Souvenir believed to have been written by Major Kenyon
Souvenir provided by Mayor Norman Walsh.

Thorne and the Great War

IT is universally acknowledged that never was the mettle of men and countries tried so sternly as in the Great War, how did our ancient little town of Thorne stand the test? It is the writer's purpose in these few pages to touch on such scanty facts bearing on this question as he could collate in the short space that has been given him to edit the War Memorial Souvenir.

At the outbreak of war, no town could have been less military than Thorne. Not even a Territorial Company had its headquarters in the place. The Navy blue and the scarlet or khaki of the Army were rarely seen in the streets. However, within three days of the liberation of War, at the instigation of Mr. G. H. Dunston, C.C., and the Rev, Hankin Hardy, the locally stationed Wesleyan minister and a. former Army Chaplain, an enthusiastic recruiting meeting was held inn the Town hall, with Mr. J. Servant in the chair, and some sixty risen gave in their names as recruits for service, afterwards proceeding to Doncaster in batches to attest.

Further meetings were held from time to time, and gradually more and more answered the call.

At the end of the war the total number who had joined from Thorne in one branch or another of H.M. Forces was estimated at some 800 men out of a population of 5,000 that is roughly one out of every three males of whatever age. The keelmen of the place contributed to reinforce the crews of the mine-sweepers, a dangerous and arduous service which did its exacting work far from the limelight and uncheered by accounts of its valour in the reports of war correspondents.


For those of less martial leanings a Volunteer Corps was organised, which was drilled by a former Territorial officer, Mr. Geo. Bletcher, J.P. Later on the Corps was restricted to men who, by reason of age, unfitness or essential occupation either could not enlist or were excused from joining the Army or Navy, and Mr. Geo. Dunston, C.C., became the local commandant. Mr. Dunston, whose services were eventually rewarded with the rank of first lieutenant in the Volunteers, also acted as chairman of the local Tribunal which was set up under the Military Service Acts, and in this dual capacity was able not only to train, but also to recruit, his command successfully. Suffice it to state such was the fame of the Thorne Volunteer Corps that never a German set foot in the parish, save as a prisoner, and even the raiding Zeppelins dare drop no bombs on the town.

By financial efforts, too, Thorne backed up the Army and Navy. The Soldiers' Parcels Fund, with Mr. H. W. Prior as chairman, Mr. H. E. Newton as secretary, and Mr. Ralph Clark as treasurer, raised a total of £277 for parcels for our fighting men. The local relief fund, with Mr. J. Servant as secretary, raised, with bank interest, £302 8s. 7d., which was expended in grants to the wives of Sailors and Soldiers to carry them on until the official allowances came through, and in grants to Red Cross and other Funds.

A Prisoners of War Fund, organised by Mrs. E. H. Holland and Mrs. Nelson Newburn, collected £160 to alleviate the sufferings of our unfortunate men in Germany.

The Farmers' Red Cross Fund, actively assisted by Mr. G. Bletcher, raised in the Thorne Parish alone £1,390.

A special War Loan Week amassed a total contribution of £29,000.

Thorne came forward also to assist the Refugees from Belgium. £700 was got together, and twenty-two Belgians were at one time provided for in four houses. The employees at the Thorne Colliery also found a house and maintenance for a group of three men and two women of the artisan class at a cost of well over £100.

When the call went up for greater food production, and yet the able-bodied farm labourers were urgently needed in the Army, Mrs. Kenyon from time to time raised groups of women workers for the farms, placed them in suitable lodgings and saw to their welfare.

Among other by-ways of public activity, Mr. C. C. Elmhirst organised the local collections of the National Egg Fund for Hospitals, the importance of which only those who have been in hospital can thoroughly appreciate. The large number of 60,000 eggs were collected in the locality.

The knitting of socks and other comforts for Sailors and Soldiers was set on foot by Mrs. Darley, who provided nearly all the wool, between 2,000 and 3,000 articles being sent to H.M. Forces. Fetes for war charities were also organised. Mrs. Darley held two in her grounds for the Arnold Hospital, and one or two others for like objects. Mrs. Kenyon got up three fetes in her garden at The Maples for the Belgian Relief Fund, the Red Cross and the Y.M.C.A.

The writer, while touching on the manifold activities at home of our townsfolk, could not forbear to mention specially the splendid efforts of one of our public men. The year before the war (1913) robbed Thorne of three of its best known and most highly regarded figures. Mr. F. D. Foster, the President of the Agricultural Society for a good many years, a member of every public body, the finest sportsman our town has known; Mr. J. Chester Coulman, the Chairman of the Justices and donor of the Recreation Ground; and Mr. George Kenyon, the Clerk to the District Council and to the Justices, a man who knew and loved every inch of the countryside. The death of such men as these made the burden still heavier on the public men who remained. Mr. James Servant's name has already been mentioned. In treating of Thorne's public efforts for the War one could not keep it out if one tried. No good cause has been stinted of his help. Here are some of his activities:-Military Representative on the Tribunal, Secretary to the Belgian Relief Committee, Secretary to the Local Relief Fund, and Secretary to the Naval and Military Pensions Committee. The amount of work involved in these offices is only known to the initiated. In addition to this, to save local men from days in queues at the Doncaster Offices, he arranged to attest them at his house, and dealt with over 300 recruits. In short, while many men of his age were content to do nothing for their country, Mr. Servant, set a shining example of public service. He was most ably assisted in all his efforts by Mrs. Servant. Her work for the Belgian refugees was untiring, and it was chiefly owing to her zeal that the weekly contributions towards their support were so long continued. No fete or entertainment of any kind during, the war was arranged without her willing help being of great assistance to the Organisers, who in many cases felt that success was largely due to her.

Dr. Martin, J.P., acted also as a Military Representative, and frequently journeyed out to Doncaster and Mexborough to attend the Tribunals.

A tribute must also be paid to Thorne's Special Constables, with Mr. John Acaster at their head. Men over the military age for the most part, they carried out tiresome and arduous duties with consistent zeal and steadfastness.

Turning back to the more active aspects of the War, at the end of this record will be found the list of Decorations won by Thorne men. Probably it is far from complete.

The list of the men who fell is a sad but proud one for Thorne from its length. Looking down it, one sees many of the good old Thorne names. And it is above all to honour these men that this War Memorial of ours has taken shape, though let us not forget the living who, amid death and disaster, set their teeth and hung on, hoping against hope and refusing to be beaten till the tide of battle turned. And so Thorne determined that its Memorial should be worthy of the men who fell, something that, could their spirits come back awhile to us, they would be glad to look upon-a lasting Memorial, keeping for all time, a piece of old Thorne as these men knew it. Thorne felt, too, that it is not fitting that the Memorial should be a ground for contention between rival schemes, and so, though many different projects were mooted, the Committee were unanimous in their recommendations and the Parish Meeting were unanimous in their acceptance of the proposal to purchase the old Show Ground for a Park, and erect a monument there.

Appended is a list of the subscribers down to 5s. Only considerations of space and the cost of printing have prevented smaller subscriptions being acknowledged here, for many a shilling, or perhaps less, is a more truly generous gift than a. pound or more from those far more richly endowed. It must not be forgotten that the funds raised so far, amounting to £1,300, are insufficient to complete the original design of the Memorial, which involves the erection of a monument to record the names of the fallen and the laying out of the ground, with some provision for its upkeep. One pressing need is the repair of the wall, which, on the West Street side, shows signs of collapse.

And now we come back to the question with which we started. Can Thorne be proud of its record in the War? Will our townspeople look at the Memorial with a feeling of honest satisfaction and say to themselves that difficult and terrible though the days of the War were, the town did its best. The names on the Roll of Honour, the List of Distinctions, the Roll of Service in its widest sense, must answer this; and in a lesser way must the list of subscribers to the Memorial. The man or woman whose name, without just cause, is found on none of these-what can we say of such a one? That owing their lives, their safety, their daily bread to the men who died for them, they neither stirred a finger to help nor gave a penny to remember them.

The Committee offered a prize of 5s. for the motto considered the most suitable for the War Memorial, and this is awarded to J. Servant: -

"YE HAVE DIED LIKE MEN AND FALLEN LIKE ONE OF THE PRINCES."

It is understood that further mottoes are to be considered, there being no kind of obligation or, the committee to have the one now selected engraved on the monument. The rhythm of the motto selected for the prize is its chief recommendation. What the motto should contain was expressed by several competitors in the words: -

"THEY DIED THAT WE MIGHT LIVE"

This idea needs to be set forth in nobler wording. Eighteen mottoes were sent in.

The following Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Men
received Distinctions for their Valour

Major A. W. POLDEN, M.C.
Lieut. C. STEPHENSON, M.C.
Second-Lieut. WM. CRAMPTON, M.C
JOHN HACKETT, D.C.M. with bar and M.M.
MARK STEAD, M.M. and Croix de Guerre.
Co.-Sergt.-Major E. REED, M.M. and Croix de Guerre.
CHARLES HOGGARD, M.M. and Medal Militaire.
THOMAS CRAGG, M.M. with bar.
Sergt. EDWARD TODD, M.M.
WILLIAM HORTON, M.M.
Bombardier SAMUEL BARLEY, MM. with bar.
Corpl. ALLAN ROBINSON, M.M.
Corpl. WILLIAM ROBINSON, M.M.
Sergt. THOMAS SCHOLES, M.M.
WILLIAM RIXON, M.M.
WALTER FRANCE, M.M.
Sergt. H. GODFREY, M.M.
THOMAS H. HENRY, Merchant Service Medal.
Co.-Sergt. W. H. BAMFIELD, Merchant Service Medal.

£47 13s. 6d. handed to above in War Certificates and Treasury Notes from the funds of local Committee. Including this £47 13s. 6d. the sum spent in celebration of the Armistice was £219 12s. 6d.

PICKMAN GILLYEAN took part as an able seaman and a volunteer in the attack on the German submarine base at Ostend. He was presented by the people of Thorne with a handsome gold watch, suitably engraved.

The souvenir also contains a list of Subscribers to the Memorial Fund
Nearly 600 in all. Total ammount collected £1321 16s 10d

"Thorne Men whose Lives were Nobly Sacrificed in the Great War."

For these, who, stained and blackend in the battle smoke of mortality,
have but to dip themselves for an instant in the font of death
and to rise renewed of plumage, as a dove that is
covered with silver and her feathers like gold.

« The memorial in the park »

An Added Note

This Souvenir would be incomplete indeed were it to be issued without reference to the part played by the author of it, not only in the war, but in the effort to fittingly commemorate the bravery of the Thorne men who lost their lives. Major Kenyon, who had until March, 1914, been an officer in the Territorial Force, when he retired, at once recognised, on the outbreak of war, where his duty lay, and he joined H.M. Forces. He was sent to organise the Second Line Battalion, and, later on - in 1916 - he was attached to the R.F.A., and a year later was given the rank of captain. He was sent to France, and after the battle of Cambrai was promoted to the rank of major. Recovering from wounds in March, 1918, he returned to the Front, but shortly afterwards received severe wounds in the face, which necessitated hospital treatment for five months. The veritable hall-mark of warfare - of duty well performed - will be an ever-present honour and distinction. So far as the Memorial is concerned, his counsel and advice, his liberality and encouragement have been a constant source of inspiration. Nor ought one to fail to allude to his younger brother, Mr. Geoffrey Kenyon, whose promising career as a solicitor was cut short by war's ruthless scythe. Declining altogether to profit from his professional and public position, he persisted in joining the ranks. Like many another, he died that we might live. I have taken, perhaps, something of a liberty, as a sort of proof reader of this Souvenir, in venturing to add these few lines. They are at any rate no mere verbiage, and will, one believes, be accepted and endorsed generally and in the spirit in which they are written.

JAMES SERVANT.