The Great War

There are eight soldiers who lost their lives during World War 1 and  who are commemorated at Crosscrake Church but the suffering experienced by residents was much wider than that, as lives changed forever due to the hostilities and their aftermath. 

The memorial at Crosscrake Church was erected shortly after the war and was  installed by the Willacy Family of Sedgwick. 

 The eight men remembered on the War Memorial and inside the Church include sons of the richest and poorest of local families and also several men from further afield but whose connections with the Parish led them to being remembered here. 

Crosscrake Church
Casualties of the Great War
 
William Bainbridge
Albert Beswick
George Ferguson
John William Foster
John Pennington
Horace Pocklington
Miles Radcliffe
John Nelson Willacy

​Memories passed down tell of how many men enlisted in Kendal but were given a local send off as they marched from Sedgwick to Oxenholme Station. They represent many regiments and ranks, but are all remembered.

William Bainbridge

William Bainbridge was born on 17 January 1887 in, Sedgwick to Frederick (who was a Coachman at Sedgwick House) and Hannah Bainbridge. The family lived in the Coachman’s Cottage, possibly Stable Cottage. By 1911, he had become a groom.

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​He joined the 1st Battalion of the Border Regiment (regimental number 11578). He was killed in action aged 28, in Gallipoli on 21st August 1915 when the Borders were engaged in an attack on Scimitar Hill, Gallipoli, Turkey. He is commemorated on the
Helles Memorial at Gallipoli.

​Albert Beswick

 Albert Beswick was born in Lower Peover in Cheshire in 1895, the eldest son of Albert (a general labourer) and Ann Beswick of Plumley Moor, Knutsford.  He took up the occupation of domestic gardener.
  
He enlisted in Kendal in September 1914, aged 19, and joined the 8th Battalion of the Border Regiment - The Kendal Pals -  his regimental number was15089. the regiment is pictured below in July 1916 on the front line.
​It is unknown why he enlisted far away from home; he was possibly under age. He was killed aged 21, during an offensive on the Regina Trench in the Somme on 21st October 1916 and is commemorated at Thriepval

​George Ferguson

​George Ferguson was born in June 1877 in Rutherglen in Lanarkshire, Scotland. He married a Welsh girl, Lily Rosina Barnes in St Peter’s Church in South Wimbledon in 1907. By 1911, the family lived in Sedgwick where George was a Head Gardener and lived in Smithy Cottage. They had 6 children.
 
George enlisted in Kendal and joined the 8th Border Regiment the “Kendal Pals” with a Regimental Number 26866.
 
He was killed on April 10th 1918 as the Borders were overrun by the enemy advancing near Ploegstaart, Wood to the south of Ypres in Belgium. He was aged 40. His wife died just 8 months later, in Sedgwick during the 1918 flu epidemic.

John William Foster

John William Foster was the son of William and Betsy Foster (nee Cummings), of Firbank near Killington. By 1911 he had moved to his Uncle’s home at Viver near Stainton where he was a butcher’s assistant to his uncle. In 1914 he married Elizabeth Ann Frear,
of Field End, Stainton, Kendal. He had a son who was born in 1915. 
 
He was in "B" Coy. 10th Bn., Alexandra, The Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment, which in 1920 became The Green Howards. Regimental Number 41852.
 
He was killed on 11 April 1917, near Arras in France, Age 26. He is commemorated at Cojeul British Cemetery, St. Martin-Sur Cojeul.

​John Pennington

Little is known about John Pennington. His parents were William and Jane Pennington. He has no known connection with the area but is recognised on the Crosscrake Memorial.
 
His Regimental number was 1789, implying he signed up very early or was a career soldier. He served with the 1/4th Battalion of the Border Regiment who from 29 September 1914 until 1918 served in India and Burma.
 
He died of sickness whilst serving in Burma and is one of only 55 soldiers who served in the Great War to be buried in Taukkyan War Cemetery, Burma (now Myanmar).

​Horace Pocklington

​​Horace Pocklington was born in Leicester in 1890 and then lived with his mother in St Mary’s Workhouse Leicester. He was married to Emily and was a farm hand at Raines Hall Farm. 
 
He enlisted in Kendal and served with the 2nd Battalion of the Leicestershire Regiment - Regimental Number 18743.
 
He joined the Battalion in the field in Mesopotamia in January 1916. He was killed in action on October 30th aged 26.
He is buried at Amara War Cemetery, Iraq.

​John “Nelson” Willacy

​​John “Nelson” Willacy was born in 1895, in Sedgwick, to David Hodgson and Mary Agnes Willacy. By 1901, they lived at Hilltop Sedgwick, the home of his paternal grandmother together with his Uncle’s family. They ran a Carpentry business.
By the time he was 16, he was working and living at Wellheads Farm, Sedgwick.
 
He fought in the 7th Battalion of the King’s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment. He died on July 25th 1916, aged 21and is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. 

MILES RADCLIFFE

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​Miles Radcliffe was born on 13th October 1883 in Oldham, to Henry Miles Radcliffe a wealthy Textile Mill owner and Emily Bertha Platt, daughter of John Platt, MP for Oldham. They made their family home at Summerlands, near Crosscrake. Miles was educated at Cheam Preparatory School and Harrow.

​On 12th December 1914, he was attached to the 1st Bn. Royal Scots, manning a machine gun when he was shot through the heart by a sniper. He was buried in the graveyard at Kemmel Church in Belgium which was subsequently destroyed by shelling. 

In 1918, his widow Dorothy was one of the first women to sign up for the newly established Women’s Royal Air Force.

There is a commemorative plaque in Crosscrake church where he worshipped alongside his family. 

​To mark the centenary of Captain Radcliffe’s death on 29th October 2014, members of Crosscrake Primary School held a commemorative service at Crosscrake Church. They sent a cross to Kemmel Church to be laid at Mile’s grave and the children from Kemmel School held a service too, to lay the cross on his grave.

He became a Gentleman Cadet at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and then joined the Border Regiment as a Second Lieutenant. In 1906, he was promoted to Lieutenant and served with the Mounted Infantry in South Africa after the Boer War.

On the 15 July 1913, he married Dorothy Kathleen Duffin from York, at St Andrews Church Droitwich, Worcester. 
Miles Claude, their son was born 13th January 1914 at Summerlands, Westmorland. He was a popular local figure involved in the local hunt and amateur dramatic society and attended Crosscrake Church. 

On 29th October 1914 Miles was promoted from Lieutenant to Captain. His original posting to France was delayed because he had been injured in a hunting accident, but he eventually travelled overseas to fight near Ypres in Belgium.