Rev. Jonathan Priestley, father of Douglas, was my grandfather's cousin. Below is some information about them.
Julia
Jonathan Priestley Born 25.3.1862, Allerton, Yorks. Died 9.4.1916, Bishop Monkton, Yorks.
Jonathan was the first of the Priestleys to go to university. Having attended Bradford Grammar School, he then went on to study at Cambridge University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1884 and a Master of Arts in 1888.
Interestingly then for someone whose family had been Methodists for generations, and whose father had been a Wesleyan preacher, Jonathan became a priest in the Church of England. He was ordained deacon in 1887 in the Yorkshire diocese of Ripon, and priest in 1889 in the neighbouring diocese of Wakefield. He was curate in several Yorkshire parishes: Holmfirth from 1887 to 1890; Shipley 1890 to 1894, and Bishop Monkton 1894-1903, then becoming Vicar of Thornton Steward 1903-1916 and Rector of Farnley for a short time in 1916.
Jonathan was married twice. His first wife, Sarah Mary Roberts, whom he married in 1892, was the mother of Bernard (see below). She died in 1899 giving birth to their second child, Wesley, who also died then.
Five years later Jonathan married again. Ethel Stead was the daughter of the headmaster of Folkestone Grammar School. Her brother Gilbert (1888-5.7.1979), who went to Bradford Grammar School, was Professor of Physics at Guy's Hospital (connected to the University of London), and a pioneer of radiology as a recognised medical speciality. Ethel and Jonathan had three sons, all of whom were still living with their mother in Olford, Essex in 1950. It seems that none of them ever married.
Douglas Bernard Priestley
Born 18.4.1897, Bishop Monkton, Yorks. Died 31.7.1917, Ypres, Belgium.
Bernard, as he was usually known, was educated at his father Jonathan’s old school, Bradford Grammar School. He then moved to Daventry, where his Uncle Wes was headmaster of the Grammar School, and worked in the Lloyds Bank there. He had planned to marry his step cousin Minnie Nichols.
During the First World War he served first with the Northamptonshire Regiment, and then with the 5th Lancashire Fusiliers, where he was Second Lieutenant.
Thomas Hope Floyd shared a room with him in Ypres, and recorded his memories of Bernard in his book At Ypres with Best-Dunkley (1920). He describes the following incident that took place on 7 June 1917:
“I went to bed about 10 last night. About 2, Barker, Priestley, and Verity returned from their working parties. Priestley was very doleful; he was mournfully discussing the horrors of the war, and of his evening’s experiences in particular. And it appears that there was some reason, for he had been in command of a party of eight whose mission had been to fetch back some steel helmets from the trenches. (A ruse had been played upon the Boche on Messines Night. A large number of helmets had been placed in such position as to encourage the Boche to think that we were concentrating troops there instead of, or as well as, at Messines and Wytschaete!) They were returning, and Priestley was remarking that the Boche was very quiet just at present, when a shell burst amongst them. Four of his party were wounded and one killed; and a piece of shrapnel went right through the tube of his box-respirator, he himself escaping unhurt. A near shave! ‘Well, do you think those helmets were worth the life of one man and injury to four others?’ I heard him asking.” (p. 38)
Thomas, whose father, like Bernard’s, was a clergyman too, attended church parade with Bernard, and also records that one night the two of them, together with their two other roommates,
“Had quite a long discussion upon all kinds of topics ranging from the conduct of the war (East versus West), and the doctrine of the Apostolic Succession, to the character and policy of Winston Churchill (whom, of course, they all detest!), and the pre-war morals of civilian Ypres. We went on arguing until dawn broke! Then we got to sleep.” (p. 39)
Bernard was killed in action at the beginning of the Battle of Passchendaele, on 31st July 1917. The area where Douglas was killed, Liverpool Trench, near St Jan, was where the Fusiliers mounted their attack. "Douglas Bernard Priestley was shot through the head and killed instantly almost as soon as he got over the top." (p. 148)
Bernard’s obituary says that “This gallant young officer fell whilst courageously leading his men into the enemy lines on July 31st. He was very popular with his regiment, in which his death is deeply deplored. His Major, in a letter to the bereaved relatives, writes, ‘He was a gallant and conscientious young officer, and his loss will be greatly felt.’”
He was only twenty years old.
Bernard has no known grave, but is commemorated on the war memorials of: Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing in France; Daventry Borough; Bradford Grammar School; Daventry Grammar School; Lloyd's Bank, London; Holy Cross Church, Daventry, and St Oswald's Church, Thornton Steward.
