Walter HAGGAS

22 January 1915

SUTTON-IN-CRAVEN – Missing

Mr. Lawrence Preston has received intimation from the officer commanding the 1st Battalion Scots Guards that Pte. Walter Haggas, of Sutton-in-Craven, has been reported missing from November 11th, 1914.

06 October 1916

THE LATE CAPTAIN CEDRIC F. HORSFALL – MEMORIAL SERVICE

A service in memory of the late Captain Cedric F. Horsfall, son of Sir John and Lady Horsfall, Hayfield, Glusburn, who was killed in France on the 18th September, was held on Sunday morning in the Sutton Baptist Church. The large chapel was crowded, and amongst those present were Mrs. Cedric Horsfall, the Mayor of Keighley (Mr. W. A. Brigg), with his mace bearer; Sir John and Lady Horsfall, Miss Horsfall, Miss Dora Horsfall, Miss C. Horsfall, Mrs. Norman Walker, Captain and Mrs. J. Donald Horsfall, Mrs. Curry, Mr. and Mrs. F. W. Petty, Mr. Tom Spencer (Lyndhurst), Mr. Peter Smith, M.P., Mr. W. E. Foster (Keighley), Major C. P Case, Captain Ray Marriner, Mr. John Clough, Mr. F. J. Wilson, Mr. James Woodrow, and Mr. Edgar Naylor.

At the commencement of the service the organist (Mr. Joseph Petty) played ‘O rest in the Lord’, and at the conclusion of the service the Dead March in ‘Saul’ was played, the congregation standing whilst it was being played. The choir, conducted by Mr. Joseph Overend, sang the anthem ‘There is a Land’. The service was opened by the singing of ‘O God our help in ages past’.

The preacher was the pastor (Rev. F. W. Pollard) who said it was nearly a year since the memorial service for Private Joseph Bancroft was held. He was killed in the trenches on October 23rd last year. Fred Simpson and Walter Haggas had been reported missing and no further news had yet been received concerning their fate. Percy Stell and Stanley Archibald, who went through the Gallipoli campaign, were also reported missing. Tom Summersgill, a boy who used to attend the Junior Endeavour Society and the Band of Hope, was killed in July, and now the awful shadow of death again rests upon them, and again they were realising how terrible were the sacrifices the war. The glamour of war was now gone. The fateful week that brought the news of the death of Captain Horsfall would long be remembered for its records of the loss our country sustained of men of special prominence, highly gifted, and with the promise of useful and glorious careers. Raymond Asquith, Captain Henderson and the son of the Rt. Hon. Pike Pease were killed during that week, and the tragedy of those losses was emphasised when news came of the death of Captain Cedric Horsfall. He was indeed worthy to take his place with the best of those who had fallen, by virtue of his noble character and attainments, and by the rich promise of his life. There was in his character much which marked him out for future service in the neighbourhood, in the county and in the country. His education was crowned by his winning highest honours at Cambridge University. He was a true gentleman, the very perfection of kindly consideration for others. They also mourned the death of two others, Lance-Corporal Lewis Binns and Private Albert Binns, both of Glusburn. The first was killed in action on the 11th September. Albert Binns had died during the week as a result of wounds received in action. These men had fallen in defence of their country and its noble ideals, in defence of the cause of freedom and justice, honour and truth. The quarrel thrust upon them was not of their seeking. Their friend, Captain Horsfall, volunteered his services in the very early days of the war. There were many reasons why he might have declined the call home for business considerations; but a noble spirit of chivalry determined him to make the greater choice, and the appeal that came to him in the hour of his country’s need met with a noble one. They must see to it that these great sacrifices were not made in vain.

On the Hayfield family vault in the Sutton Baptist burial ground was a beautiful laurel wreath, and also a splendid array of arum lilies.

13 October 1916

SUTTON – THE ROLL OF HONOUR

Writing in the Parish Magazine on the war, the Vicar of Sutton (Rev. A.R. Light) gives a list of men from the Parish of Sutton, who have fallen in defence of their country as follows:–Arnold Healey, Walter Haggas, Lyall Taylor, Edmund Wilkinson, Norman Riley, Nelson W. Petty, Richard Whitehall, Albert Wm. Tune, Frederick W. Thompson, Henry Taylor, Joseph G. Bancroft, Cedric Fawcett Horsfall.
Mr. Light also says: “I have not in the Magazine mentioned by name those from this place who have given their lives for their country, not because I have forgotten such promising young men as Henry Taylor, and others whose names hang in the Church porch, and, indeed, as I write this, I fear lest it may even be dimly thought that one may seem to be valued more than another. All who are fighting are equally dear to God, and it is also true to say that both rich and poor are giving their best, offering on an altar watered with tears those whose lives are so much to them. All those boys who formed our first patrol of Scouts have almost gone to the front, and only last week we heard of Reginald Ellison being wounded, but we hope his life will yet be spared.

To every mother whose heart aches with anxiety or for actual loss, I offer most true sympathy, whether such are connected with us in the worship of Sutton Church or not, and one cannot help feeling in such times as these that religious differences are not, and cannot be again, as great and as dividing as they have seemed in the past, and that all are one family of God. May each one of these, who will never enter into our lives here again, rest in peace.”