News

WW1 Group provide help to Hanson School with its WW1 memorial display.

When Brian Russell, of Hanson School, approached the WW1 Group for assistance in creating a WW1 Memorial display for its school Museum it was gladly provided. Yes ! the school has its own Museum which provides brilliant visual displays on several topics. A hidden first for Bradford.

Trish, Nic and Ray provided much assistance over the school’s summer holidays and now the display is ready for the new school year.

Brian published a thank you to all those who assisted him in creating the display in the Telegraph and Argus on 18 Sep 2024 and also onto the school’s website “https://hanson.org.uk/news/the-museum-hanson-update/”. The website is well worth a visit.

It should be mentioned that all the physical components of the Museum’s displays were designed, materials sourced and then handcrafted by Brian himself. His work deserves the highest credit possible.

Once again this year, members of the World War 1 Group shared the French commemoration of the Battle of Hebuterne-Serre at the invitation of the local mayors. Despite poor weather, larger numbers than usual were present and, with a dozen standard bearers from junior branches of remembrance organisations, the official parade was much longer and even more colourful.

The ceremony began at Serre Road No1 Cemetery with the exhortation and placing of a wreath on behalf of the WW1 Group. Everyone then paraded to the French Memorial Chapel on Serre Road where wreaths were laid at the Pals Memorial Stone by the mayor of Hebuterne and on behalf of the Lord Mayor of Bradford. The final part of the ceremony was held at the French Memorial where wreaths were placed by veterans of the French Regiments commemorated there.

The weekend of 15th/16th June proved to be grey, cold and damp in France this year, comme angleterre ! Members of the Bradford WW1 Group paid a visit to Avril at Oceans Villas for a warming cup of coffee before visiting the Pals Memorial Stone, which was installed in 2016. On finding the front of the Memorial Stone covered with weeds they set about some serious gardening. Among the weeds were poppy crosses placed last year by WW1 Group members Gail and Chris, by Bradford Grammer School in 2016 and one in remembrance of 50 Germans who were drowned nearby in a flooded trench system. All was made ready for the Commemoration proceedings the following day.

The manager of the Hermit Inn, Burley Woodhead, recently found a ‘death penny’ whilst creating a patio in the ‘yard’. These were issued to the families of servicemen killed during WW1. This particular one had a small hole in it suggesting that it may have been on display, possibly hanging on a nail. The WW1 Group where asked to research for any information on the person named on the ‘penny’, Ernest Vitty.

Ernest was born in Little Horton in Bradford. He attended All Saints School on Little Horton Lane. When he left school he worked for the Midland Railway as a Carriage Cleaner. When war broke out he enlisted into the West Yorkshire Regiment 1st/6th. He married Bertha Kershaw in May 1916 and shortly afterwards was wounded in the shoulder on the 1st July 1916. When he recovered he joined the West Yorkshire Regiment 1st/7th and was killed on the 9th October 1917 at Passchendaele. He is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial.

How the ‘penny’ got from Bradford to the Hermit Inn is a mystery.