CRAVEN’S PART IN THE GREAT WAR

In my ignorance I assumed there was a town called Craven, but I could not find it on any of my maps. On reading this book, however, I discovered it was not a town but a district in N Yorkshire . The HQ of the local TA infantry battalion (6th Duke of Wellington’s) was at Skipton-in-Craven. The whole cost of compiling, publishing and distributing this book was borne by a Mr Walter Morrison, JP. It was a gift to each member of HM Forces who joined up from the Skipton parliamentary division, or to their next of kin, “as a memento of the noble part that Craven played in the Great War, and the heroic sacrifices made in upholding the honour and prestige of the British Empire.” After a brief summary of the course of the war the book begins with the war record of the 1/6th Duke of Wellington’s (DW) followed by the nominal roll of officers (by rank) and men (alphabetically) of the battalion who embarked for France at Folkestone on 14th April 1915. Immediately after this is the nominal roll of the other ranks of the 2/6th DW; this list is not dated nor does it include the officers. This roll is arranged alphabetically by companies. There are two group photos of the officers of the two battalions, they are not dated but evidently they were taken in the early days of the war. Then comes a short piece on the sinking of the hospital ship “Rohilla” which ran on the rocks half a mile south of Whitby; 83 out of 229 were lost, among them twelve from Barnoldswick whose photos and family status are given. The bulk of the book, 330 pages, contains Craven’s Roll of Honour divided into two groups, Officers and Rank and File. The former contains biographical details of all those who lost their lives, with individual portrait photos, the latter gives next of kin and address along with unit, date of death and age; these, too, are accompanied by photos. There is no set pattern to the order in which the officers names are listed, the other ranks are grouped into months and years. There is a list of award winners shown under the relevant decoration; in all there were 462, among them two VCs – Rev T.B Hardy, who also held the DSO and MC, and 2Lt T.H.B Maufe, RGA. There is a chronology of the war and a page of statistics but no index, which is a pity because it needs one.