Saving Private Elsey?
It is unbearable to think of one family losing three brothers/sons. But this is what the Elsey family had to come to terms with. John and Mary Ann Elsey had 13 children, all of whom lived into adulthood, despite their modest rural background. John was a shepherd. Born in Tetford, he had lived and worked in Fulletby and Mavis Enderby since his marriage, before settling in Lusby. He and his wife were patriots, they named a daughter after the queen and a son after the prince consort. When the war came their sons joined the army, who can tell with what enthusiasm.
John Thomas, fourth child, second son was the first of the three brothers to die. He seems to have left Lincolnshire for Canada, though I am not sure when. He was certainly serving in the 31st Canadian Infantry battalion, which was linked to Alberta, when he was killed. Although the plaque in Lusby church gives May 4th 1917, the official records give his death as 1st May. He is buried in La Targette in Northern France.
Although he was the first Elsey to die his was not the first death to strike the family. Martha, his next younger sister, had married a Yorkshire man, Ernest Stirzaker, in 1910 and he was killed a week earlier than John Thomas, on 24 April. The news of both deaths in a brief period must have been an unbearable shock especially as there were others in the firing line.
Martha and her next brother Fred were close in age but also closely entwined by kin, as Fred was married to Ernest Stirzaker's sister Laura. (The link with Yorkshire hadn't started with the Stirzakers: Alice the eldest Elsey had married another man from the same community, Rastrick near Brighouse, in 1905. Presumably the other two Elseys met the two Stirzakers through that link.)
I have discovered most about Fred because he has a fairly complete army file. He took his oath in 1915 and was put on the reserve until June 1916, when he was mobilised. Apparently he had a painful Appendix/Peritonitis scar, but this wasn't enough to excuse him service. Like his father and several of his brothers he was a shepherd, short by modern standards, but stocky. He was in the East Yorkshire regiment and was posted to France at the beginning of 1917. He died in November. His widow who had moved back to her home town of Rastrick was sent his personal effects, which are itemised in the army record.
Frank, nine years younger than Fred was a waggoner before he joined up. His war record is one of the majority that have not survived so there is no information about his service apart from the fact that he died in April 1918, he was serving in the 1st battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. He is buried in Haringhe cemetery in Belgium.
At least one other brother, Arthur Stanley, served in the trenches. In fact he was in France for over a year from spring 1916 to spring 1917. He was posted to depot in April 1917, before any of his brothers had died, so this was not the saving Private Elsey moment. Presumably he was wounded but the records aren't complete. He was pensioned off in March 1918 and so survived; he was to marry a local girl in 1919.
I think that you can make a good case for arguing that the Elsey family are very unlucky but in other ways they are representative of some important factors about the early 20th century. Even before the war started they had started to break away from the narrow Lincolnshire farming base from which they came. At least three of them married out of the county and one emigrated. They were literate, as previous generations would not have been, and the war changed the lives of the survivors in ways that could not have been anticipated. Some of them at least managed to pick up some pieces. Martha, whose husband had died first, remarried in 1919. She had children to think about. Her new husband was himself a widower.
Saving Private Elsey?
It is unbearable to think of one family losing three brothers/sons. But this is what the Elsey family had to come to terms with. John and Mary Ann Elsey had 13 children, all of whom lived into adulthood, despite their modest rural background. John was a shepherd. Born in Tetford, he had lived and worked in Fulletby and Mavis Enderby since his marriage, before settling in Lusby. He and his wife were patriots, they named a daughter after the queen and a son after the prince consort. When the war came their sons joined the army, who can tell with what enthusiasm.
John Thomas, fourth child, second son was the first of the three brothers to die. He seems to have left Lincolnshire for Canada, though I am not sure when. He was certainly serving in the 31st Canadian Infantry battalion, which was linked to Alberta, when he was killed. Although the plaque in Lusby church gives May 4th 1917, the official records give his death as 1st May. He is buried in La Targette in Northern France.
Although he was the first Elsey to die his was not the first death to strike the family. Martha, his next younger sister, had married a Yorkshire man, Ernest Stirzaker, in 1910 and he was killed a week earlier than John Thomas, on 24 April. The news of both deaths in a brief period must have been an unbearable shock especially as there were others in the firing line.
Martha and her next brother Fred were close in age but also closely entwined by kin, as Fred was married to Ernest Stirzaker's sister Laura. (The link with Yorkshire hadn't started with the Stirzakers: Alice the eldest Elsey had married another man from the same community, Rastrick near Brighouse, in 1905. Presumably the other two Elseys met the two Stirzakers through that link.)
I have discovered most about Fred because he has a fairly complete army file. He took his oath in 1915 and was put on the reserve until June 1916, when he was mobilised. Apparently he had a painful Appendix/Peritonitis scar, but this wasn't enough to excuse him service. Like his father and several of his brothers he was a shepherd, short by modern standards, but stocky. He was in the East Yorkshire regiment and was posted to France at the beginning of 1917. He died in November. His widow who had moved back to her home town of Rastrick was sent his personal effects, which are itemised in the army record.
Frank, nine years younger than Fred was a waggoner before he joined up. His war record is one of the majority that have not survived so there is no information about his service apart from the fact that he died in April 1918, he was serving in the 1st battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment. He is buried in Haringhe cemetery in Belgium.
At least one other brother, Arthur Stanley, served in the trenches. In fact he was in France for over a year from spring 1916 to spring 1917. He was posted to depot in April 1917, before any of his brothers had died, so this was not the saving Private Elsey moment. Presumably he was wounded but the records aren't complete. He was pensioned off in March 1918 and so survived; he was to marry a local girl in 1919.
I think that you can make a good case for arguing that the Elsey family are very unlucky but in other ways they are representative of some important factors about the early 20th century. Even before the war started they had started to break away from the narrow Lincolnshire farming base from which they came. At least three of them married out of the county and one emigrated. They were literate, as previous generations would not have been, and the war changed the lives of the survivors in ways that could not have been anticipated. Some of them at least managed to pick up some pieces. Martha, whose husband had died first, remarried in 1919. She had children to think about. Her new husband was himself a widower.