Looking for the place of burial Army death in 1919.

[Tony Lund]

I am trying to find the place of burial and date of death of a young Holmfirth soldier who died in an accidental explosion somewhere in County Cork in 1919.

A report that appeared in the Holmfirth Express on November 29th 1919, poses more questions than it answers. Apart from his name on the local memorial it is the only reference I have found so far to the death of Private George Frederick Heppenstall, son of Mr. J. W. Heppenstall from the Brent House area of Hepworth, Holmfirth.

There is no date of death given.

The newspaper information is this,- Private G. Heppenstall 60817, 2-1 Yorkshire Hussars, stationed in County Cork, Ireland. Was one of a number who sustained severe injury as a result of an explosion and died within 24 hours. He was twenty-four years old and had enlisted in 1916 and served most of that time in Ireland. Before the war he was a piecener at Dover Mills, Holmfirth.

A letter from his officer says this:

“Please accept my sincere condolences and regrets at the untimely death of No. 60817 Private G. Heppenstall. I feel sure it will be a source of gratification to you to know he died doing his duty. It was a pure accident for which no one was to blame. Pte. Heppenstall was a good soldier and an excellent man, and I can assure you all possible precautions were adopted to avoid anything of the nature of an accident happening.”

From the sound of that report a number of men may well have been killed, but I have not seen any report of a body being returned to Holmfirth, so any dead will presumably have been buried in somewhere in Cork.

Private George Frederick Heppenstall is named on the Hade Edge section of the Holme, Holmfirth and New Mill Memorial.  He is not named on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Register.  Nothing further is known and any help will be much appreciated.

Tony.

[IMBER]

Hi

Just in case you are still looking for this chap, he IS on the CWGC website. Problem is that they have it spelled HEPPENSTAL.  If you know for certain that you can prove the correct spelling then please ask them to change this both on the Register and on the headstone.  Hope this helps.

[Sean O Callaghan]

It's unusual that he is listed as being buried in Castlecomer.  Castlecomer is a good distance from Cork, being in Co. Kilkenny.
I notice too, from the CWGC site, that there is only one other Commonwealth burial from WW1 in that cemetery. 

[Tony Lund]

I shall have to do this in two bits:

Thanks to you both.  This was sorted out with a lot of Irish help and George Frederick Heppenstall is now on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission register as from Wednesday 31st January 2007.  The different spelling is because that is the way it is spelt on the death certificate.

Pte George HEPPENSTAL
60817 2nd/1st Yorkshire Hussars Yeomanry
Died 26.09.19 Aged 22
Buried: Castlecomer (St Mary) Church of Ireland Churchyard, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland.

Initially the only information available was a newspaper report that he died in Cork.  It is possible that he was there for most of the war and moved up to Castlecomer shortly before his death.

Originally a report that appeared in the Holmfirth Express on November 29th 1919, and his name on the local memorial was the only reference I could find relating to the death of Private George Frederick Heppenstall, the son of Mr. J. W. Heppenstall from the Brent House area of Hepworth.

The Holmfirth Express information was - Private G. Heppenstall 60817, 2-1 Yorkshire Hussars, stationed in County Cork, Ireland, was one of a number who sustained severe injury as a result of an explosion and died within twenty-four hours. Before the war he was a piecener at J. Bower & Sons, Dover Mills, at Washpit.  He was almost twenty-five years old, he enlisted during 1916 and spent most of the war in Ireland, and he was due to be demobilised shortly.

An officer wrote: “Please accept my sincere condolences and regrets at the untimely death of No. 60817 Private G. Heppenstall. I feel sure it will be a source of gratification to you to know he died doing his duty.  It was a pure accident for which no one was to blame.  Pte. Heppenstall was a good soldier and an excellent man, and I can assure you all possible precautions were adopted to avoid anything of the nature of an accident happening.”

The death certificate reads: “Twenty-sixth of September 1919, District Hospital, Castlecomer, County Kilkenny.  George Heppenstal from Holmfirth near Huddersfield, Private, Yorkshire Hussars.  Died of burns after one and a half days shock.  Twenty-two years old.”  On the death certificate the surname is missing a “L” and the age is wrong, it should be twenty-four, George was born at Worksop towards the end of 1894, also his middle name is missing; but that is the information given at the time by the officer who registered the death.

In an entry in the burial register at St. Mary’s Church for September 29th 1919, the register recorded him as George Heppenstal, one “L”, and also aged twenty-two.  Another man was buried the next day, Corporal Frank Lord, aged twenty-two and also with the Yorkshire Hussars.  Both men were listed as being from Coolbawn Camp which was about a mile from Castlecomer, and were buried with full military honours.  The body of a third man, Lance Corporal Walsh, who died later was returned to his home town for burial.  All three men are named on a memorial cross erected by their comrades in Saint Mary’s Churchyard at Castlecomer. 

[Tony Lund]

Part Two:

At the Castlecomer Coal Mines, five soldiers were severely injured in an accidental explosion, and three, including George Heppenstall, later died from their injuries.  There had been an army guard on the explosives held at the mine for normal mine working operations.  However, it was decided it would be safer to move the explosives to the Military Barracks at Castlecomber, and this had almost been completed.  Most of the explosives were put in a motor lorry that then pulled away, all that was left behind was two barrels of gunpowder that were so old they were considered to be inert and harmless.  The soldiers were ordered to tidy the place up and they collected together such rubbish as was lying about and set fire to it.  The Castlecomer newspaper described what happen next:

“In some way or other this came in contact with the barrels, and the contents, instead of being dead, unfortunately proved to be very much alive.  A terrific explosion occurred, throwing the unfortunate soldiers in all directions.  One of them was, it is stated, was hurled through the air a distance of three hundred yards, and another was dashed against a barbed wire fence and held fast there.  The force of the explosion shook the windows at the Railway Police Barracks about a mile and a half away.  The injured soldiers were picked up by their comrades and taken to the hospital at Castlecomer, and on Friday night two of them - Corporal Lord and Private Heppenstall - succumbed to their frightful injuries.  One of the other three was more seriously injured than the two whose injuries proved fatal, and little hope is entertained for his recovery.”  This man was Lance Corporal Walsh who died shortly afterwards.

With a great deal of assistance from the Great War Forum the above information and the death certificate were submitted to the Ministry of Defence and they passed it to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission with a recommendation for inclusion on the War Graves Register.  Although George Frederick Heppenstall has now finally been added to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Register some eighty-eight years after his death, the name and details are the same as those on the death certificate and repeat the same mistakes.  This is presumably because is the majority of the service records from the First World War were destroyed in a bombing raid in 1940, so the death certificate was the only official document available to the authorities.  Interestingly, his service number was not on the death certificate, but they decided to take my word for it on that, and I got it from the old Holmfirth Express.   

Twenty-four year old Private George Frederick Heppenstall is named on the Hade Edge section of the Holme, Holmfirth and New Mill War Memorial.

Once again many thanks for all assistance.

Tony Lund.

[Sean O Callaghan]

Tony,

Thanks for sharing that account with us.  I read it with fascination.
Well done for all of your hard work in uncovering the circumstances around this short, but brave life.

[J.heppenstall]

Tony, We are researching the soldiers from Hade Edge as part of my sons homework. I found the information fascinating about George F Heppenstall, he features on the list at Hade Edge school as well as the memorial in Holmfirth. I must say they don't make it easy to find details of these men. Thank you for your assistance on George, we have several we cannot find including John B Ashton and Albert Helm. Could you please point us in the right direction to find out details about what they were doing prior to going to war, as I have become very interested now and may continue to look after the homework is done. John Heppenstall