Nunthorpe-in-Cleveland War Memorial

The First World War Memorial for the village of Nunthorpe, south of Middlesbrough, stands near the Stokesley road.

It was unveiled on Saturday, 27 August 1921 by Sir Hugh Bell, Bart., C.B., the Lord Lieutenant of the North Riding.

The pencil notes in the right hand corner were made by Mr T.D.H. Stubbs, who had served as a Major during the War and lived with his family in Nunthorpe.  He was Company Secretary of Dorman, Long & Co and a friend of Sir Arthur Dorman.

He has sketched the positions to be taken by those participating.  Guides and Scouts were to stand on the left.  'Buglers' is written beside the small square.

Prayers were led by the Archdeacon of Cleveland, and Sir Arthur Dorman and Mr Burton spoke.  Another prayer followed the Unveiling by Sir Hugh Bell - and a prayer was inserted into the order at this point, according to the pencil note.  Buglers of the 4th Yorkshire Regiment played the Last Post.  

The hymns were 'O God, our help in ages past' and 'Onward, Christian Soldiers'.  The Rev. J. W. Roberts gave the blessing.  The buglers played the Reveille and the assembled company sang the National Anthem.

On the back of the service sheet, the names of the dead are listed.  They include Major Stubbs' 15 year old son, Midshipman John Duncan Stubbs.

Northumbrian (North Riding) Heavy Battery RGA

More snapshots from Major Stubbs' album:

Aldershot 1917

Major Stubbs was posted at Aldershot for some months in 1917 and 1918

RAMC Newcastle 1915

RGA 4,7 gun 1915

RGA in training 1915

Major Stubbs, Newcastle 1915

Major Stubbs i/c Siege School, Aldershot c1917

'The Silver King', Eastbourne 1915

Trumpeter Jones on Taffy

Northumbrian (North Riding) Heavy Battery RGA before the War

Snapshots from Major Stubbs' album.
Unfortunately they are not dated and only a few names are recorded, but they are thought to be from a pre-War Camp some time in 1913 or 1914.

George W.W. Barnley (Middlesbrough solicitor) is second from left.
Francis Dalrymple (adjutant) is seated on the gun

Major Stubbs' daughter has added (years later) a note to this photograph:

"The Hairy Heels" (Horselines) (eight of these to each gun)

War Horse

Major Stubbs' horse, Jess.

Jess joined the North Riding Heavy Battery August 1914 at Monkseaton as the Battery Commander's Charger at the outbreak of war.
She went overseas with the Battery in April 1915.
She was wounded by a splinter of shell in May 1918.
She died at the Veterinary Clearing Station in May [or June, according to the note on the reverse of the photo] 1918.
Photo was taken at St Omer, February 1917

Driver J.F.S. Wallace was her groom.  He took her down to the Clearing Station and stayed with her till the end.

Nunthorpe in the early 20th century

Photographs and a sketch map of old Nunthorpe (Station - not old Nunthorpe Village) can be found on the Nunthorpe History Group website.

The sketch map identifies the houses of Duncan Stubbs and Gerald Cochrane, while the surrounding area can be seen more clearly on the old maps page of the site.

War begins - Nunthorpe, 1914

Thomas Duncan Henlock (“Duncan”) Stubbs was a 42 year old Middlesbrough solicitor when war broke out.  He lived with his wife and family in the little rural hamlet that had grown up around Nunthorpe railway station.  As a Captain in the Territorial Army in the Northumbrian (Heavy) Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, he was called up immediately.  

He began to keep a diary.  It begins on Tuesday 4 August 1914 and it is written in ink and pencil on lined foolscap paper.  It appears to be a fair copy, with additions and alterations, presumably (given the detail involved) from notes made at the time.  He was a methodical man.

Extracts from the first ten days of the diary follow.  They give a vivid picture of public reaction at the beginning of the War, on Teesside and Tyneside.


It begins with a summary of events in Europe:

1914.
Tuesday 4th August

For a week past there has been talk of war.  Austria’s declaration of War against Servia has started the ball rolling […]

Britain calls upon [Germany] to declare that the neutrality of Belgium shall be preserved.  Germany declines stating that to do so would disclose an important part of her plan of campaign […] 

The British fleet is fully mobilized, the reserves, even the Dartmouth cadets, are called up and about 7pm on Tuesday 4th August 1914 the order goes forth for the general mobilization of the whole British Army.

and then Duncan Stubbs begins to document his own experiences:

This is a purely personal account of my own doings as Captain in the Northumbrian North Riding Heavy Battery, which Battery I have had the honour of commanding for about 12 months past.

Remembrance Day in Hutton Rudby 1927

From Miss Winifred Blair's green album:

12 Nov 1927:

By Lantern Light 

Moving Night Scene at Village Shrine

Snow was falling heavily when Hutton Rudby’s ex-Servicemen, proceeding in three sections through the village, converged on the war memorial at 8 o’clock last night.

They formed in a crescent in front of the memorial and behind them took their stands a number of inhabitants who had been attracted by the storm lanterns carried by the ex-Servicemen as they came through the village. 

The ceremony which followed was brief and simple.  Major Williams, the senior officer on parade, called the names.  Those present and then those of the 29 men whose names are inscribed on the war memorial. 

Silence followed.  This was broken by the Vicar (the Rev. Arthur L Leeper), who, facing the memorial, recited the following lines from the Toc H ceremony. 

With proud thanksgiving let us remember our comrades.
They shall not grow old as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn;
At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them. 

To this the men on parade responded “We will remember them.” 

A brief prayer by the Vicar that Light perpetual might shine upon the fallen ones, and then the ex-Servicemen faded silently away. 

It was an impressive ceremony and some of those standing round the memorial were visibly affected.

The War Memorial to the 50th (Northumbrian) Division

Not far from Ypres and near the cemetery on the Oxford Road, stands a memorial dedicated ‘to the enduring memory of all ranks of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division who fell in the Great War’.  An inscription below commemorates ‘their comrades of the same Division who gave their lives in the War of 1939-1945 for the liberation of France, Belgium and Holland’.

This was a first line Division of the Territorial Force, drawn from Northumberland, Durham and the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire.  It was sent to the Western Front in April 1915 and soon saw action in the Second Battle of Ypres.

The memorial is a plain white pillar in a green enclosure, standing beside a farm on a windswept hillside.

How had the design been chosen?  Amongst the papers of the Middlesbrough solicitor Major T.D.H. (“Duncan”) Stubbs are documents that provide some answers.

Miss Winifred Blair's scrap book

This scrap book in the possession of the Hutton Rudby History Society contains a miscellany of items, from postage stamps and theatrical programmes to newspaper cuttings. 

The following list gives the main details of the contents of the book.

Items of interest: a good deal about amateur dramatics in the village; a programme in Olde Englishe for the celebrations of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee; advertisements for Sidgwick's and Scupham's dairies; and the planning and opening of the Village Hall. 

Miss Winifred Blair's green album

Miss Blair's green album, held by the Hutton Rudby History Society, contains newspaper cuttings largely from the period January 1918 to May 1931.

Most concern family and village events, but there are also items relating to local families and others of general interest.  A number of cuttings reflect Winifred Blair's love of the stage, both amateur and professional.

The following notes give an indication of the contents.  Not to be missed: accounts of the opening of the Village Hall, and the description on 12 Nov 1927 of Armistice Day commemorated by veterans in darkness, with snow falling.

(The photograph of Mr Mease is from the Hutton Rudby History Society's collection.  The letter from the Comrades of the Great War, added 23 June 2020, can be seen on the Society's Facebook page)

Miss Winifred Blair's red album

The red album entitled "Newspaper Gleanings" covers the period 1894 to 1936.

Most of the cuttings relate to the early and mid-1930s and they give a vivid picture of life in Hutton Rudby in the years before the Second World War, when "Herr Hitler" was still a figure of fun and not an imminent menace. 

The notes that follow will convey some idea of the contents of the album.  The story of the thunderbolt that struck Doctors Lane in 1928 is particulary worth reading!

I have added photographs from the Hutton Rudby History Society collection, by way of illustration.