Thursday 6th August 1914

Austro-Hungary declared war on Russia; Serbia declared war on Germany.

Norman Roberts

Norman Roberts celebrated his twenty-fourth birthday, on the same day that his younger brother, Duncan, was called up for active service with his territorial army battalion. Norman himself was to volunteer to serve with Gilbert Tunstill’s Company and later wrote a number of letters home which, having been published in the Craven Herald, shed much light on the story of the Company.

Norman Roberts was born and brought up in Skipton by his parents Edwin (b.1855) and Alice (b.1865). His father had worked for some time as a baker for his brother-in-law, Charles Hales, but later took work in the cotton mills, as a warp dresser. Norman was the couple’s eldest surviving child (following the early death of his elder sister Ada, who died aged 4 in 1892) and had a younger brother, Duncan (b.1896). Norman’s mother died in the winter of 1907-08, at the age of just 43. Following his wife’s death Edwin Roberts and his younger son, Duncan, moved in with Edwin’s widowed mother, Annie (b.1829), at 35 Pembroke Street, Skipton. In 1911, Norman, meanwhile, was one of four men lodging with Mr. & Mrs. Chisholm at their home at 12 Cavendish Street, Skipton, and worked in the cotton mills as a warp dresser, for the firm of Mr. W.R.G Farey, at Firth Shed, Skipton. He soon left his job and became a policeman in the West Riding Constabulary, based in Hellifield.

Duncan, who worked for his uncle, Charles Hales, was in the territorials and, following the declaration of war, joined the 1/6^th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment for active service on 6^th August 1914.