Beloww are the men from this parish who gave their lives in the First World War.
A booklet is available in the church which gives more details of these soldiers.
Gerald Henry Broadhurst, who served in the Royal Field Artillery, was the son of Captain and Mrs Broadhurst, of Waterfoot, Ullswater. He was in the front line, observing for his battery, during the Second Battle of Ypres when he was killed. He was buried by the Germans where he died but his body was never recovered. He is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial at Ypres. He was 23 when he died.
Thomas A Watson was the son of Mr W A Watson of Threlkeld. He joined the Royal Garrison Artillery as a Gunner, but did his war service as a farm worker for Mr Hetherington of Skelton, living in Flusco Cottage, Newbiggin. He died in the great ‘flu pandemic of 1918 and is buried in Threlkeld churchyard.
Llewellyn Thompson was the son of the coachman at Dalemain. He was 19 when he was killed in action 24th March 1918 whilst serving with the 5th Battalion South Wales Borderers. His mother was Welsh and he was born in Ruthin in Wales which explains his choice of regiment. He went missing in action on 23 March; his body was recovered the following day and he is buried in Grevillers Cemetery.
Robert Dalton was the first person from Dacre Parish to die during the war. He was 19. He enlisted in the Army Service corps but transferred to the Worcestershire Regiment. His army chaplain wrote to his mother at her home in Redhills that he had died under heavy bombardment on 18 January 1916, behaving with the greatest gallantry and courage.
Frederick Snowden Bostock lived in Soulby before becoming a farm worker at Celleron. Whilst serving as a private in the Westmorland and Cumberland Yeomanry, he was shot by a sniper on 6th September 1918. His name is on The Vis-en-Artois Memorial which records the names of more than 9000 men who died in the “Advance to Victory” in Picardy and Artois in 1918, and who have no known grave.
William Cowper was a private in the 8th Battalion, Border Regiment. His parents George and Sarah lived in Gill Cottage, Greystoke. He was only 20 when he died, killed in action on April 10, 1918. His name is on the memorial for missing soldiers at Ploegsteert.
Thomas Nichol’s memorial is in Dacre churchyard, near the gate on the east wall. Every year on Remembrance Sunday, a poppy cross is placed on this memorial. Thomas lived at Flusco House with his parents, George and Margaret until he enlisted in the Lonsdale Pals, the 11th Battalion, Border Regiment. He was killed in the last battle of the Somme, 18th November 1916 , probably by machine gun fire. He is buried in Waggen Road Cemetery.
John Robson’s father lived for many years at Southwaite Farm, Dacre. Before he enlisted as a private in the 2nd Battalion, Border Regiment, John was a gardener to Mr MacDonald of Dacre. He had been home on leave only weeks before he was killed in action on 14th July 1916. He is remembered on the Thiepval Memorial, which is the memorial to the men who went missing on the Somme between 1915 and 1918.
Benjamin Dodd Slee and John Donald Slee were the sons of William Slee, a gardener at Dalemain, who all lived at Ivy Cottage in Dacre. Benjamin was working in Kirkby Stephen before he enlisted in the 8th Battalion Border Regiment and he was married shortly afterwards. He had been promoted to Lance Corporal when he was killed in action on 21st March, 1918 aged 30.
Donald, of the 2nd Batallion Border regiment, worked as a footman at Brackenburgh Tower before The War. He was married with one child. He died of pneumonia on 25th February 1917 aged 26. His grave is in Gezaincourt Communal Cemetery Extension 11G3 on the Somme.
Benjamin Robert Thompson from Hill Top, Blencowe, was killed on 27th May 1918. Before joining the 8th Battalion, Border Regiment at 18, he had been clerk to the Northern Farmers’ Association in Penrith. His memorial service was held in Blencowe Wesleyan Chapel.
John Walker of Keld Head, Stainton, joined the 1st Battalion of the Border Regiment as a private. He was reported wounded on 23rd June 1917 and was sent home. He died of his wounds on 1st December 1918 and was buried in Penrith Cemetery.
Richard Fallowfield lived at Red Hills and started work as an apprentice at Cowper’s Chemist in Penrith at 14, but subsequently followed in his father’s footsteps and worked on the railways, moving to Manchester. He achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant in the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving with the 36th Field Ambulance. and was awarded the Military Medal for his role in assisting the wounded at Cambrai. He was 30 and at work in the hospital when he was killed in a German air raid on 28th May 1918. He is buried in Varennes Cemetery. He left a widow, Mary, who was living near Stockport.
Frederick Oldcorn was described as a “steady hardworking man” by Captain Vane, his commanding officer in the 1st Line, Westmorland & Cumberland Yeomanry. Frederick worked as a platelayer on the railway at Penrith before joining the army and was married with two children. He was fighting in the trenches when he was wounded and he died on 5th August 1916.
Private Joseph Richardson was born in Warcop in 1884, but his family in England moved from Ousby to Soulby Fell Farm, near Dacre. He emigrated to Canada in 1912, settling in Atlee, Alberta, 56 miles north of Medicine Hat. He joined the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force on 1st March 1916 in Calgary. His attestation papers show that he was a farmer, aged 32, and that he was not married. He served with the 50th Battalion, the Canadian Infantry, as a private (803323). He was assumed killed on 10 August 1918 and his name is on the Vimy Memorial, which is for Canadian soldiers killed or presumed dead in France who have no known grave. For some years after his death his parents must have clung to the hope that he was still alive because they continued to pay the rent on his house and land in Canada.
Hugh William Sowerby’s parents, Joseph and Tamar, lived in Dacre near the Wesleyan chapel but he was living in Saskatoon when he enlisted in the Canadian Infantry, joining the Canadian Overseas Expeditionary Force. He died on 25th October 1916 at the age of 33 and is remembered on the Vimy Memorial.