Tuesday 1st September 1914

Dick Bolton, who was to become one of Tunstill's fellow officers with his Company, wrote, from his home at Elslack, direct to the War Office, seeking clarification about his possible appointment to a commission: 

Sir 

A fortnight ago I applied at the Halifax Depot of the West Riding Regiment for a Temporary Commission in the Regular Forces. 

Although the names of several hundred cadets (OTC) have appeared in the Gazette, I have not yet been Gazetted. I think I may claim to be as well trained as most of them. I have served as an officer for three years in a Territorial Battalion and was, during that time, attached for a month to a Regular Unit. I resigned last February simply for business reasons. 

I am anxious to know at once if my application has not been successful as in that case I shall enlist in one of the new City Battalions now being formed. 

All I wish is an opportunity of going to the front as soon as possible and for this reason I have taken the liberty of sending this letter direct.

I have the honour be, Sir, your obedient servant, 

Richard Bolton

 

 

 

Sunday 30th August 1914

John Edward Emmott (see 5th August), serving with 2^nd Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment, left England for France. His two brothers, William Hartley Emmott and Tom Emmott, would both serve with Gilbert Tunstill’s Company.

Saturday 29th August 1914

BEF continued its retreat from Mons; establishing a defensive line (Compiegene-Soissons).

Friday 28th August 1914

The German Army occupied Longwy, on the Luxembourg border.

Thursday 27th August 1914

The Germans occupied Lille and Mezieres; the British abandoned St Quentin.

Arthur Metcalfe (see 7^th August), elder brother of Tunstills Man Albert Metcalfe of Cowling, was taken prisoner whilst serving as a stretcher bearer with 2^nd Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers during the retreat from Mons. He would remain a prisoner of war until escaping in September 1918.

Wednesday 26th August 1914

Battle of Le Cateau.

Tuesday 25th August 1914

Robert Ingram wrote to the War Office to provide them with some additional information regarding his application for a commission and also to remind that he had the support of a key figure in the Liberal government.

"Dear Sir,

Last Monday week, the 17^th inst., I applied for a temporary commission through Major Treeby, O.C., Kingston Depot. With my application I forgot to forward my O.T.C. discharge papers, thereby giving the impression that I had no training at all. From the enclosed record of service and qualifications you will see that I have had five years training with the Harrow School contingent O.T.C. and that I rose to the rank of Corporal therein. I hope this may improve my chances for a commission. I understand that Mr. Percy Illingworth, the Chief Government Whip, has written to the War Office on my behalf.

Yours faithfully 

Robert S. S. Ingram"

 

 

 

Monday 24th August 1914

The BEF began its retreat from Mons.

Sunday 23rd August 1914

Start of the Battle of Mons.

Saturday 22nd August 1914

The Belgian Army  began the evacuation of Namur; German troops massacred 400 Belgian civilians at Tamines.

Friday 21st August 1914

A note was placed on file at the War Office in regard to the application for a commission by Robert Ingram that;

“Mr. Tennant (Secretary of State for War) has told Mr. Illingworth (Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury) that the man’s application will receive due consideration”.

 

 

Thursday 20th August 1914

Gilbert and Geraldine Tunstill arrived back in England at the end of their 10-day journey from St Petersburg. It was the experience of seeing the Russian mobilisation (see 1st August 1914) which seems to have convinced Gilbert to raise a Company of men in Craven to join Kitchener's New Army.

Percy Illingworth passed on to Harold John (“Jack”) Tennant, Under Secretary of War State for War and brother-in-law of Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, a copy of the letter he had received from Dr. Thomas Ingram regarding his brother Robert Ingram’s application for a commission. Illingworth recommended Ingram as ‘a likely man’ and asked that Tennant should ‘do what you can’.

 

Leonard Hammond applied for a commission in the Royal Engineers; he would instead be commissioned in the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment and would serve as Transport Officer for 10^th Battalion, working closely with Gilbert Tunstill and his Company.



Leonard Hammond

Leonard Hammond was 25 years old in 1914 (b. 1^st May 1889). His father, Walter John Hammond, had worked as a civil engineer, which occupation had taken him around the world; Leonard and his older brother, Paul (b.1883) had both been born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Leonard, like his brother, had been educated at Tonbridge School, Kent (1903-07) and had then gone on to study at the University of Louvain, Belgium, (Louvain had been occupied by the German Army the day before Hammond applied for his commission) and at the North British Locomotive Works in Glasgow.

 

 

 

Wednesday 19th August 1914

Mr. Walter Morrison presided over a public meeting at the Victoria Hall, Settle, for the purpose of electing a local Distress Committee for dealing with any cases which might occur in the district during the War.

Walter Morrison

Morrison would became a key figure in Gilbert Tunstill's campaign to raise, equip and maintain his Company of volunteers. 

An excellent account of his life and career can be found at: http://www.kirkbymalham.info/KMLHG/morrison/morrison.html

Robert Ingram’s elder brother, Dr. Thomas Lewis Ingram wrote a personal letter to Percy Illingworth,** MP for Shipley and Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury in Asquith’s government, in an effort to expedite his brother’s application for a commission; he clearly believed that, in a situation in which the War Office would be overwhelmed with applications, ‘friends in high places’ might be required. 

“My Dear Illingworth, 

I am troubling you again and for this please forgive me. My young brother is applying for a commission in the new army and his papers have been sent in by the OC East Surrey Regiment who told him that, although he was backing him, there was such a rush that he did not stand much chance without outside influence. My young brother has just left Harrow with a good record. C.G. seventh form, school middleweight and championship cup for best all round athlete in the school. His headmaster, Ford, signed his papers for him. Could you do anything for this boy? His papers were sent in to the War Office last Monday. His full name is Robert Skinner Ingram; aged 19; address The Priory, Wimbledon. I signed in for a civil surgeon in the RAMC and am now waiting to be posted. 

Please excuse my worrying you with all this but the lad is mad keen to go and is really just the stamp they want. He was 5 years in the school corps and was a non-com. 

Yours sincerely 

T. Ingram"

 

**Percy’s cousin, Dudley Holden Illingworth, was the owner of Hanlith Hall, Kirby Malham, and a prominent figure in Gilbert Tunstill’s local community; he would become much involved in the campaign to raise Tunstill’s Company. This connection between Ingram, the Illingworths and Tunstill may well have influenced the appointment of Ingram to join Tunstill’s Company.

Monday 17th August 1914

Dick Bolton (see 27th July for more on Dick Bolton) was formally recommended for a commission.

Robert Stewart Skinner Ingram (see 16th August for more on Robert Ingram) passed his army medical examination and was duly recommended by Major Treeby, East Surrey Regiment, as being a suitable candidate for a temporary commission.

Sunday 16th August 1914

Robert Stewart Skinner Ingram applied for a commission in the new army; he was to become one of the original officers appointed to serve alongside Gilbert Tunstill.

Robert Stewart Skinner Ingram was born on 7^th November 1894 at Monkleigh in Devon, the youngest of no fewer than fifteen children of Thomas Lewis Ingram, a prominent barrister, and his wife Victoria (nee Skinner). Thomas had spent most of his career in India, where many of the children had been born, but he and his wife had returned to England c.1912 and set up home in Wimbledon. Robert had been educated at Harrow, where he had served five years in the Officer Training Corps. Ingram left Harrow in the Summer of 1914 to go to Cambridge University to study medicine. However, following the outbreak of war he instead opted to volunteer for the army. On 16^th August he completed his application for a commission; his good character being confirmed by the Headmaster of Harrow.

Saturday 15th August 1914

Ellis Harold Stott joined his territorial battalion (1^st/6^th Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment) for active service. His younger brother, Barker Stott, would enlist in September 1914 and would be one of the Keighley recruits who would become ‘adopted’ members of Tunstill’s Men.

Barker Stott

Barker Stott was 18 years old in August 1914. He was the sixth of nine children born to John and Mary Stott. The family lived in Gladstone Street, Keighley and John had worked for many years as an
engine tenter for Messrs Dean, Smith and Grace at the Worth Valley Works in Pitt Street; the company manufactured lathes and other precision engineering equipment. Barker followed his father into an apprenticeship at the engineering works, as had three of his elder brothers. Not only had Ellis been a member of the Territorials, but so too had another brother, John Arthur.

Friday 14th August 1914

Dick Bolton underwent his medical and other examinations and was passed fit to take up a commission in the new army; he would become one of the original Company officers, alongside Gilbert Tunstill.

Thursday 13th August 1914

Arthur Metcalfe (elder brother of Tunstills Man, Albert Metcalfe of Cowling) embarked for France, landing next day at Le Havre, with 2^nd Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers. As a bandsman, whilst on active service he would serve as a stretcher bearer.

Tuesday 11th August 1914

Gilbert and Geraldine Tunstill left St Petersburg to return to England; the journey would take them 10 days.

 

Johnny Hoyle celebrated his twenty-first birthday. He was to volunteer in September 1914 and would become one of the Cowling men who were attached to ‘A’ Company, 10^th Battalion, Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment and become ‘adopted’ members of “Tunstill’s Men”.

Much of the information on Johnny Hoyle and other of the Cowling volunteers derives from the knowledge, enthusiasm and generosity of Joan Tindale and other Cowling enthusiasts, to whom I am most grateful.

In many ways, Johnny Hoyle was a ‘typical’ Tunstill volunteer. In August 1914 he was living at 7 Gibb Street, Cowling, along with his father, John (b.1866), mother, Ellen (nee Leadbetter, b.1867) three brothers and one sister. Johnny had worked as both a warehouse hand and, latterly, as a weaver in the local cotton mills which employed so many men and women.

Monday 10th August 1914

A meeting of the people of Hellifield and Long Preston was held at Hellifield, to consider ways of providing a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers. 

Friday 7th August 1914

British Expeditionary Force (BEF) arrived in France.

Arthur Metcalfe reported for duty at Aldershot, to join his Battalion (2^nd Royal Munster Fusiliers); he had served eight years as a bandsman in the army from 1904 and had since been on the army reserve, whilst working in the Bradford fire service and, more recently, as a policeman in Bradford. Arthur’s younger brother, Albert Mawer Metcalfe, would be one of eighteen men from Cowling who would enlist in September and become ‘adopted’ members of Tunstill’s Men. The third brother, Jim (b.1899) would serve in the Royal Navy.

Albert Mawer Metcalfe was born on 14^th December 1895; the fourth of five children born to Thomas and Elizabeth Metcalfe. Thomas was originally from Embsay, near Skipton, and his wife from Grassington and the family had lived originally in Embsay and then in Bradford before settling in Cowling in the mid 1890’s. Thomas worked as an overlooker in a local weaving shed; Albert and his two sisters, Linda and Ann, also worked in the mills. Albert’s older brother, Arthur, had joined the army aged 17 in 1904.

Jim (far left) and Albert Metcalfe (far right) pictured with other young men from Cowling before a trip to Morecambe c.1909? (Photo: Joan Tindale; Cowling Web)

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. 

Wednesday 5th August 1914

John Edward Emmott reported for duty at the Halifax Depot of the Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment; two of his brothers, William Hartley Emmott and Tom Emmott, would both volunteer in September and would serve with Gilbert Tunstill’s Company.

The Emmott family had lived in Burley-in-Wharfedale for more than thirty years. William (snr.) and his wife Annie had for a number of years run a grocery and confectioners business from 106 Main Street but following Annie’s death in 1895 William (snr.) had worked as a woolsorter. The couple had five sons.

John Edward Emmott had joined the army in November 1904 and had served more than eight years, including seven years in India with Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding) Regiment. He had returned to England in December 1912 and had been transferred to the army reserve.  Following the outbreak of war John Edward Emmott was recalled to the army and reported at the Regimental Barracks at Halifax.

Tuesday 4th August 1914

Britain declared war on Germany.

The local Settle territorial company of the 1st/6th Battalion Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment received orders to mobilize on the outbreak of hostilities between England and Germany.

Monday 3rd August 1914

Germany declared war on France.

Gilbert Tunstill celebrated his 33rd birthday whilst in St Petersburg.

Sunday 2nd August 1914

Germany invaded Luxembourg.

Saturday 1st August 1914

Germany declared war on Russia.

Gilbert and Geraldine Tusntill were in St Petersburg and witnessed the response of the Russians. Gilbert later told the Craven Herald that,

"The enthusiasm of Russia is beyond verbal expression ... you must see it and live amongst it to grasp its significance. The Russians are in deep and deadly earnest – they regard the war as a holy war, and the spectacle of the Czar, from the steps of his palace, giving his troops the command to press forward and resist the treacherous designs of Germany, and the response of the men, as they knelt in the palace square to receive their Sovereign’s blessing ... all animated with the one determination to bring Germany to her knees for her stupendous and criminal folly of upsetting the peace of Europe ... is one that can never be forgotten".

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