The Lost Men of Bishopthorpe: First World War

As we proceed through the years 2014 to 2018, I intend to publish the names of the fallen from Bishopthorpe in both Link and Bishopthorpe dot net in the month which marked the centenary of their deaths.

As well as spending a few moments thinking of these men and their families, I hope that you find the details of some interest.

I decided some time ago that I should also include the names of men from Bishopthorpe who are not commemorated on the War Memorial, and Charles Simpson, who was born in Bishopthorpe, was the third such man to lose his life. He was also the first local man to die during the Battle of the Somme.

WILKINSON, George

Sapper, No. 138673, 118 Railway Company, Royal Engineers.
Killed in action, on 21 July, 1916, aged 26, near Calais.
Buried at Calais Southern Cemetery, Plot E, Row 2, Grave 10.

SIMPSON, Charles

Lance Corporal, No. 2335, 1/5 Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s Own).
Killed in action on 28 July, 1916, aged 22, during the Battle of the Somme in France.
Buried in Grave No. II K 7, Blighty Valley Cemetery, Authuille Wood, near Albert.

George Wilkinson and Charles Simpson were the first Bishopthorpe men to be killed in action since October, 1914.  The three men who had died in the intervening period perished as the result of accident or sickness.

Remember them.

Ken Haywood