Wednesday 9th September 1914

Recruitment Meeting in Long Preston
A similar pattern to the first two meetings was followed on the evening of Wednesday 9th September in Long Preston, where the meeting was held in the endowed school. There was again a large crowd in attendance and the chair was taken by Mr. C.E. Dowson, who was supported also by Mr. G. Charnley and Mr. J. Hitchin (Hitchin's son, John Henry, had been the very first man to volunteer, in Settle on Monday). Speeches were made by Messrs. J. Procter, R. Hornby and C. Milford before Tunstill and Russell repeated the statements they had made at the Hellifield meeting. Selections of patriotic music were again played by the Settle Brass Band. At the close of the appeals for men, fourteen went forward to give in their names. Votes of thanks were proposed for the band and for the chairman; cheers were called for and “loudly responded to for Mr. Tunstill and the recruits”.

The men who volunteered were:

• Joseph Parker; known as 'Big Joe', he was 20 years old and son of a local gamekeeper. He was working as a farm labourer.
• William Henry Metcalfe; known as 'Harry' was 25 years old and had been working, with his father, as a 'road contractor'.
• William Proctor; was 29 years old and working as a platelayer on the railway.
• William Jones; at the age of 28 had a long military career behind him. He had enlisted as a drummer in the Border Regiment at the age of 14 in 1900 and had served for 12 years. After leaving the Army he had worked as a railway porter and more recently as a postman.
• George Oversby; was born in Dent. He was 24 years old and working as a 'horseman' at Wigglesworth Hall.
• Henry Edward Horner; known as Harry (or by his nickname 'Claude') was 19 years old and working as a farm labourer.
• Thomas Garnett; was 19 years old. He had lived with his family for some years in Long Preston and had worked as a farm labourer.
• Job Kayley; was one of the 12 children of Samuel and Eliza Kayley. He was 29 years old and working as a farm labourer.
• Charles Harwood; 27 years old, he was originally from Blackburn, but had worked for some time as a farm labourer in the Hellifield area.

• Fred Metcalfe was also named among the recruits, but I have, as yet, been unable to make a positive identification of this man.

Four other men were named as having volunteered but they did not then feature in the final list of Tunstill's recruits; the likelihood is that they were rejected on medical grounds when presenting themselves to the recruiting staff in Settle. They were named in the Craven Herald as J. Airey; W. Mason; J. Rebanks; and R. Taylor. I have, as yet, been unable to make a positive identification of any of these men.


It was also on 9th September that Gilbert Tunstill himself completed his formal attestation, at Settle, which was witnessed by his friend and principal supporter, Walter Morrison.