Introduction

In the world of genealogy, it is sometimes a seemingly trivial or innocuous item which will open up an entirely new and unexpected line of research. So it was with the discovery of the photograph which heads this story. A cousin of mine found it in a box of old items but had no idea who these people were. I thought the subject gave a wonderful insight into how goods were toted around and how people managed to get merchandise that the village shop didn't supply. My mother remembered seeing a similar pony and cart when she was a young girl in the 1920s but then it was called Crane's Carriers. I was unable to place these Claypoles on my own family tree. - JB

There was a frisson of excitement as soon as I saw the photograph and it didn't take long to work out who the couple were or when it was taken. It was the styling of the names on the wagon which held the clue. We were, however, unprepared for the complexities of entanglements within the families and catalogue of tragedies which we uncovered as the ramifications of their histories were exposed. Even the photograph, itself, contains a mystery which has been only partly answered. We have discussed that further in the footnote. - ADC

The Atkins family

The village of Cottingham lies in the Welland Valley on the border of Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. It is overshadowed by Rockingham Castle, an edifice originally built by William the Conqueror on the southern escarpment of the valley. Immediately to the west is the hamlet of Middleton with which it has a shared history. There are references to Cotingeham in the Domesday Book and Cotingham in the Anglo Saxon Chronicle. The population of just over 600 people remained fairly constant throughout the 19th century. Historically, the local economy was founded on and sustained by the twin occupations of agriculture and ironstone quarrying.

Mary Atkins was born in the village in 1869, the fourth daughter of Charles and Mary Ann Atkins. The Atkins family hailed from the nearby village of Geddington. In 1856, Charles had married Mary Ann Inkle, a girl two years his senior, who had been born in Lincolnshire but whose father's family originated in Gretton (a village about five miles east of Cottingham). They were to have seven children; two sons and five daughters. Charles moved his family to Cottingham where he worked as a farm labourer. By 1861, they were living in Church Street. After Mary was born, they moved over the cross roads to Dag Lane (now called School Lane) and for a time they lived next door to a woman living on her own by the name of Sarah Atkins. Originally Sarah Beadsworth, she was the widow of William Atkins, no relation to Charles so far as is known, who had died in 1864. Charles died in 1878 at the age of 41 years.

Charles' widow, Mary Ann, continued to live in Dag Lane with three of her children (son, Charles, who became an agricultural labourer, and daughters Mary and Emma). Charles' mother, Sarah Atkins, died in 1889. When they left school, both daughters worked at the Wallis and Linnell Clothing Factory in Rockingham Road: Mary as a tailoress and Emma as a machinist. This Kettering-based firm had established a number of small factories in the neighbouring villages and had been a major source of employment for the women of Cottingham since 1874.

Mary married Thomas Claypole in 1893.

The Claypoles of Cottingham

Claypole, and derivative spellings, is a common surname in the East Midlands and many branches claim descendency from the union of Sir John Claypole and Elizabeth Cromwell (daughter of Oliver Cromwell) in 1646. There are, however, two distinct lines of ancestry which can be traced back to the seventeenth century: one to rural Leicestershire and the other (the Cromwell connection) to Northborough, a village now in Cambridgeshire. A connection between the two has not yet been established.

By the middle of the 19th century, there were two Claypole families living in the village. Both could trace their lineage back to Robert Claypole who lived in the village of Medbourne in Leicestershire in the middle of the seventeenth century. From there, one branch of his descendents moved to the neighbouring village of Bringhurst which stands on the border with Northamptonshire and ultimately John Claypole (born about 1768) who moved from there to Middleton in the 1810. His son, Samuel Claypole, was born in the village in 1824.

Samuel spent his whole life on the land, working first as an agricultural labourer and, later, as a shepherd. He married Ann Chambers, a blacksmith's daughter from Geddington, Northamptonshire, in 1851. They made their home in a cottage in Townsend, Middleton, and for a time lived next door to Ann's parents. They had five children.

Thomas, their youngest son, was born in 1865. After leaving school in his early teens, he initially joined his father on the farm. It does not appear that he remained in this employment for long and the course of his future direction suggests that he may have joined a local tradesman. At the time of the census of 1891, he was working as a carrier (the driver of a horse-drawn vehicle for transporting and delivering goods).

Samuel Claypole died in December 1891; his wife, Ann, in the same month 11 years later. Both were buried in the parish churchyard.

Marriage to Thomas

Thomas continued his work as a carrier. He clearly had an entreprenurial spirit and sometime during the early 1890s he set up in business in his own right. A 1894 trade directory for Northamptonshire (2) confirms that he plied the route between Cottingham and Market Harborough (a return distance of about 20 miles) twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays; and to Kettering and back (15 miles) each Friday. Scrutiny of earlier directories has shown no similar service to the village.

The marriage of Mary Atkins and Thomas Claypole took place at the parish church of St Mary Magdalene on August 9th 1893. Mary's sister, Emma, acted as bridesmaid and also signed the register. They set up home in Church Street, just adjacent to the church, in Cottingham and were to have three children: Florence Edith, born in 1898; Elsie Mary, born 1901 and Harry Thomas, born 1904.

Thomas and Mary's life together appeared settled for most of the first decade of the 20th century until the autumn of 1909. Thomas caught a respiratory infection which developed into pneumonia from which he died on October 27th that year.

The sons of John Claypole

The progenitors of the second Cottingham Claypole line were John and his wife, Ann Bellamy Munton (who was born on 1815). The same Robert Claypole mentioned previously was his 3rd great grandfather. Another strand of Robert's descendents migrated to the neighbouring village of Great Easton where John was born in 1816. He moved to Middleton and then settled in Cottingham in the 1840s. A blacksmith by trade, he set up his home and business on the corner of Blind Lane and Barrack Yard. John and Samuel were second cousins. John and Ann Claypole had seven children in the 20 years following their marriage; several of whose stories have featured in the articles in the RED pages of the magazine. The remainder of this section concentrates on their second son, John, and his offspring.

John Claypole was born in Cottingham in 1851. He married Mary Ann, the daughter of David Tansley and Elizabeth Peach, on January 18th 1874 at St Mary Magdalene Church. She was 19 years of age. In common with the majority of his peers, John started working on the land as a farm labourer and under gamekeeper, but it was the occupation he entered on his marriage certificate (rat catcher) which earned him the soubriquet of "Ratty Jack".

They had five sons (William, born 1876 died at the age of two weeks; John Henry, born 1879; Arthur Thomas, 1880; William, 1888 and Stephen Tansley, 1889) and two daughters (Emily, born 1881 and Caroline 1883). The couple lived initially in a cottage in Barrack Yard but, by the time of the 1901 census, John was farming in his own right, and the family were living in a house in Blind Lane. Mary Anne died in the village in 1930; John in 1934.

Eldest surviving son, John Henry, became a worker in the ironstone industry. He married Rebecca, the daughter of George Kemshead (the landlord of the Three Horseshoes Inn) in 1903. They, too, had a large family.

Next son, Arthur Thomas (known for most of his life as Tom Claypole), initially worked on the land after leaving school in the 1890s. He joined his older brother working in the mine by 1911. He married Mary Elizabeth Tilley, a machinist at the Cottingham Clothing factory, in 1903. They had a daughter, Hilda Louisa, born in January 1906.

Older daughter, Emily, was born in 1881. She married Charles Edward Waterfield, another ironstone worker, in 1903. The Waterfields, originally from Gretton, are another family historically linked with this extended tree. Younger daughter, Caroline (born 1883) married a blast furnaceman, Alfred Jackson from Middleton, in 1902.

Marriage to William

John and Mary Ann Claypole's fourth son, also named William, was born in 1888. Little is known of his early life but in the census of 1901 he was listed as "farmer's son" and was working around the farm. In his early 20s, he left his father's employ and probably went to work for his cousin, Thomas. His only moment of minor notoriety occured when he and his younger brother, along with a group of workmates, were summoned before the Kettering Divisional Petty Sessions in May 1903 (3) for playing football in the street. They were each fined four shillings including costs.

After Thomas died in 1909, his widow, Mary, became the registered owner of the business (4). Over the following year, William's relationship with Mary became ever closer. Then, despite the difference in their ages, William married Mary at St Mary Magdalene Church on February 8th 1911. She was 42 years of age; he was 23. The ceremony was witnessed by her brother, Thomas Atkins, and his sister, Emily Waterfield. By the spring of 1911, William was settled into a house in Church Street with Mary and her children. Both the marriage certificate and that year's census record William as trading as a carrier.

There are two further items of note in the years up to the outbreak of the Great War. A girl, Phyllis Rosalie, was born in 1913. Arthur Thomas Claypole became the proprietor of the the carrier business in 1914 (5)

Stephen's War

Stephen Tansley Claypole, the youngest of John and Mary Ann's sons, was born in 1889. After leaving school, he worked for a time for his father on the farm. He was a relatively slight man (less than 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing under 10 stones). He enlisted into the Armed Forces at Leicester in May 1913. After training, he embarked for France on September 9th 1914 and joined the 1st Battalion, the Leicestershire Regiment. His war service was chequered with illness. During 1915, he was hospitalised firstly with influenza and then with myalgia. After a short attachment with the 177th Tunnelling Company, he was returned to England in December that year.

At the beginning of 1916, he embarked for Sidi Bishr, Egypt and joined the 1/4th Northamptonshire Regiment. Over the next three years, he had further long episodes of ill health, including a six month lay-off with enteric fever, an attack of tonsilitis and rheumatic fever. He was ultimately repatriated to England in January 1919 but then spent three months in a military hospital in Ripon suffering from malaria. He was finally discharged in May 1920.

As he was abroad on active service at the end of 1914, he was presented with a Princess Mary Christmas Gift Box. This initiative was created by Princess Mary, the seventeen year old daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. In November 1914, the press carried advertisements inviting contributions to the 'Sailors & Soldiers Christmas Fund'. The purpose of the fund was to provide everyone wearing the King's uniform and serving overseas on Christmas Day 1914 with a 'gift from the nation' (6). His box remains in the possession of the family to this day.

William's War (Part 1)

Little remains physically of the records of William Claypole's first World War service. General accounts of the movements and dispositions of the forces to which he was attached [A], [B] and a few specific personal details have been pieced together from a number of sources. He enlisted, private 20553, in Northampton, in the first week of September 1915. After basic training he was assigned to the 6th Battalion, the Northamptonshire Regiment. This service battalion had been formed in Northampton a year previously. It became part of the 54th Brigade of the 18th (Eastern) Division of the Army and had landed in France in July 1915.(7)

William was shipped out to France with battalion reinforcements in January 1916. The battalion was notably involved in three of the encounters during the Battle of the Somme in the Summer and Autumn of 1916: the Battle of Albert (the capture of Montauban and Mametz), the Battle of Bazetin Ridge (the capture of Trônes Wood) and the Battle of Thiepval (8). The latter two resulted in particularly high casualties.

After the winter lull and still in the Somme region, the next major undertaking was a full scale attack on German positions near the village of Miraumont. The aim was to capture the high ground overlooking the valley of the River Ancre. This was scheduled to take place on February 17th 1917. The Sixth Battalion was to attack across a series of trenches and a sunken road which was known as 'Boom Ravine' (which gave the battle its name). Peter Jackson reports [A]: "During the night the weather broke, and under a steady rain hard frosted roads on which we had banked so much, now began to resemble a sandy beach after the tide has gone out, for the men were now wading in knee deep mud. About an hour before Zero, set for 5.45 a.m. the enemy opened up an intense barrage on both the Gully and the forming up lines, resulting in heavy losses among both the two assaulting Battalions, one platoon of the Sixth being almost entirely wiped out. Our own barrage opened up and the Sixth followed in close proximity. Much of the enemy wire was found to be uncut, this resulted not only in delay whilst the forward troops sought gaps, but in turn gave the Germans time to get away, and take up new positions each side of Boom Ravine. The right company found themselves in the insidious position of confronting an enemy trench knee-deep in mud. With little hope of hanging on, the Sixth pulled back in the face of a German counter offensive."

Estimates of casualty numbers vary: one source reports 39 officers and 538 other ranks killed or wounded. William was one of the injured from this battle. His name was listed in the Roll of Honour printed in The Times of March 21st 1917 (9). After treatment, presumably still in France, he was returned to active duty. Nothing more was heard of him until his final engagement.

The Home Front

When William departed for the war, he left behind him his wife, Mary, in charge of his house and family. He had accepted the three children from Mary's previous marriage and the late arrival Phyllis Rosalie completed the household. However, the situation was not exactly as it seemed. Phyllis was born on September 22nd 1913 to Mary's eldest daughter, Florence Edith Claypole. Florence was barely fifteen when she gave birth. No father's name is given on the birth certificate. It appears that William and Mary had made the decision to bring Phyllis up as their own.

By the Christmas of 1915, Tom Claypole, William's brother, was proud to announce that his wife, Mary Elizabeth, was expecting another child. Happiness turned to tragedy as the new year progressed. In the later stages of pregnancy she started bleeding which was discovered to be due to the condition of placenta praevia (the placenta develops low in the uterus and blocks the birth canal). She was also pregnant with twins. On July 7th 1916, during childbirth, the haemorrhage which ensued became uncontrollable and both she and her two unborn sons succumbed. Tom was by her side when she died.

[ - It is of note that, in 1915, the use of caesarean section in the management of placenta praevia in even the most advanced surgical practices was both novel and controversial. (10) - Ed]

 William's War (Part 2)

William Claypole died in November 1917. The circumstances of his death are not known for certain, but the following scenario has been reconstructed from surviving records. In early July 1917, the Battalion left France by train for Belgium. The planned area of operations was known as the Ypres Salient - a place roughly 10 kilometres square - which lay about 50 kilometres south east of the coast at Dunkirk. The front line ran somewhere to the east, north and south of the town of Ypres and west of the village of Passchendaele and had been bitterly contested for most of the duration of the war. The land is flat in this area of Flanders and the water table is high. Much of the countryside was reclaimed swampland. The winters of the war had also seen unexpectedly long and heavy periods of rain. Added to this, the incessant shelling from both sides had turned the whole battlefield into an unpredictable morass of mud and water-filled holes. The water was often toxic and caustic through the dissolved chemicals from the frequent use of mustard gas. Movement was difficult and slow, often requiring the use of lengths of wooden duck boarding.

One of the German defensive positions was in the Houthulst Forest which occupied slightly higher ground to the north of Ypres. A contemporary description of the locale written just after the war [B] runs as follows: "Take a low-lying swamp, crossed by streams which wander wherever they like and never follow the same course two days running, and dot a few trees over the area. Everything must be so flat that the 20 contour, which is the highest ground, seems almost like a mountain range. That is the raw material. Then you shell the place for three years, till land and water are thoroughly mixed up, and the few trees left standing are splintered skeletons. Everything is now ready. You must walk some 8,000 yards across this area in pitch darkness, with enemy shells constantly bursting around, and shell-holes full of water or deep mud awaiting you if you step off a wooden track which is constantly being blown to pieces or floating away."

Along the front line were series of reinforced pillboxes, some of which were used for company and battalion headquaters. They were given names such as Cairo House and Egypt House. During October and early November 1917, while the main battle for Passchendaele was raging, attacks were made on the area to the south of the Houthulst Forest. On November 10th, 9 officers and 239 other ranks from the Battalion were sent to the front line to relieve the 8th Norfolk Regiment. They occupied a series of posts between Colombo House and Tourenne Crossing. From there, patrols were sent out to check enemy positions, the wire and the state of the boarding. The Battalion was relieved three days later by the 12th Middlesex Battalion. The Battalion War Diary records that in this short time 1 officer and 8 other ranks had been killed (12). William died of his wounds on November 15th 1917.

William was buried in grave XIII, C.16 at the Dozinghem Military Cemetery. This lies just south of the village of Westvleteren on the Belgian side of the border with France, 12 kilometres west of Ypres. The site had been prepared at one of three Casualty Clearing Stations which had been named with some irony by British troops Mendinghem, Dozinghem and Bandaghem as the words sounded like Belgian place names. Casualty figures from the Passchendaele conflict vary widely but British losses are estimated in the region of 250,000.(13)

Continued in column 2...

Added December 2nd 2011
Last update: July 30th 2020

Phyllis Rosalie

Tom Claypole remained close to his brother's family and a relationship developed between him and Florence. They were married at St Mary Magdalene Church on December 26th 1917. He was 37 years old; she, 19. Florence's brother, Harry, and sister, Elsie, acted as witnesses. Whilst they set up home together, Tom's daughter, Hilda, now aged 11 years, was sent to live with Mary and Phyllis.

About a month before the wedding, at the end of November 1917, Mary Claypole had been notified of her husband's death by the Regional Records Office in Warley, Essex. A paragraph in the local newspaper (15) in early December conveyed the news to the village. William was awarded his two service medals (the British War medal and the Victory medal) posthumously which were sent to Mary. She also received one of the bronze Next of Kin War Memorial plaques (16) inscribed with his name along with a note signed by King George V.

After the war, a memorial to the war heroes of the village was erected on Mill Road, Cottingham. William's name appears on its north face. Also commemorated is Francis Omar Tilley, Mary Elizabeth's youngest brother, who had won the Military Medal with the Leicestershire Regiment in the Battle of Cambrai, France in November 1917. He died of wounds received in the German counter-offensive the following month.

Phyllis continued to live in the house with her grandmother, Mary, and attended the local school into the 1920s. She was described as being a pretty child but may have been of a tender disposition. During the Spring of 1927 she became ill with what was diagnosed as "probably heart failure". It is possible this indicates that she had a form of congenital heart disease. She died on May 10th 1927 aged 13 years. Interestingly, it was her uncle, Harry Claypole, Florence's younger brother, who recorded her death and declared her to be the daughter of "Thomas Claypole (deceased)".

Phyllis was buried in the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene Parish Church. On the day of the funeral, the school was closed as a mark of respect. The schoolchildren lined the route along Church Street. All the girls were dressed identically in white pinafores with flowers in their hair.

Mary lived on in the village for another ten years. She died shortly after the outbreak of the second World War at the age of 80. She was buried in the same grave plot as her first husband, Thomas, in St Mary Magdalene churchyard. They are both commemorated on the headstone. Phyllis lies buried with them, a small angel figure marking her final resting place.

The Legacy

There are recollections that a distinct coolness developed between elements of the family which persisted for many years. This was evident particularly towards Mary, Phyllis and Hilda. It was well known that one of William's sisters strongly disapproved of his marriage to Mary and her dislike persisted even after his death. It is also not clear why Tom would not keep his daughter with him after his second marriage. It is not known for certain who Phyllis Rosalie's father was. Some pointed the finger at Stephen Claypole. It may have explained his early enlistment in the Army. Alternatively, his prolonged absence may have been used as a cover for the truth. After his return, he and Tom never had much to do with each other. Florence confided that she had not been informed of Phyllis' final illness or her death at the time. She had been hurt by this and thought that she should have been told because Phyllis had belonged to her. She always maintained that William was the father.

Tom and Florence Claypole continued to live in Cottingham. They had a son and a daughter. In later years, the couple lived on Frogs Island on Rockingham Road. They were well known around the village in the early 1950s for selling fizzy drinks. Crates of large glass bottles of many flavours were delivered by a mineral water supplier and they would sell it from home. Florence died in 1956; Tom nine years later.

Mary's son, Harry Claypole, was married three times and eventually moved to Leeds. He married his first wife, Edith Ella Burditt from Rothwell, Northamptonshire in 1927. She died in 1938. Mary's younger daughter, Elsie, married Bernard Jackson in 1928 and spent their adult lives in Cottingham.

Stephen Claypole returned to Cottingham after the war and lived for a time in Barrack Yard. He is remembered as an introspective man who kept himself to himself. He never married and died in early 1963.

 Footnote 1: The photograph

We have been intrigued by the identity of the photographer who took the image which started this whole project as much as its contents. The wording on the side of the wagon ("W. Claypole Late T. Claypole") places the year it was taken at or close to 1912. The photograph has been rendered to the size of a postcard although there is no printing on the reverse. Although now quite faded, the photographer has printed his name "H.P. Burdett" and "Brampton Ash" in the narrow border along the bottom margin.

Brampton Ash is a small village lying on the Market Harborough to Corby Road some five miles south west of Cottingham. Examination of historical Trade Directories does not show a photographer living in the area and the hamlet would appear to be too small to support a photographic studio. The 1911 England census does reveal a 30 year old single, elementary school teacher by the name of Herbert Phillimore Burdett in residence. It appears he was born with the humbler name of Herbert William Burdett but later took his mother's maiden name. Evelyn Phillimore was born at Woburn, Bedfordshire. In 1929, Herbert, now a schoolmaster, was named executor of the will of Louisa Leverton, Evelyn's sister.

So, this photograph may have been the work of a dedicated amateur. It is also possible that there may be an unsuspected connection with the family in this story. The surnames Burdett and Burditt are both very common in this part of the East Midlands and may be historically interchangeable. Herbert's father, Charles Burdett, a small holder, had been born in Rothwell, Northamptonshire, which is where the family of Edith Birditt, the first wife of Mary Claypole's son, Harry, came from.

Footnote 2: The Passchendaele 100 Poppy Lapel Pin (17)

This year, The Royal British Legion will mark the 100th Anniversary of the third Battle of Ypres - The Battle of Passchendaele. During the Battle of Passchendaele, an estimated 245,000 allied casualties (dead, wounded or missing) fell in 103 days of heavy fighting. As part of the commemoration the Royal British Legion has commissioned the creation of a special poppy pin to pay tribute to each one of the fallen British soldiers from the Battle of Passchendaele. Made from British brass artillery shell fuses found on the battlefields sites, each pin contains earth recovered from the fields and mixed with red and green enamel. These commemorative Poppy Pins possess the very essence of the battlefields that the brave men fought upon, died upon and many still lie at peace beneath. Every pin comes in a lacquered wooden presentation box with a Certificate of Authenticity and a Commemorative Certificate detailing a British soldier whose life was lost 100 years ago during the 103 day of the Battle of Passchendaele . Each pin is engraved with 'YPRES 1917' on the reverse. (18)

The image above shows the commemoration certificate for William Claypole. We would like to express our thanks to The Royal British Legion for providing this specific copy for us to accompany our own lapel pin.

Further Reading

[A]: "The Glorious Sixth" - The History of the Sixth (Service) Battalion, The Northamptonshire Regiment 1914 - 1919: Peter Jackson
[B]: "Some Records of Battle and Laughter in France" - The 54th Infantry Brigade, 194-1918: Gale & Polden, Aldershot and London: 1919

References

1. Family tree graphic: Freeware Graphics: Vintage Kin Design Studio, Australia
2. Kelly's Directory of Northamptonshire 1894: Personal communication: Northampton Library
3. Report from the Kettering Divisional Petty Sessions: Northampton Mercury; Friday 15th May: The British Newspaper Archive; © The British Library Board.
4. Kelly's Directory of Northamptonshire 1910 page 61 Historical Directories, A University of Leicester Project
5. Kelly's Directory of Northamptonshire 1914 pages 62-63 Historical Directories, A University of Leicester Project
6. The Princess Mary 1914 Christmas Gift Tin: The Kinnethmont Web Site
7. Battalions of the New Army: The Northamptonshire Regiment http://www.1914-1918.net/northants.htm The Long, Long Trail
8. Order of battle for the Battle of the Somme: wikipaedia article
9. Roll of Honour: Losses in the Ranks: The Times Issue 41432 Page 4: Wednesday, Mar 21, 1917
10. Gellhorn, George: "Three cases of extraperitoneal cesarean section": A paper presented at the St Louis Medical Society October 1914. in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) LXIV(3) 196-198: 1915
11. Photograph by James Francis Hurley: Soldiers of the Australian 4th division field artillery brigade on duckboards crossing Chateau Wood near Ypres. Australian War memorial web site. Image copyright notice: Copyright expired - in public domain.
12. "On the line, Egypt House": November 13th to 15th 1917: War Diary: The 6th Northamptonshire Battalion; The Northamptonshire Regiment.
13. Battle of Passchendaele: on wikipaedia
14. Memorial to William Claypole at Dozinghem: Headstone photograph by Sally (Pearlady) at Find A Grave
15. Report of the death of William Claypole: Kettering Leader page 8 December 7th 1917
16. Memorial Plaque A history on wikipedia
17. The Passchendaele 100 Poppy Lapel Pin - The Royal British Legion Poppy Shop
18. Passchendaele 100 The Royal British Legion website

Associations and acknowledgments

Alan Craxford and Janice Binley are both William Claypole's first cousins (twice removed) although through different lines of the family; Jean Claypole is the wife of Tom and Florence's son Mervyn Claypole; Glyn Pitts is the son of Hilda Claypole; and Wallace and Glenys Panter are the grandchildren William's sister, Caroline Claypole.

Stephen Beeby is a member of and active contributor to The Great War Forum. His particular interests include the Northamptonshire Regiment (mainly 6th Bn.), 12th Div Signals R.E., 9th Black Watch, Royal Engineers.

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