Western Road School Sheffield War Memorial - Help needed

[Ann Baker]

Hi

I don't know if any were in 'reserved' occupations. In terms of living relatives the local Woodland Trust are working with the War Memorial Trust to get their service records and write up a profile. They've done quite a lot on the other school list I sent you as an example. That one has a dedication service in March this year. Western Road is a wee bit away.

The intent is that similar will be done for the Western roaders so I'll be sending our collective efforts to them. They're going to do the trying to find the living rellies but if you'd like to help with that bit too, I can certainly get you involved in that

Best wishes

Ann

[groom]

Oh dear, almost finished the second batch, with no casualties and then the last one I've done died back in the UK on 17.11.1918, just after the end of the war. Not only that the note on the CWGC site says that his two brothers were also killed, one in 1916 the other 13. 09. 1918 

[D Eaton]

Hi,
Apologies for being a little late in responding but I have only just spotted this via a Google search!  I attend Wesley Hall in Crookes and have been writing a history for the 64+ men who died in WWI and who were on its war memorial which has since been lost; I'm hoping to finish it as a book in the coming months in order to commemorate them in Crookes once again.  I suspect the men from Western Road will overlap in places with the Wesley Hall casualties, would you like me to email all the names etc that I have and they could be cross referenced?  Also, as someone who has also spent quite a lot of time in a similar search for Crookes WWI men recently if I can be of any assistance let me know!
Dan

[groom]

Hello Dan, welcome to Rootschat.

Hopefully Ann will see your post and reply to you.

I've been working on this with several others, and the thing that has surprised me is how few records there are. I think out of about 100 I've looked at,  for so far there have only been 4 deaths and very few records. Do you know the answer to my previous question, was this because of the area and the fact that a lot of the men were in reserved occupations i,e worked in the steel mills? It may be of course that records from the companies they were in were among the burnt documents and that is why they can't be found.

[MaxD]

Groom - my experience has been that the number of records found is pretty much representative of the fact that only 30% of them survived so my conclusion is in line with your last sentence.  Clearly there will be many more of them who served but we have only the medal records with same name and initials but no other identifying info.

maxD
 

[groom]

Very true, Max. Unless I can identify them beyond doubt, I haven't included them. The 1939 register is a great help, as if they are on that, they obviously survived WW1.

[MaxD]

Just another thought - I had to back track on my first batches when I realised I hadn't looked at Royal Navy records - found a couple (as well as two Canadian Forces where the family had emigrated before the war!)

maxD

[D Eaton]

Hi Groom and Max,
Thank you for the quick response.  I'd agree about the service papers having only approx 30% surviving, although I have managed to get a much higher hit rate through using other sources and then cross referencing th m in from there.  I have found that using other rolls of honour and memorials is useful, have you looked at nearby churches etc for any recurring names as they tended to crop up and on several? The Sheffield soldiers website is very useful for this- it also has a full memorial and roll of honour from st. Timothy's to work from (212 dead and a further 772 serving).
The Wesley Hall men were very much Territorials and then conscripts but I get the impression that most of the male population were away in the forces; Wesley Hall had over 320 men serving by 1917 according to records, so I guess there weren't that many on reserved occupations (too far from the East End of the city for this?). I have been basing much of my research on old parish magazines and there really is an impression that there are not many able bodied men around at the time!  The marriage records would also back this up.  Hope this helps, and will wait to hear from Ann too,

Best wishes,

Dan

[groom]

Thanks for that Sheffield Soldiers' website - I'll check those names I couldn't find after 1918 against it.