Gunner. Royal Field Artillery. Regimental number 209746.
Early life:
Foster’s parents were John Baxandall and Zillah Baxandall née Sugden. They were married in Keighley on the 11th of January 1876. John was a 24 year old bachelor and farmer of Dean Lathe and Zillah was a 22 year old spinster and worsted twister of Spring Vale.
Foster was born in 1898 at Oakworth, His birth was registered at Keighley in the first quarter of that year.
In the 1901 census Foster was aged three and living with his family at 8, Holme House on Holme House Lane, which leads down into Goose Eye from the Slaymaker Lane junction. John was 49 and still a farmer, Zillah was 47. living here were Ada, aged 24 and employed as a paper sorter at a paper mill, Sarah aged 19 was a rag sorter at a paper mill; William aged 16 was a butcher’s apprentice; Mary Ellen aged 14 was a paper finisher, Frank aged 12, Wilson aged ten and Clifford aged six were probably still attending school whole-time and Foster would have been at home with his mother.
Note:
The Paper Mill mentioned above is probably the Turkey Paper and Rag Mill located about 500 metres away at Goose Eye, which made high quality paper for bank notes.
Two tragedies hit the family when their mother Zillah died at the age of 48 on the 5th of January 1902 and about eight months later their father John died aged 51 on the 19th of August 1902. This left the older siblings having to care for the younger ones and they would have had to move away from the farm to 13, Griffe View which is near Lane Ends in Oakworth village.
Foster was aged about four at this time.
In the 1911 census the family were living at 13, Griff View in Oakworth. Foster was aged 13 and employed as a doffer at a worsted spinning mill. He was living with his sister Sarah, a rag sorter aged 29, who was the head of the household. Also here were Wilson aged 20 and an iron turner for a tool makers; Frank aged 22 and a fitter for a crane maker; Clifford aged 16, and employed as a plumber.
War service:
His brothers Clifford and Frank also served in the Army during the Great War.
There are no Army service records available for Foster. We do know he served abroad because he was awarded medals and because there was no 1914-15 Star issued he must have gone abroad after the beginning of 1916. We do not know he was in Flanders on the 25th of June 1917 and a search of seven similar regimental numbers in the RFA showed they all enlisted between February and March 1917.
Similar service numbers – dates of enlistment:
(These are no guarantee of Foster having joined at the same time, but are supplied for information only.)
Name Number Bde Attested Mobilised
William Edwin Tatchell 209899 RFA 24 May 1916 07 Mar 1917
Joseph Henry Underwood 209807 RFA 11 Dec 1915 12 Mar 1917
George William Orchard 206944 RFA 11 Dec 1915 04 Feb 1917
James Barker 209314 RFA 12 Dec 1915 09 Mar 1917
James Wood 209428 RFA 10 Dec 1915 07 Mar 1917
Isaac Woolf 209106 RFA 04 Feb 1916 26 Feb 1917
John Powell 209594 RFA 07 Dec 1915 24 Jan 1917
Letter home:
A letter written by Foster Baxandall in response to a letter from his niece, which he received on the 24th of June 1917. It seems that the school had encouraged all of the children to write to a soldier at the front and she chose him to correspond with. Sadly we don’t have a copy of her letter but we can see that from his reply he’s responding to her questions:
Flanders June-25/17
Dear Niece,
I received your most welcome letter yesterday.
I was surprised to hear from you for it is first time I have had a letter from a niece, but I was none the less pleased for that.
So you want a souvenir. Well I will see if I can get you one that I can send home the next time we go out to rest.
I’m afraid I cannot tell you when I shall be home on leave for they are stopped at present, and there is no telling when they will start again.
So you are in Standard IV now. I remember that Standard well enough & I think it is the hardest of them all. Well if you do your long division sums as well as you frame at writing letters I am certain you wont be far from the top of the class. I suppose you will be looking forward to the Midsummer Holidays now, even if it does mean you getting your old teacher back instead of the young lady you have now.
I am certain it was very thoughtful of her to have you write to someone at the front & if they were
all as welcome as mine, it was well worth doing.
I hope you had a good time on the ramble with your Sunday School class, for you will have had it by the time I am writing this.
I will close now, hoping this finds you in the best of health.
I remain, Your Sincere, Uncle Foster.
Foster had four nieces, all were the daughters of his elder sister Ada who was married to Lister Naylor. The one who wrote the original letter was either Lena or Mary Ellen as they were in the age group for Standard four.
They were Emma, born 1906 and aged eleven in 1917.
Mary Ellen, born 1907 and aged ten in 1917.
Lena, born 1908 and aged nine in 1917.
Sarah, born 1911 and aged six in 1917.
Standard four probably means she was aged nine or ten when she wrote her letter.
The standards were:
Standard One: ages six to seven
Standard Two: ages seven to eight
Standard Three: ages eight to nine
Standard Four: ages nine to ten.
Standard Five: ages ten to eleven.
Standard Six: ages eleven to twelve.
Standard Seven: ages twelve to thirteen.
Foster carried out his service with the Royal Field Artillery and survived the war. He was issued with the British War Medal and the Victory Medal for his overseas service in the war.
Post war:
In the 1921 census Foster was aged 23 and living at Bunkers Hill Farm which is a farmhouse at the far end of Wheathead Lane near Keighley. He was with his brother in law Frederick William Sugden a dairy farmer aged 60 and his sister Annie Sugden aged 42 and they son Horace aged 19 and an apprentice draughtsman for George Hattersley and Sons. Foster was employed as a wheelwright with J. Stell and Sons, Lorry Builders at Starkie Street in Keighley.
He is recorded in the electoral rolls between 1922 and 1924 living at Bunkers Hill After 1924 there is no record of him in the UK.
We know that he was living in New Zealand and probably emigrated there soon afterwards.
The New Zealand, Electoral Rolls show Foster living at 68, Cumnor Terrace in the Lyttelton district of Christchurch between 1928 and 1969. This is located on South Island. Also living with him is his wife Ida Baxandall but we don’t have a marriage record for them so we do not know her maiden name. Most of these records show he was a body builder which refers to him building vehicle bodies.
In 1972 the Electoral register shows Ida Baxandall as a widow living at the same address.
There are three other New Zealand records for Foster. One is Wise’s Post Office directory which shows him in 1940 living at Christchurch.
He is also recorded on the Second World War Ballot Lists published in the New Zealand Gazette. These were notices to men called up under the National Service emergency regulation and include men who signed up for service in Home Defence Units.
The lists were published on the 22nd of December 1942 and Foster would have been aged 44 at that time.
We suspect he only served locally in home defence if at all, and did not serve overseas from New Zealand.
A New Zealand Death Record shows Foster died aged 71 in 1969 which matches with Ida’s electoral record as a widow.
Information sources:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
1901 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915.
1911 England Census.
Letter supplied by family.
Education in the UK: a history by Derek Gillard. https://education-uk.org.
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.
UK, WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962.
1921 Census Of England & Wales.
New Zealand, Electoral Rolls, 1853-2010.
Wise’s Post Office Directory – New Zealand, City & Area Directories, 1866-1954.
New Zealand, World War II Ballot Lists, 1940-1945.
New Zealand, Historical Death Index, 1840-1975.
