AROUND TOWN MEETS AROUND TOWN Stairfoot Sixsome The Valliant Eric, Trevor and Maurice
At the bugled call of the mustachioed military maestro, Lord Kitchener, in the summer of 1914, mothers up and down the country waved goodbye to their heroic sons who gallantry left in search of peace at the birth of the Great War.
But for one lady in Barnsley, she shed a tearful farewell to all of her six sons who each enlisted in battalions across the country ready to fight for their King at the same time. A real life band of brothers, The Valliant
Sixsome from Stairfoot are the ancestors of Eric, Trevor and Maurice Lee who have been inspired by Aroundtown to share their family’s military plight.
After reading about Great Sacrifice last March, a book written by historian Jane Ainsworth detailing the 76 Old Boys of Holgate Grammar School who all died during World War One, the Lee brothers were encouraged to tell their own story about their grandfather and his five brothers who served in the war together. Although not uncommon for two or three brothers to serve together, it is the story of how all six boys of the nine Watson children chose to join, travelling from Barnsley to far stretched corners of the world and the troubles that followed after.
“Why was our last battle like the times when Barnsley won the cup? Because it was a Hooge affair!”
From a little house in Albion Road in the old Sodom area of Stairfoot, a widowed Jane Watson nee Ferdinand waited nervously for word of injury or worse as her boys spent months and years risking their lives in the thick of the trench warfare.
After her husband Thomas died of smallpox 4
aroundtownmagazine.co.uk
William, Colour Sergeant 2nd Northumberland
in 1894 aged 41, the family had moved to Barnsley from Clyde Road, Tottenham in search of employment and a cheaper cost of living. She also moved back up north to be closer to her family – she was born in Bradford before meeting Thomas in Darlington where he worked as a railway signalman and she at a twister worsted wool factory. With seven out of nine children in tow, many of them found work down the mines or in the glassworks which were major industries in Barnsley. Yet when war broke in 1914, Jane and her three daughters were left to whittle and worry throughout the war years as off the boys marched to fight for the good of the country. Praying for the safe return of the sons she didn’t give willingly, Jane was just one of thousands in Barnsley whose children made a sacrifice to volunteer their services in the war. Fuelled by the rising tensions in Europe, we have all heard how the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir of an Austria-Hungarian emperor, by a Bosnia-Serb nationalist was the spark that ignited the Great War; a war which embroiled most of Europe as well as Russia, the USA and the Middle East and lasted over four years. Two of Jane’s sons were already part of the regular army before the war began, both serving in the 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers – part of the second largest British infantry. With roots up in Darlington where their parents were married in 1874, it’s no surprise that William and
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