Tags
British Army, Coldstream Guards, East Yorkshire Regiment, Hull, Hull City of Culture 2017, memorial, Military History, Military Medal, Museums, Northumberland Fusiliers, Pulman Street Hull, Roll of Honour, Street Shrine, Streetlife Museum of Transport, Streetlife Museum of Transport Hull, World War One
This is one of three memorials now displayed at the Streetlife Museum of Transport. The two other Rolls of Honour or Street Shrines are rather large, Gothic, dark, wooden affairs, so this one stands out considerably in comparison, with its names clearly displayed in black and white. I became curious to know if I could find out anything about these men and their service in World War One, so I took this photograph on Saturday morning and I have spent my Sunday evening researching; largely with the aid of www.ww1hull.org.uk.
Sergeant Albert Arksey MM and Bar (33399) gave his address as 23 Pulman Street when he joined the 11th (Service) Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment on the 1st November 1917. By the 28th June 1918 he had won his Military Medal and was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. On the 6th September 1918 he was killed by a German sniper after only 10 months service. Arksey also appears on a list of railway employees, published by the National Railway Museum, who lost their lives in World War One, so we know that he worked as porter with the North Eastern Railway and that his death was reported in the North Eastern Railway Staff Magazine for November 1918 (page 208).
Corporal Gilbert Lupton (10453) served with the 4th Battalion of the Coldstream Guards and died on the 20th January 1918.
George Alfred Harman (7753) joined the 8th (Service) Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, one of the eight Kitchenner battalions raised in the August of 1914, and George William Yarrow joined the 11th (Service) Battalion known as the “Hull Tradesmen“.
Three of the men joined the Northumberland Fusiliers. George Holmes Ellis (5498) served in the 19th (Service) Battalion, the 2nd Tyneside Pioneers, raised in Newcastle on the 6th November 1914. George Borman (3881) and Harry Wright (242265) both served in the 4th Battalion, which was a Territorial unit originally based in Hexham. Harry Wright’s brother, Lance Corporal John Henry Wright (21725), died serving with the 7th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment.
The other names seem to have been lost to history, apart from C Smith, whose initial and surname are so common that my research discovered 607 possible Smiths.