief on Thursday in last week when they were notified of their son’s death from wounds received in action. The Rev. W.L. Haim conducted the service and made sympathetic reference to the two fallen soldiers, who were old scholars and along with the under-mentioned dead heroes had attended the Wesleyan Sunday School–Privates Willie and Thos. Robson, Prince Dawson, Richard Nicholson, Ewart Myers and Sergt. Thomas Moyle.