This is one of a series of posts about local men named on the Keighley Union Workhouse roll of honour.
Arthur’s mother Margaret was in the workhouse in 1911 and we think Arthur spent time there as well, although he does not appear in any census for the workhouse.
Private. 1/6th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment) Service number 2301, later 265480.
Early life:
Arthur was born illegitimately at Hermit Hole in Keighley on May 30, 1891 to mother Margaret Dinsdale and he was baptised at St John’s Church on July 26. By 1901 he was aged nine and living at 29, Nelson Street in Cross Roads, with his step-father John Haigh, mother Margaret and his two half-brothers John and Henry Haigh, plus his step-grandmother Agnes Haigh age 70. His step-father John was a Cotton weaver and he died in 1905 leaving Margaret to bring up their three sons alone.
His mother Margaret must have suffered from mental health issues, possibly a nervous breakdown as she was a patient at the Keighley Union Workhouse hospital in the 1911 census and was described as having been an imbecile for one year, which suggests it was not a permanent condition. Arthur is not recorded in the 1911 Workhouse census, but we think he might have spent some time there between 1901 and 1911 because he is named on their roll of honour.
On the 6th of September 1913, Arthur was 22 and a warehouseman living at Lane Ends in Oakworth when at Christ Church Oakworth, he married Mary Alice Scott, a 21 year old laundry maid of 24, Brunswick Street, Keighley.
They had a daughter Alice who was born on 12th November 1915 and her birth was registered in Keighley in the last quarter of that year.
War service:
Arthur enlisted with the 6th Battalion Territorial West Riding Regiment at Haworth on April 6, 1908 at the age of 17. Regimental number 231. He is one of the 653 men named in the Keighley Town Clerk’s 1914 Enlistment records which are at Keighley Library.
As a territorial soldier, he attended the annual training camps at Redcar in 1908, Marske in 1909, Peel, Isle of Man in 1910 and at Ripon in 1911. He was living at 144, Hermit Hole, Ingrow and working as a mill hand. He was discharged after four years service on April 5, 1912.
Arthur had enlisted early in the war at Skipton with the 1/6th Battalion West Riding Regiment with the Army number 2301, and went out to France with them on S.S. Onward April 14, 1915, arriving at Boulogne early the next morning. As far as we can tell, he served with the regiment right through the war until 25th April 1918, when he was killed in action at the age of 26 years, when a German shell landed in the stable he was in. The other man who died with him at that time was Private William Frederick Wardman of Bingley.
WO-95/20801/4. War diary. 6th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment:
Poperinghe. April 25th 1918. 9 am.
Enemy continued shelling of Poperinghe during the morning & shell fell in stables killing 2 grooms & severely wounding 5 others. Two horses were hit & had to be destroyed.
Keighley News 11th May 1918, page 3 (includes photo):
BINGLEY AND DISTRICT.
Private W. F. Wardman (20), West Riding Regiment, of New Russell Street, Bingley, was killed by a shell on April 25 in France, his death being instantaneous. Company Quartermaster-Sergeant B. Thompson, writing to Mrs. Wardman, says: “He will be greatly missed by the men of B Company, for his work as a stretcher bearer brought him in contact with all the men and his last tour in the line proved him to be a splendid soldier and a man to be trusted when things looked bad.” As a member of the Bingley Territorial Company, he was mobilised at the outbreak of war, and had been out in France for seventeen months. Before the war he was employed as a woolcomber at Bowling Green Mills, Bingley, by Mr. J. H. Beaver, Spinner.
Keighley News May 18, 1918, page 3 (includes photograph):
Private Arthur Dinsdale, West Riding Regiment, whose wife resides at Hermit Hole, Ingrow, has been killed. His officer, writing to Mrs Dinsdale, states: “He was killed by shell-fire, and his horse was killed with him. I was at the place very shortly afterwards, and I can say that he suffered no pain. His comrades buried him in a military cemetery close by. He was one of my best men, always cheerful and willing no matter what hour of the day or night he had to turn out. I feel that I have lost a friend as well as a most loyal helper.” Private Dinsdale was a Keighley Territorial.
Arthur and William were buried alongside each other, in graves 6 and 7 of row K, plot II of Poperinghe New Military Cemetery in West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.
Arthur’s widow Mary Alice was living at 25, Hermit Street, Ingrow after the war. Her inscription to him on his war grave in Belgium reads: His memory is as fresh to-day as in the hour God called him away. (R.I.P)
Post war:
Arthur was posthumously awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service.
As Arthur’s next of kin, she would have received his medals plus his Great War Memorial Plaque and the King’s Certificate. These usually arrived in 19202 or 1921. On 20th August 1918 she did receive his outstanding back bay of £16 8s 6d which appears to have been spilt into a payment of £5 9s 6d to Mary and a further payment (via Mary) of £10 19s 0d which was annotated: ‘for child Alice.’ Perhaps Arthur made some mention of his daughter Alice in his soldier’s will, this latter payment was made on 31st October 1918.
A £5 grant was made to Mary on 158th May 1918 and a Dependant’s pension was also awarded to her, of 20 shillings and 5d per week beginning on 11th November 1918. This appears to be for herself and daughter Alice, but a later note from the Army Pension Branch on 24th April 1919 states that Mary was not eligible, probably because she remarried, to Harry Greenwood in summer 1921. Either way, Arthur and Mary’s daughter Alice would still have received pension support until her 16th Birthday on 12th November 1931.
The electoral rolls for Keighley show Mary Alice Dinsdale living at the following addresses shortly after the war:
1919: 272, Hermit Hole.
1920: 6, Harcourt Street.
1921: 25 Hermit Street.
The pension card also includes addresses of 219 Hermit Hole and 273, Whins Wood although we’re not sure of the dates for either address.
The 1921 census shows Mary and Alice living at 25, Hermit Street in Keighley and Mary was on home duties, Alice was aged six and attending school. Not long after this Mary married Harry Greenwood.
Harry later died and in the 1939 Register Mary and Alice were living at 12, Church Street in Halifax.
Alice married Douglas R. Bloomfield in 1946.
Remembrance:
Arthur is named on the following local war memorials and rolls of honour:
Keighley’s Great War roll of honour book in Keighley Library and also on the Oakworth Centenary roll of honour at Oakworth Community Hall. He also appears to be the Arthur Dinsdale named on the Keighley Union Workhouse roll of honour, which is held at Cliffe Castle Museum. He is also named on the Cross Roads Primitive Methodist Sunday School War Memorial Panel, which is on permanent display in the memorial and bowling club building in Cross Roads Park.
Arthur’s younger half-brother John Haigh enlisted in September 1914, but he was discharged after a few months with flat feet, being unable to march any distance.
Source information:
England and Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910.
1901 England Census.
1911 England Census.
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962.
UK, World War I Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Soldiers Died in the Great War.
Keighley News archives at Keighley Library.
Duke of Wellington’s West Riding Regiment war diary WO95 2801-4.
Keighley Union Workhouse roll of honour held at Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley.
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923.
1921 Census of England and Wales.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005.
1939 England and Wales Register.
