Campaign launched to restore Darlington war memorial lost for 60 years

The memorial bears the names of nine men from the congregation of the Methodist church on Victoria Road in Darlington who lost their lives, and of one woman – Miss Ruby Denham – who died, aged 28, a fortnight before the war ended.

She is the first known female to appear on a memorial in the town.

The memorial lost for 60 years and now awaiting restoration

The ‘handsome’ memorial was found last year in a house in Richmond where it appears to have been taken when the church closed in 1966.

If £5,500 can be raised it is intended to have it restored and mounted in the Memorial Hall at Darlington Memorial Hospital.

The hospital, of course, was built to honour the town’s dead after the First World War, and the Memorial Hall has the names of 700 fallen townsmen on its walls. Those names include three members of the Bradford family, two of whom won the Victoria Cross, and to whom the entrance porch is dedicated.

“The restoration has the support of the Royal British Legion, the hospital’s NHS Trust, the War Memorials Trust and the North East War Memorials Project,” says project manager Stephen Hill.

“Adding the memorial to this splendid location will give it pride of place in the porch beneath the plaque dedicated to Roland Bradford VC MC.

“We would now love to hear from any relatives of those named on the memorial.”

A crowd of people waiting outside the Victoria Road Methodist Church in the mid 1960s waiting to see the elephants from Billy Smart’s Circus parade through the town centre to South Park, advertising the circus’ arrival

The New Connexion Methodist Church was built in 1884 in the French-Gothic style on Victoria Road, just as Bank Top station was being rebuilt as a statement piece of architecture at the top of the street. The church, with its elaborate tower-top canopy, must also have been very impressive in its heyday.

The Victoria Road Methodist Church is now Bathroom World, and no longer has its pointed canopy on top. Picture: Google StreetView

When it closed it became a warehouse, but for the last 50 years it has been the Bathroom World showroom.

The plaque was unveiled on September 27, 1921, by Major Sir Henry Havelock Allan, of Blackwell Grange. In its brief report, the Echo’s former sister paper, the Northern Despatch, says it bears the names of the “nine members of the church who fell in the war”.

Ruby’s name is the tenth on the memorial, so when she died on October 31, 1918, aged 28, she may not have been directly involved in the war effort.

Her full name was Sarah Alice Ruby Denham. She lived with her parents, Elizabeth and John, in Hawthorn Street near South Park.

She died ‘suddenly’ in Soham, near Cambridge, at the home of her brother and sister-in-law. Her death certificate says she died of influenza and pneumonia – the second lethal wave of H1N1 Spanish flu swept Britain in the autumn of 1918, peaking around Armistice Day in November with young adults aged between 20 and 40 hardest hit.

It also says she was a chemist’s assistant, so she could have been involved in the medical side of the war.

The ten names, including Miss Ruby Denham, on the war memorial

None of the nine men’s names on the memorial appear to be commemorated elsewhere in the town.

“The memorial has been damaged but can be repaired sympathetically,” said Steve. “It is currently stored in a warehouse in the hospital, but we have found a local stonemason with all the necessary specialist tools to restore it to its former glory.”

The finances for the appeal are being handled by the North East War Memorials Project, the charity which runs a fabulous website listing all the region’s memorials. To find out more and donate, please email stevehillconsult@btconnect.com. If you can tell us any more about any of the names, please get in touch.

Pte Albert Catchpole
Royal Army Medical Corps and 8DLI
Died: September 26, 1918
Age: 22
Albert was a gas fitter and plumber with Darlington Council before the war, and lived in Valley Street North with his parents, Albert and Emma, in High Northgate. He was their only son. He died a prisoner of war and is buried in Hochheim Hill Cemetery in Worms in Germany – Worms was one of the biggest PoW camps with many men sent out as part of the ‘arbeitskommando’ to work on the land. He probably died either of his wounds or in an accident related to the work.

Pte Francis Herbert Elders
Canadian Infantry, 78th Battalion
Died: October 30, 1917
Little is known about Francis although the best guess is that he emigrated from Darlington to Canada before the war and came back to fight with the Canadian Infantry. He is buried at Potijze Chateau Grounds Cemetery in Belgium, so he was probably wounded fighting in the Third Battle of Ypres and brought back to the dressing station in the chateau grounds where he died.

On July 25, 1916, the Northern Despatch printed a picture of George Welburn, who had been killed 10 days earlier in the Battle of the Somme. He was only 19 and he is named, with his brother, on the Victoria Road church memorial

L-Cpl George William Welburn
King’s Royal Rifle Corps
Died: July 15, 1916
Age: 19
George, of Cobden Street in the Bank Top area, was fighting with the Church Lads Brigade of the King’s rifles when he was killed near Albert in the Battle of Bazentine Ridge, which was part of the Battle of the Somme.

On February 18, 1916, the Northern Despatch newspaper printed pictures of the three sons, three brothers and nephew of Annie Welburn, of 52 Cobden Street, who were away fighting. Two of her sons, George and James, are named on the Victoria Road church

Pte James Welburn
West Yorkshire Regiment
Died: June 6, 1918
Age: 23
The elder brother of George, he was a railway porter before the war. He is buried in a large cemetery near Boulogne, which suggests he had been injured on the frontline of the Battle of the Aisne, a major last-ditch German offensive in northern France, and had been taken to hospital on his way home, but died.

His parents George, a railway signalman, and Annie, had a third son, Hylton, who was hospitalised in Newcastle with wounds he sustained in the war.

In fact, as well as her sons, Annie had her three brothers and a nephew away fighting. One brother was killed and another wounded, so her little house at 52 Cobden Street saw some agonies.

J Hullah

Are there any Hullahs in Darlington? Have there ever been? We can’t find any trace of this soldier.

The Commonwealth War Grave Commission website lists 13 Hullahs who were killed in the First World War, and James or Joseph could be our man. They both served with the Machine Gun Company and died in 1917 near Ypres but have no obvious connection with Darlington.

Cpl Fred Magden
Royal Engineers
Died: April 8, 1917
Age: 22
Before the war, Fred, of Montrose Street, was an apprentice chemist. When he died he was serving with the 2nd Special Company of the Royal Engineers which was made up of men with chemistry skills – often graduates – who were in charge of Britain’s gas attacks. He was killed near Arras, in northern France, when a high explosive shell exploded in his billet, accounting for 53 casualties.

Able Seaman Edward Lumsdale
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, Hawke Battalion
Died: November 9, 1915
Age: 17
The Royal Naval Division was formed in 1914 of Navy reservists who were then trained as infantrymen. Young Edward, an NER signal lad, died at Gallipoli in Turkey, from where his body was never recovered. His parents, Florence and Alexander, lived in Greenwell Street.

Pte Frank Webster
1st/8th Durham Light Infantry
Died: March 31, 1918
Age: 23
Before joining the DLI Frank had been a crossing fitter at the Railway Plant Company and before that an apprentice butcher. He was killed in the German attack known as Operation Michael, near Amiens, towards the end of the war. He left his mother, Jane, of Cobden Street.

Drummer JT Park
Border Regiment
Died: June 30, 1916
Not much is known about the drummer who was serving in Peshawar in India when he died.

Ruby Denham’s brush with a fraudster in Darlington was reported in many newspapers across the country. This is from the Darlington North Star on August 25, 1916

Miss Ruby Denham
Died: October 31, 1918
Age: 28
Ruby, of Hawthorn Street, was a chemist’s assistant who died of influenza.

She was involved in a curious case in August 1916 when, coming out of a shop in Leadyard, she dropped her glove. A Glaswegian who said his name was Robert Stevenson, immediately came to her aid. They got talking, he asked about her gold ring which she gave to him. He slid it on his little finger and, to her dismay, he said it wouldn’t come off.

He told her he was a professional footballer, like her brother, then said he was a munitions inspector in need of money. Somehow he came into possession of her 6s 9d.

They met the following day and he did not return her ring or money so she eventually went to the police, who arrested him in Feethams.

He failed to produce his registration card, which it was illegal not to carry, but he did have a piece of paper saying he was ‘Finlay Weir, munitions inspector, to be supplied with petrol at any garage with whatever he wants. By order, Minister Munitions’.

It was a fake. He claimed he was simply on a ‘jollification’ in Darlington, but it emerged that he had been convicted of dishonesty in Hartlepool, Glasgow and Leeds, and was wanted in Hamilton and Middlesbrough.

He was sentenced to six months hard labour and it was ordered he be handed over to the military authorities, as he was an absentee from the forces, on his release.