This is the Roll of Honour from Zion Church in the village of Ripponden, near Halifax.  It was produced in 1917, probably as part of the wartime fundraising, but also to honour all the men in the village who were serving soldiers.  Of the 91 men on this list, at this time 10 had already been killed, and one is a prisoner of war.  This simple piece of cloth has many stories to tell.

 

I visited Ripponden frequently as a child and I remember that Willie Hay, Arthur Simpson and Harry Farrar all lived on Pleasant Row near the centre of the village. Harry was my uncle.

 

At this time 1917, Harry had only just enlisted.  He's barely 18 and he'd been sent to a training camp, leaving behind parents, three sisters and a brother.  Two of his sisters are close to him in age - one a year older the other a year younger.  They've grown up together in a small cottage home.  They will know about the war from reports in the local paper.  They'll have taken part in fund-raising activities run by the mill where they worked, those run by local newspapers, and those run by local churches.  How did they feel now that their brother is at war?

 

Annie is the baker.  Does she send him cakes?  Hannah is the knitter - does she knit him socks or a pullover?  Did they write to him?  Did he write back?  I don't know, I found no letters.

 

One year later, Harry is sent to France.  On that very weekend a concert and dance was held in the Victoria Hall, in Ripponden, organised by one of the local mills.  Did Annie and Hannah go to the dance?  Would they feel guilty about enjoying themselves when Harry wasn't?  Would they feel a little better because the money being raised was going to soldiers' funds?

 

Thankfully, Harry came back from the war, married and I remember him as a quiet and reserved man.  Annie and Hannah never married, lived together in the faimly home.  They spoiled me rotten when I was a child but they never talked about this time in 1917 so I'll never know how they felt.