Friday 31st July 1914

Reacting to the Austrian attack on Serbia, Russia began full mobilization of its troops. Germany demanded that it stop.

Thursday 30th July 1914

Austrian warships bombarded Belgrade, capital of Serbia.

Wednesday 29th July 1914

Britain called for international mediation to resolve the worsening crisis. Russia urged German restraint, but the Russians began partial troop mobilization as a precaution. The Germans then warned Russia on its mobilization and begin to mobilize themselves.

Tuesday 28th July 1914

Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The Russian army began mobilisation.

Monday 27th July 1914

Gilbert and Geraldine Tunstill arrived in St Petersburg; they would remain in Russia until 11th August. The Tunstills witnessed at first hand the preparations of the Russians for war and this clearly made a major impression on Gilbert. On his return to England, he would begin his campaign to raise a Company of 100 men to volunteer to serve together in the army.

Richard (known as ‘Dick’) Bolton celebrated his twenty-second birthday; he was to become one of Tunstill’s original fellow officers with ‘A’ Company, 10^th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment.

Dick Bolton is also the source of many of the photographs which accompany this account as he kept his own collection of photographs and was also given, at some point, a further collection which Gilbert Tunstill himself had assembled. Together these two albums have been invaluable in ‘re-building’ the story of “Tunstill’s Men” and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Henry Bolton for his generosity in allowing me to use and make reference to the collections.

Dick Bolton had been born on 27^th July 1892 at 6a, The Square, Fairfield, Droylesden. He was the second of four children born to Henry Bolton and his wife Lucinda (nee Lee). Henry was a cotton manufacturer and bleacher and the family continued to live in Droylesden, with Dick attending Hulme Grammar School, until 1904 when they moved to The Grange, Elslack, nr. Skipton. Dick then attended Ermysted’s Grammar School in Skipton from September 1904; he represented the school at rugby and was described as, “An honest worker in the scrummages; fast in the loose, but passes badly”. On leaving school he worked alongside his father in the family business. His mother, Lucinda, died on 20^th December 1910 and was buried at All Saints Church, Broughton-with-Elslack.

Dick Bolton (circled) as a private soldier with other territorials.

Dick joined the 6^th (Territorial) Battalion West Riding Regiment as a private soldier and, in September 1911 applied, successfully, for a commission. For the next two and a half years he served as 2^nd Lieutenant including a one-month secondment to a regular battalion. However, he had resigned his commission in February 1914 “simply for business reasons”.

Dick Bolton (circled) as 2nd Lieutenant with 6th West Riding territorials

The Tunstills at Otterburn and Aysgarth

Following their marriage, Gilbert and Geraldine set up home at Otterburn House, in the hamlet of Otterburn, which lies almost equidistant between Skipton and Settle in the Craven District of North Yorkshire. Quite how and why the couple came to establish themselves in Craven is unclear but over the next eight years they were to become prominent members of the local community. By 1911 the large house was home not only to the Tunstills but also to a parlour maid, a cook and a housemaid. The couple, however, were childless and that was to remain the case. 

It may have been Gilbert’s association with Yorkshire which influenced his father, Harry’s, decision also to set up a home in the county.  Following the death of Gilbert’s grandfather, William, in 1903, Harry had moved from Montford to his father’s even grander home at Reedyford House on the outskirts of Nelson where William had maintained a staff of ten domestic servants. However, in 1909 Harry began the construction, in the hamlet of Thornton Rust, near Aysgarth, of a new country house which he called Thornton Lodge and which would eventually become the family’s main residence. At the time of the 1911 census, Harry, Margaret, three daughters and a staff of nine were at Reedyford while Thornton Lodge was in the care of William Graham, the estate gardener, along with his wife Sarah. As Harry gradually reduced his day-to-day involvement in the running of the family business following its conversion into a limited company, so he came to spend more time at Thornton Lodge.

Harry Tunstill's new home at Thornton Lodge under construction

By 1914 Gilbert Tunstill had become a well-known and respected figure in the Craven community. In December 1913 he was elected, unopposed, as the Settle representative on the West Riding County Council, following the death of the previous incumbent 

The Tunstill Family

Gilbert's father, Harry Tunstill
(b.1852)

Gilbert's grandfather,
William Tunstill (d.1903)

Harry Gilbert Tunstill (known to all as Gilbert) was born on 3^rd August 1881. His great-grandfather, Henry Tunstill (b.1803) had established a cotton spinning business in the Burnley area in 1834. The company first traded as Henry Tunstill and Sons but when Henry died in 1854, control over the business passed to his two sons, Robert (b.1825) and William (b.1828) and the name was changed to Tunstill Brothers. By then the business was huge, based in a number of large mills and employing in excess of 1,500 people. Robert died, unmarried, in 1890 (leaving an estate valued in excess of £170,000) and from then the company was run by William Tunstill and his two sons, Harry (b.1852) and Robert (b.1860). Following Robert’s death in 1902, and his father’s in 1903, Harry became sole proprietor. In 1904, the company was incorporated, as Brierfield Mills Ltd, with Harry Tunstill, Mr. W.H. Hartley and Mr. J.W. Dyson as directors. At this point it comprised of two spinning mills (with more than 90,000 spindles in total), three weaving sheds (more than 2,000 looms) and various other properties.  

Gilbert's sister, Dolly.

Gilbert's sister, Cicely.

Harry Tunstill had married Margaret Ecroyd in 1879; she was the daughter of another prominent cotton manufacturer in East Lancashire and the marriage certainly strengthened the commercial position of both families in the cotton trade. The couple first set up at home at Oak Lodge, Little Marsden, near Nelson and their first three children were all born whilst the family was living there. Mary Cicely was born in February 1880, followed by Gilbert in August 1881 and Margaret Farrer (known as ‘Meta’) in 1884. The family then moved to a rather grander home at Montford Hall, near Fence, where five more daughters (Edith Dorothea – known as ‘Dolly’; Rosamond; Alice Ecroyd; Gertrude Adelaide – known as Gertie; and Constance Sybil – known as Sybil) were born between 1884 and 1893. In 1901 the domestic staff at Montford comprised of a governess to teach the girls and six other live-in servants. 

Gilbert's Marriage to Geraldine Parker

Gilbert was educated at Charterhouse School, where, for four years, he was a member of the school’s rifle corps. He then studied at agricultural college in Edinburgh in preparation for his chosen career as a land agent. On 6^th February 1906, aged 24, he married Geraldine Margaret Parker. They were married at St. Mary’s Church, South Milford, where Geraldine’s family were prominent members of the local congregation. A special train was chartered to deliver the Tunstill family and guests, with stops at Skipton, Burnley Rosegrove, Wakefield and Normanton, before arriving at Monk Fryston, from where guests were conveyed to the church in coaches. Geraldine Parker was attended by six bridesmaids, including her two younger sisters and three of Gilbert’s younger sisters, Dolly, Gertie and Sybil. Gilbert’s best man was one of his schoolfriends from Charterhouse, Leonard Rock, of Wimbledon. After the ceremony a reception for 130 guests was held in the Vinery at Milford Hall, home of the Parker family, before the married couple departed for their continental honeymoon.

This photograph, taken at some point between 1916 and 1918, shows Gilbert (front right) with Geraldine (middle row, right). Geraldine's brother, Frank, is seated front left along with other members of Geraldine's family.

How it all began ...

On Friday 4^th September 1914 a letter was published in the weekly edition of the 'Craven Herald and Wensleydale Standard'; the letter ran to just 432 words but it was to change the lives of hundreds of local residents. The message of the letter was simple; it was an appeal by local businessman Harry Gilbert Tunstill, “to raise 99 men from this district and so form, together with my own enlistment, one whole company of 100 strong … rallying to the Country’s call for soldiers in the desperate struggle now confronting the Nation, and upon which depends our very existence as an Empire”. Tunstill’s appeal struck a chord with the local population and in little more than two weeks he had raised his company. 

On Monday 21^st September Tunstill, with his fellow recruits from the Craven District departed to begin their military training. En route to Halifax they were joined by other contingents from the wider area of North and West Yorkshire to form a whole company, 240-strong, who were to become ‘A’ Company in the newly-formed 10^th (Service) Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment. Over the next four years they would take part in some of the fiercest fighting of the Great War. To the locals they were, and would remain throughout the war, ‘Captain Tunstill’s Men’.

Over the next four and a half years we will follow in the footsteps of Gilbert Tunstill and his men; day-by-day following their progress through training, into action in France, Belgium and Italy and, for some, their return to civilian life.