Lees, Cross Roads and Bocking war memorial
Private. 2nd Battalion West Riding Regiment. Service number 24499.
Previously served with the Yorkshire Regiment, Service number 32461.
Early life:
Robert and Selina Coates née Feather were married in 1880 and their marriage was registered at Keighley in the second quarter of that year. Their daughter Edith was born on 28th October that year. When the census was taken on 3rd April 1881, they were both aged 25 and living at Oakworth Hall and Edith was just five months old. Robert was working as a gardener.
Fred was born on 22nd October 1881, almost exactly a year after Edith, with his birth being registered at Keighley in the last quarter of that year.
Another child came along with the birth of Sarah Ellen on 6th November 1884.
Sadly their mother Selina aged just 35 died in late 1889 and was buried on 31st October that year at Dockroyd Graveyard in grave 7. S., which contains her parents Thomas and Ellen Feather and her sister Sarah Ellen Aucanté, who had married Jean Michel Aucanté. He was a master craftsman who built the stone grottoes for Sir Isaac Holden’s Estate – which are now an important feature of Oakworth’s Holden Park.
Robert got remarried to Elizabeth Rowley in 1890, and their marriage was registered at Keighley in the third quarter of that year.
By the time of the 1891 census Robert was head gardener for George Merrall, a local worsted spinning manufacturer. They had moved to Law House Lodge, which along with Law House sadly no longer exists and was located across from Eagle Street off Lees Lane. The family was father Robert, stepmother Elizabeth, sister Edith aged ten and a part time worsted spinner, Fred aged nine and Sarah aged six, were at school.
All three children were baptised at St. James’s Church in Cross Roads on 2nd September 1894. This must have been quite the occasion for the family! Because St James’s was still a mission church for St. John’s Church at Ingrow, the baptisms were also recorded in the St. John’s Church records. They are also recorded at St. John’s Church, Greengates for reasons unknown.
In 1901 Fred was 19 and working as a domestic gardener, probably with his father, for the mill owner George Merrall, at Law House. Fred was living at Law House Lodge with his parents and two sisters.
On September 12, 1908, Fred married Emily Williams of Vale Lane top, at St John’s Church, Ingrow. He was 27 and Emily was 25. He was still a gardener living at Law House Lodge.
After a couple of years we find Fred and Emily living at 4, Greenwood Mount at Meanwood in Leeds in 1911. Fred is 29, and still working as a domestic gardener. At some point they moved to Moorfield Lodge, part of the Moorfield House estate in Leeds, home of John Carr Nicholson, dry salter and manufacturing chemist. For a while, he was also apparently working for Alderman Arnold, the Lord Mayor of Leeds .
Fred and Emily had a son, Robert was born on the 6th of August 1913 and their daughter Edna was born on 28th of June 1915. They were still living at Moorfield Lodge when war broke out and Fred joined the Army in the summer of 1916.
War service:
Fred attested on 5th June, 1916 at Leeds at the age of 36 years and seven months, with the Yorkshire Regiment (service number 32461). His enlistment was confirmed on 12th June at Richmond. He was training in this country at West Hartlepool where he was 0n 10th October he received an admonishment for disobeying Battalion orders, by taking in his trousers. He continued serving here until 20th October when he embarked for France, arriving there the next day. A couple of weeks later on 5th November 1916 he was transferred to the West Riding Regiment (service number 24499.)
He was posted to the 2nd Battalion West Riding Regiment in the field on the 8th of November.
He received a slight gunshot wound to the neck on 11th April 1917 and was treated at 47 Field Ambulance, then to a Casualty Clearing Station and No. 6 Stationary Hospital at Le Treport, before being transported to the United Kingdom on 4th May on the SS St. Andrew. He was treated for 32 days in hospital at Ripon from 11th June to 12th July, then home for rehabilitation and leave for two weeks before he returned to France on 28th July.
Keighley News 28th April 1917, page 3 and 9:
LEES AND CROSS ROADS.
Private Fred Coates, of the West Riding Regiment, only son of Mr. Robert Coates, gardener, Law House, Lees, Haworth, is in hospital in France suffering from wounds. Up to joining the colours Private Coates was head gardener to the Lord Mayor of Leeds (Alderman Arnold).
On 5th September, 1917 Fred died age 36, of wounds received in action.
Information from 2nd Battalion West Riding Regiment war diary, September 1917:
There are no casualties recorded in the war diary for the week preceding Fred’s death, apart from three ‘other ranks’ who succumbed to the effects of gas during a period on September 3, when the battalion was being relieved by the 2nd Battalion Essex Regiment. The Germans had sent over gas shells during the day with no casualties at the time but it’s possible the gas was lingering and caught some men out during the relief. Fred may have been one of these men. He was buried at grave 19, row B, plot VII of Grevillers British Cemetery, about 15 miles south of Arras, Pas de Calais, France.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission records only show Fred’s death on the 5th September 1917, with no other deaths reported for six days on either side of that date.
Grevillers British Cemetery was begun by the 3rd, 29th and 3rd Australian Casualty Clearing Stations in May 1917.
Keighley News September 15, 1917 page 3:
Private Fred Coates, West Riding Regiment, only son of Mr Robert Coates, of Law House Lodge, Lees, Haworth, has died of wounds in France. He was admitted to hospital on the 3rd and died on September 5. He was wounded in April last and returned to France five weeks ago. Private Coates, before joining the colours in July, 1916, was head gardener to Mr E. G. Arnold, the Lord Mayor of Leeds, for some years. When he went to France in October of last year he was connected with a Lewis gun section, originally having joined the Green Howards. At Lees, where Private Coates spent his boyhood and early manhood, general sympathy is felt for the family. He leaves a widow and two young children, who reside at Moorfield Lodge, Moortown, Leeds. His wife Emily moved back to Lees, and was living at 149, Hebden Road in 1919.
Post war:
He was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for war service. his wife Emily received these on 2nd February and 3rd March 1921, having already received the bronze war memorial plaque and King’s certificate inscribed with his name on 2nd December 1920.
On 12th December 1917 she received his personal effects which were: Pipe (broken), wire, letter case, letters, photos, cards, wallet, stationery, 2, 1d Stamps, notebook, 2 religious books, purse, disc, cap badge, wrist watch& strap, penknife, scissors. (This document also states he was with the 2/4th West Riding Regiment, but almost all the other records state he was with the 2nd Battalion West Riding Regiment.)
Emily received a £5 grant on 25th September 1917.
The Soldier’s effects record shows that Emily also received his outstanding Army pay of £1 13s 0d on 29th November 1917.
She applied for and received a Dependant’s pension for herself and their two children. This was for 22 shillings and 11 pence per week, beginning on 11th March 1918. The Pension card notes that Emily was not eligible for a pension, dated 2nd October 1918, although it appears that this was reviewed on 20th September 1918 and shows Emily received £1 6s 8d for herself and 17s 6d for the children as a total of £2 4s 2d per week.
Emily also received a one off war gratuity payment of £4 on 6th November 1919.
Emily, Robert and Edna Coates were living at 149, Hebden Road at Lees near Haworth in the 1921 census. By 1933, Emily and Robert had moved to 14, East Terrace in Keighley and she died aged 57 in the second quarter of 1941.
Robert died at the age of 88 in 2002.
Edna married Robert Smales in 1935 and in the 1939 Register they were living at 1, Janet Street, in Lees, near Cross Roads.
Remembrance:
Fred Coates is named on the Cross Roads memorial which is in the Bowling Club building in Cross Roads Park and on the St. James’s Church war memorial at Cross Roads. He is also remembered on the family grave at Haworth Cemetery on Penistone Hill.
Information sources:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915.
1881 England Census.
England & Wales, Free BMD Birth Index, 1837-1915.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915.
West Yorkshire, Non-Conformist Records, 1646-1985.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915.
1891 England Census.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910.
1901 England Census.
England & Wales, Free BMD Marriage Index, 1837-1915.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935.
1911 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920.
Keighley News archives at Keighley Library.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.
WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923.
1921 England Census.
1939 England and Wales Register.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962.
