Rolls of Honour
LUDDENDEN & MIDGLEY VILLAGES' ROLLS OF HONOUR
WHAT IS A ROLL OF HONOUR?
At the outbreak of war, and probably as incentive to join up many Churches and Chapels, Pubs and Clubs, places of work etc.. started recording the names of the people who signed up to join the fight.
Below are the details of all the Rolls of Honour I have found for Luddenden & Midgley.
Booth Congregational Church
This example is from Booth Congregational Church. The list is in in the order that the men joined up and added to as the next man enlisted. Fifty Four spaces ere allocated within the Roll of Honour.
The first man to enrol was Donald Murgatroyd shortly after war was declared and he was in the local regiment, The Duke Of Wellington's Own(his war records did not survive, so we do not know the exact date he joined up.)
The third man's war records did survive. Frederick Greenwood from Ive House signed up in October 1915.
The War records for the 35th name, James Holmes survived and we know he joined up 2 years later in June 1917. The last man to sign up was Arthur Robson.
Providence Methodist Church
The Roll of Honour from Providence Methodist Church in Midgley (which now resides in the Midgley Community Rooms.) has been for the first part done in Alphabetical order. The first name on this list is Louis John Ackroyd from Well House, Midgley. He joined up on 8th Dec 1915 aged 17 but is unlikely to be the first man to join up from this church.
The alphabetical section ends with Percy Allan Varley, perhaps these 29 men had already signed up by the time the church decided to start a Roll of Honour.
Subsequently this list of 29 alphabetic names was added to with 39 non alphabetical names, presumably these were then in the order that the men signed up?
You can see in the decoration around the border that the emblems of the Four Nations have been included, the Welsh Daffodil, the English Rose, the Irish Shamrock and the Scottish Thistle. The original colours are quite badly faded.
The names of the fallen soldiers on this Roll of Honour are indicated by a box drawn around the name.
Luddenden Dean Wesleyan Church
Many Rolls of Honour were later completely rewritten and often embellished, like this one from Luddenden Dean Wesleyan Church. This Roll of Honour's whereabouts is unknown and the photo quality is poor.
A Transcript of the names can be found here
It is not too clear on this image, but the four nation symbols (the Welsh Daffodil, the English Rose, the Irish Shamrock and the Scottish Thistle) are present again at the four corners, this time joined by a garland of laurel leaves, the symbol of Triumph.
A symbol has put against the names of the soldiers who lost their lives.
Some of these names appear on other local Rolls of Honour.
And it is clear that the calligraphy on this document is the work of the same person as the Luddenden Working Men's Club Roll of Honour.
Luddenden Working Men's Club
There is a story behind this particular Roll of Honour. The Original Working Men's Club was in the old Chapel at the bottom of Halifax Lane and when this closed, the Roll of Honour's whereabouts was unknown.
In 2007, it was spotted for sale on E Bay and was bought for £323 for the village by The Conservation Society and Luddenden Mayor's Fund. The other bids were more interested in the frame than in the Roll of Honour!
The layout is identical to the Luddenden Dean Roll of Honour and the national emblems and laurel is clearly visible with little colour fade. The names are is in alphabetical order, there are details of rank and regiment.
The fallen soldiers are identified with an asterisk.
We know that this one was written before 1922 as the last soldier to be commemorated on our war memorial, Harry Patrick third from bottom in the righthand column is not marked down as one of the fallen. He died on 23rd February 1922 after the Roll of honour had been finished.
This Roll of Honour now resides in The Lord Nelson Inn.
Luddendenfoot Working Men's Club
This Roll of Honour has been lost. On this memorial, the fallen soldiers are listed separately at the top.
Ebenezer Chapel
This chapel was at the bottom of Halifax Lane, now demolished. The Roll of Honour is engraved onto a marble slab and was probably originally mounted in a wooden Frame that hung inside the chapel. It currently resides in the Chapel graveyard, now a private garden.
Again, those who died are listed at the top of the memorial.
This stone memorial was completed at the end of the war and would have been a transcription of the original document.
Note that on this Roll of Honour, the date of the end of the war is 1919 and probably reflects the fact that one of the war dead died in 1919.
St James' Methodist Chapel
St James' Methodist Chapel is on High Street and has now been converted into private housing.
The Roll of Honour is kept at the Methodist Heritage Chapel in Ogden.
