Laxton VE day

 This week we are celebrating VE day - Victory in Europe. The day was 8th May 1945, 80 years ago and there are a dwindling number of those who remember it.

I live near Laxton and thought I would look  briefly at those four  names who are on the war memorial board in the church there and find out a little about them if I could.

Lily Anson

She was born in 1913 and  was a member of a large family many of whose descendants live locally today.

Her father Joseph died in 1923 and a newspaper report comments

1923 By the death of Mr Joseph Anson Saltmarshe has lost a very highly respected and  widely known resident. Mr Anson who was 58 years of age spent the past 30 years at Saltmarshe 13 of which he was  in the employ of Mr PC Thompson. He leaves a widow, three sons and eight daughters. The funeral took place at St Peter's Laxton the Vicar the Rev W Sherwin officiating. Practically the whole village turned out to pay their tribute.

In 1939  Lily was working as a domestic servant in Howden. 

Lily was a corporal in the WAAF [ Womens Auxiliary Airforce] and died on 18th September  1945 aged 32. She was a cook and was admitted to Little Bromwich isolation hospital where she died of diptheria

She is buried at Laxton and the memorial stone is a war grave

Frances William Barker

Frances William Barker was the son of Edward and Gertrude Barker. His father was a woodman on the Saltmarshe estate.

He was born in  1924 and in 1939 was living in Woodside Cottage Laxton with his parents and brother Alan.

He was only 17, an apprentice, when he was lost aboard the SS Bullmouth, a merchant ship on a convoy.

On October 29, 1942, SS Bullmouth was sailing to the Tyne in ballast when she was torpedoed and damaged by U-409 and became a straggler. The position was about 100 miles NW of Madeira. She was then struck by a further two torpedoes from U-659 and sank. The chief officer and five crew members managed to reach the island of Bugio near Madeira but the master (John Wilfred Brougham), forty-four crew members and five unknown DEMS gunners were lost.  Forty three men are commemorated on Tower Hill, Panel 21 and two on the Canadian Merchant Seamen Halifax Memorial.

Sidney James Hobson

Sidney was born in 1918, the son of James and Ann Hobson.

In 1921 he was living at  High Metham with his parents and widowed uncle and cousins

In 1939 he was  living  on Front Street in Laxton with his parents and was a farmworker

In 1942 he married Lillian Hablett

He was a gunner in the Royal Artillery with a Heavy Anti Aircraft battery in Algeria.  He was killed on 7th January 1943

He is commemorated on the Medjez-el-bab memorial in Tunisia

Sidney is on the photo below, back right aged about 14.

Laxton school 1932
back from left: James Brown, Percy Laking, Harry ?lindley, Ernest Sweeting, Sidney Hobson
Middle::  Jean Thompson, Mildred Walker, Margaret Sweeting,  Mary Hardwick, ? Lindley, Joan Hardwick, Vera Barker, Phyllis Brignall.
Front :Ernest Brown, Jack Forth,  Robert Taylor, Ernest Sweeting, Maurice Thompson, Claude Brignall, Arthur Oakley,  Harry Brown.

Ernest Gordon Nicholson

Son of Ernest G. and Alice May Nicholson, of Laxton, Yorkshire.

In 1921 Ernest was 6 months old, born in Manchester and living with his parents in Hull where his father was an out of work fish dock worker.

In 1939 he was living with his mother Alice in Laxton

He was in the Royal Air Force Volunteer reserve an airctraftman 2nd class and was taken prisoner on 8 March 1942 when Java fell

In 1944 the Hull Mail reported   that a Tokyo message  re-broadcast by the German radio gives news of Ac.2 Ernest Nicholson. A.F., whose mother lives at Laxton, near Howden. 

  " Dear father, This is the first letter I have been able to write since becoming a prisoner of war which might possibly reach you. It will at least let you know I am still alive and able to inform you that we are being well treated. We are all anxiously waiting for the day of freedom to dawn. Give my fondest love to mother. Tell her not to worry. Soon we shall meet again. I am sure 

Unfortunately this was not to be as Ernest died of malaria on 8th May 1944 while on board  the Japanese vessel Ss Tencho Maru and was buried at sea

His name appears on the Singapore war memorial.

Looking again at where these Saltmarshe and Laxton men - and woman- served and died you cannot help but wonder at the contrast between their early lives in the Yorkshire countryside and where they lost their lives

I have not been able to find any reports or pictures about how Laxton  and Saltmarshe celebrated VE day  in 1945 but wonder how many of the children in the 1932 picture served in the forces and came home safely. Any comments and/ or pictures would be very welcome.

This however is a description of what happened in Howden

May 8th  the BBC announced, would be celebrated as Victory in Europe Day. Howden had made its celebration plans the previous Friday when ‘the Bellman’ – a local version of the Town Crier – had gone round calling people to a meeting at which a celebrations committee was formed. 

VE Day began with a swift transformation of Howden’s streets as flags and bunting appeared from all corners. Many shops remained closed. At shops which opened flags and other celebratory paraphernalia were quickly sold out. A large union jack flew from the church tower, and in the afternoon the bells pealed for an hour. Hotels were granted an evening extension; the British Legion held a victory whist drive; on the Marsh crowds gathered around a huge bonfire. The following afternoon sports preceded a children’s tea in the Assembly Hall. Then a dance at the Shire Hall drew a large crowd and with the music relayed to the Market Place there was more dancing there until well after midnight.