Roll of Honour (Hadwin - Hodgson)

John Edward Hadwin was the youngest of ten children born to Thomas Hadwin, a Lead/Silver Separator, and his wife Jane (nee Slinger). His father had been farming for many years in various places such as Kendal, Shap and Hutton but moved to Hartsop around 1884 to work in the local mines. The family settled in the dale so John would have attended Patterdale School. After leaving school, John worked as an assistant in a Boot and Shoe shop (possibly for Thomas Routledge at Noran Bank Farm). However, by April 1911, at the age of 26, he was working as a Postman and living with his widowed mother at Deepdale Bridge. Around November 1911, John married Elsie Mary Bell (within the Penrith Registration District) and were living in Watermillock by 1914. Unless John volunteered at the start of the war, it is likely that, as a married man born in 1885, he would not have been mobilised until May 1916.

His Medal Card records that he originally joined the Rifle Brigade but later transferred to the Labour Corps. Curiously, on the Roll of Honour, he is shown as serving with the Border Regiment. His service records cannot be found and are probably amongst those destroyed through German bombing during WW2, so we do not know when he enlisted, into what Regiment or whereabouts he served. The fact that he was awarded the Victory and British War Medals, means that he did leave these shores and entered a theatre of war.

After the war John returned to his family in Watermillock and, in 1921, was working as a Roadman for Cumberland County Council, maintaining the lake road. John and Elsie had 3 daughters; Amy (1914), Doris (1917) and Hilda (1919).

Research Documents:

Census Records Medal Card

Raymond Bice Ham was born on the 24^th May 1900 in Glenridding and baptised at the Wesleyan Chapel on the 8th July 1900. He was the son of William Henry Ham, an engine operator at the Greenside Mine, and his second wife Elizabeth Ellen Bice. When the March 1901 census was taken, Raymond, aged just 10 months, was living in Glenridding with his parents, half brother William (11) and half-sister Lavinia (14). By April 1911, Raymond, now 10 and attending school in Patterdale, was still living with his parents at 12, Stybarrow Terrace in Glenridding but William was living in the house of his married sister Lavinia in nearby Halton Terrace.

Raymond was living in Ryton-on-Tyne when he joined the Royal Air Force, two weeks after his 18^th birthday. The only service record we have been able to find gives very little information and even that uses abbreviations such S. of A.G. (School of Air Gunnery?) and A.S.C. (Airfield Construction Squadron?). The last entry was on the 19^th February 1919 with a posting to a unit called Clipstone. There is no evidence to suggest that he entered a theatre of war or left the shores of Britain before the 11^th November 1918, so would not have been entitled to any medals.

At the time of the census in June 1921, Raymond was visiting Glenridding and staying with Hedley Grenfell and family at Eagle Cottage. He gave his occupation as a Clerk in the Purchasing Department at the Elswick Works of Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth Ltd in Newcastle.

Raymond married Florence Robinson in Sunderland around August 1926. He seems to have had quite a successful career, as we found him travelling first class, with his wife, from Montreal to Liverpool in September 1954 on board the liner 'Empress of Scotland'. In the passenger manifest he was described as a Company Director living in Guildford, Surrey. He retired to the small village of Otterton, near Budleigh Salterton, in Devon.

Note 1: Perhaps the letters OTC that appear on the Roll of Honour, should have been ATC (ie Air Training Corps)

Research Documents:

Census Records Service Records Passenger Manifest 'Empress of Scotland' Parish Records Probate

William Maurice Ham was born around February 1890 in the mining village of Llanrwst in North Wales. He was the eldest son of William Henry Ham, a ship's steward, and his wife Catherine (nee Evans). The family were still in Llanrwst when the April 1891 census was taken; William Maurice (1) had two older sisters, Florence (11) and Lavinia (5). Sadly, his mother Catherine died around February 1892 and it seems that his father had to give up the sea going life to look after the children so moved to Glenridding where he got a job driving the electric engine in the Greenside Mine. On the 4^th March 1896, his father married Elizabeth Ellen Bice at St Patrick's Church. In March 1901, William, now 11 and presumably at school, was living in Glenridding with his father William, step-mother Elizabeth, older sister Lavinia (14) and half-brother Raymond Bice Ham (10 months). In April 1911, William (21) was living with his married sister Lavinia at 11, Halton Terrace in Glenridding, and working as a qualified Plumber, having been apprenticed to George Carruthers of Sandgate in Penrith. His parents were living nearby in Stybarrow Terrace.

Before the outbreak of war, William had emigrated to New South Wales in Australia, however he enlisted in the Australian Army on the 15^th November 1915 at Casula. During his training he met and married Margaret Baker in the early part of 1916, before leaving to join the British Expeditionary Force in France on the 9^th April 1916. Apart from a couple of short hospital stays, for illness, in England, he remained in France for the rest of the war, before being discharged and returning to Australia on the 19^th August 1919.

William served for almost 4 years and his service records show that he was awarded the 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. He died in Australia on the 11^th April 1930 at the age of 40.

Research Documents:

Census Records Service Records Marriage Details Parish Records

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George Harrison was born on the 9^th December 1897 in Hartsop, the eldest son of William Harrison and his wife Jane (nee Hindson) of Brotherswater Cottage. William was a Miner at the Hartsop Hall Mine and, like his father George before him, was a “separator of metal”. In June 1904 George’s grandfather George died at the age of 85. An even greater tragedy struck the family in May 1910, when both George’s father died, aged just 43 and his Grandmother Jane died aged 83. So, when the April 1911 Census was taken, we find the widowed mother Jane, still living at Brotherswater Cottage, with her five children; Emmeline (15), George (13), Frances (9), Gladys (4) and 10 month old infant William Redhead Harrison (names that honour his father and his grandmother, whose maiden name was Redhead). Also living at the cottage, were Jane's older brother Joseph and his wife Mary. After leaving school George became a joiners apprentice and was still living with his mother at Brotherswater Cottage in 1916 when he enlisted.

George signed up with the 3/4^th Bn. Border Regiment in Keswick on the 18^th January 1916, aged 18 years and 1 month. He was initially placed in the army reserve but was mobilised on the 22^nd May 1916. However, he remained in Britain with the 3/4^th Battalion training until he was posted to join the British Expeditionary Force in France on the 13^th January 1918. He was transferred to the 1/5^th (Cumberland) Battalion of the Border Regiment on the 7^th May 1918, a couple of days after they became part of the 97^th Brigade within the 32^nd Division. On the 29^th September 1918 George’s Battalion was part of a pivotal battle in the course of World War One, the Battle of St Quentin Canal. This involved involved British, Australian and American forces in a spearhead attack and as a single combined force against the German Siegfried Stellung of the Hindenburg Line. On the very first day of this action George was wounded, receiving a gun shot wound (GSW) - we believe, to both his left arm and thigh - and was treated in France until the 7^th October 1918 before repatriation to the Depot based 3^rd Battalion in Britain. He remained there until he was discharged (by now a Lance Corporal) on the 17^th February 1919 - aged just 21 and with an enhanced Army pension as a result of his injuries (which were classed as a 40% disability). George was awarded the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

On his return home George continued to live with his mother and siblings. When the June 1921 census was taken, George is described as a Joiner working for John Brown Builders of Brookfield in Glenridding. On the 12^th August 1922, he married Elizabeth Graham (who lived at Scarfoot in Patterdale). In 1924, George and Elizabeth had a son, Henry William. and had moved into The Township in Patterdale. Not long afterwards, they moved into Elizabeth’s old home of Scarfoot in Patterdale, which remained in the family until 2013. George died there on the 30^th October 1952 (aged 54) and Elizabeth died there on 18^th January 1971 (aged 73). They are buried together St Patrick's Churchyard.

Research Documents:

Census Records Service Records Medal Card Parish Records

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Born on the 8^th November 1897, in all likelihood at 8, Halton Terrace in Glenridding, Richard William Hayton was the eldest child of John George Hayton, a Lead Miner, and his wife Mary (nee Harris) who themselves were born in the dale. By 1911, still living with his parents and younger brother George (who died in Sep 1911) and sister Hilda in Halton Terrace, the 13 year old Richard was recorded as being at School (Patterdale) but also working as a “boot-shop errand boy”. By the time war broke out he had followed his father up to the Greenside mine where he was working as a labourer.

Richard attested in Penrith on the 12^th December 1915. However, because he had only just turned 18, he couldn't be sent overseas so was placed on the reserve list and sent back home to continue working. The age age limit for overseas service was then 19 but it was reduced to 18 in May 1916. Even so, he remained on the reserve list until he was nearly 20. He was mobilised on the 17^thSeptember 1917 and ordered to report to the Moor Lane Camp at Great Crosby, where he joined the home based 3^rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Border Regiment for training. On the 1^st February 1918 he embarked from Folkstone and arrived, later that day, in Etaples, France. On the 10^th February he was transferred to the 8^th Battalion of the Border Regiment who were already on the front line south of Arras.

When the German Spring offensive began on the 21^st March 1918, they launched an attack on the allied lines. The German shelling was very intense and continuous (some 3.2 million shells are said to have landed on the British-held front during that first day) and the 8^th Bn., along with many others, were forced to retreat. Several counter attacks were attempted and it was during one of these, in the afternoon of the 23^rd March, that Private Richard Hayton was killed. He had only been on the front line for 6 weeks. Sadly, because the German advance was moving so quickly, there would have been no opportunity to retrieve his body for burial in a cemetery - he therefore became one of 35,000 servicemen who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and August 1918 who have no known grave.

Richard had only served in the regular army for 6 months, although he had spent nearly 2 years on the reserve list. His medal card shows that he was posthumously awarded the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.

For Research Documents and a more detailed biography, see his War Memorial Page Click Here

John William Hicks was the son of William Hicks, a Lead Miner at Greenside, and his wife Mary (nee Pattinson). John was one of 9 children, his siblings were; Thomas Daniel (1881), Harry (1883), Annie (1886), Mary (1888), Lizzie (1894), Edna (1898), Elsie (1900-1900) and Andrew (1902). All of the children would have attended Patterdale School. By the time the 1901 census was taken, the family had moved the short distance from Rake Cottages to Row Head in Glenridding and by 1911, Thomas and Annie had left home. In the 1911 census, John is listed as a 'shopkeeper grocer' and Lizzie as a 'Grocers Assistant', probably at the Co-operative store in Glenridding.

John's service records cannot be found, they were probably destroyed like many others in a bombing raid on London during WW2. However, his Border Regiment service number of 20827 suggests that he enlisted around November 1915, probably at the Drill Hall in Penrith. We know that John was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps, which was formed in October 1915. From his fairly low MGC service number (6444) and from looking at the records of others who transferred with similar numbers, it seems that the transfer would have occurred very early in 1916. He would have been trained at Alnwick to use the new Vickers Machine Gun and then joined a Division of the British Expeditionary Force in France around July 1916. He had achieved the rank of Corporal in the Machine Gun Corps when he was awarded the Military Medal and by the time the award was announced in the Cumberland & Westmorland Herald, in June 1918, he had been promoted to Sergeant, the rank he held until he was demobbed on the 22nd March 1919.

Work was scarce after the war, the June 1921 census shows John lodging in Blackhill, County Durham, where he was working as a Plasterers Labourer. He had returned to Glenridding by June 1926 when he married Nellie Martha Chugg, also from Glenridding, the sister of Ernest Chugg. They settled at 4, Low Rake in Glenridding, where they continued to live until their deaths, John in October 1947 aged 57 and Nellie in June 1960 aged 67 - both are buried in Patterdale Churchyard. Their son, William, was a Bevin boy in World War Two and married Evelyn Mary Todd in 1954. William worked as a Meter Reader for the NW Electricity Board.

John’s father died in January 1915 but his mother continued to live at Row Head until her death in 1932 aged 71.

Many of John’s siblings remained in the Dale. His eldest brother Thomas married Margaret Beatrice Ada Roach in 1906, lived at Myers Cottage in Glenridding and had three children, Bertram, Elsie and William. In 1916, his brother Harry married Hilda Pears from Crookabeck farm and was an Electrical Engine Driver at the Greenside mine. Harry died aged just 35 in 1919. In 1908, his sister Annie married Martin Brumwell, a miner at Greenside. His youngest sister Edna married Edward Cox, also an Engine Driver at Greenside, in 1927 and had two children, one of whom, Freda, still has a house in Patterdale. His sister Mary married Leonard Brown in 1916. Leonard was a conscientious objector and they moved away from the Dale. We are not sure what happened to Lizzie or Andrew.

Research Documents:

Census Records Hicks family photograph - c1905 Military Medal Notice, London Gazette Supplement - 13 Sep 1918

Medal Index Card Sgt J W Hicks MM - Medal Roll Gravestone, St Patrick's Churchyard, Patterdale

Work in Progress

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Work in Progress

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