Is your ancestor on roll of honour?

It can, at the same time, be both wonderful and sad, depending on the content.

And so it was for Joseph Ritson when a World War One memorial scroll for the Whitehaven Catholic Boys’ Brigade, listing 44 names, was given to him by the relatives of the late Miss Winifred Templeton.

Joseph, who has researched the part that local men played in the two world wars, had known about the memorial document for some time and been trying to locate a copy of it. Then one day, it fell into his lap.

Some of the casualties on the Cleator Moor Roll of Honour he had been researching during the last couple of years were members of this Whitehaven Boys’ Brigade.

Said Joseph: “The original document, which is now in a very fragile condition, has been donated to Whitehaven Records Office where they have an excellent conservation unit which can preserve old documents for posterity.’’

Of those named on the memorial card, 22 were still members of the Whitehaven Catholic Boy’s Brigade at the outbreak of the war, the others had been members within the last few years. They had all voluntarily joined the Forces.

Father Oswald Berkeley was the brigade chaplain of the time and had called for donations towards the erection of a memorial stone in St Begh’s Church to the memory of those who had fallen.

It was, he said “as a token of our gratitude to them and to their comrades in arms; and also that succeeding generations of our boys may know how they nobly answered the Call of Duty, and may be stimulated by their glorious example’’.

Information on the memorial document has enabled Joseph to expand the records he already has, for example he can now correctly identify the details for Private John Keogh DCM who was killed in action on May 19, 1918. There’s a different spelling of his surname and, though the Commonwealth War Graves Commission lists his parents as living at Chester-le-Street, Co Durham, after the war, the family had strong links with Cleator Moor. The memorial also tells us that he served with the 2nd Royal Irish Regiment.

The last of the 44 names on the Boys’ Brigade Memorial is that of Private Thomas Hall, 27th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers. Although he was born at Cleator Moor to Thomas and Mary Hall, his family later moved to 3 McGowan’s Court, Back Ginns, Whitehaven.

Private Hall was wounded on the Western Front, died in hospital at Aldershot and he was buried in Whitehaven Cemetery in November 1918.

The names on the memorial were originally compiled by Father Oswald who was assistant priest at St Begh’s Whitehaven for a number of years before World War One.

“There must be many local families who have relatives listed on this memorial,’’ says Joseph. “Father Berkeley was the Whitehaven Catholic Boys’ Brigade chaplain and I understand was also an Army chaplain for a time during the 1914-1918 war.

“Eventually, a Great War Memorial, commemorating Catholics from the Whitehaven area, was dedicated inside St Begh’s Church. Unfortunately, as with many World War One and World War Two memorial documents, a number of casualties were somehow missed off, and even missed off the larger memorial which can still be seen inside St Begh’s Church. Father Berkeley, who died in 1924, is however commemorated on the full St Begh’s Memorial.’’

Is your ancestor here? The Roll of Honour includes the following names:

JOHN STEPHENSON of the 2nd Border Regiment, who died at Neuve Chapelle, on March 12, 1915;

JAMES McKIE, 1st Border Regiment, Dardanelles, May 14, 1915;

JAMES JOHNSON, 2nd Border Regiment, Neuve Chapelle, May 16, 1915;

JAMES McFARLANE, 5th Border Regiment, Ypres, June 23, 1915;

WILLIAM MOORE McKENZIE, 5th Border Regiment, at Zillebeke, near Ypres, January 10, 1916;

RICHARD TORRENS, 5th Border Regiment, St Eloy, near Ypres April 14, 1916.

THOMAS McGLENNON, 8th Seaforth Highlanders, Vermelles, near Lens, May 19, 1916;

PETER TONER, 29th Northumberland Fusiliers, near Conatlmaison, July 1, 1916;

JOHN McCLUSKEY, 11th Border Regiment , Thiepval (Somme), July 1, 1916;

WILLIAM CAMPBELL, 1st Border Regiment, the Somme, July 9, 1916;

Lance-Corp HENRY SMITH, 5th Border Regiment, the Somme, July 14, 1916;

JOHN LAMB, 2nd Border Regiment, near Albert, August 5, 1916;

JOHN GRAHAM, 9th Northumberland Fusiliers, at Mametz, near Albert, August 8, 1916;

WILLIAM ROONEY, 18th Lancashire Fusiliers, the Somme, August 13, 1916;

ROBERT McGREAVY, 5th Border Regiment, at Martinpuich, nr Bapaume, September 16, 1916.

JOSEPH KENNETT, 8th Border Regiment, near Cambrai, October 24, 1916;

THOMAS MASON, 1st Connaught Rangers, near Kut-el-Amara, Mesopotamia, January 16, 1917;

STEPHEN LEWIS, 7th Royal Scots Fusiliers, France April 10, 1917;

Sgt FREDERICK MOURNING, 7th Border Regiment, Monchy Rd, nr Arras, April 23, 1917;

JOHN DENVIR, 10th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, Monchy Rd, nr Arras, April 1917;

JOSEPH MARSHALL, 11th Border Regiment, at Nieuport, July 10, 1917;

Sgt ROBERT ROONEY, 6th Border Regiment, near Ypres, July 24, 1917;

ALEXANDER BRANNON, 6th Seaforth Highlanders, nearYpres, July 31, 1917;

JOHN JOSEPH COYLES, 7th King’s Own (R.L.) Regiment, La Clytte, Belgium, August 3, 1917;

JOHN O’SHAUGHNESSY, 6th Seaforth Highlanders, France, August 31, 1917;

ROBERT McSHERRY, 6th Border Regiment, France, October 9, 1917;

Sgt BERNARD DENVIR, 526th Battery, RFA, at Hooge, near Ypres, October 19, 1917.

ROBERT CURWEN, 4th Tr. Mortar Btty, RFA, near Arras, December 5, 1917;

BOLTON PATTERSON, 8th Northumberland Fusiliers DOW received at Loos, February 1, 1918;

FRANCIS McGUIRK, 5th Border Regiment near Harbonniers (Somme), March 28, 1918;

FRANCIS O’CONOR, 29th Northumberland Fusiliers, Flanders, April 11, 1918;

HILTON DONNELLY, 6th King’s (Liverpool) Regiment, wounded Givenchy, died Etaples, April 15t, 1918;

JOHN LONG, 15th Cheshire Regiment, France, April 23, 1918;

JOHN KEOGH DCM, Royal Irish Regiment, France, May 19, 1918;

Cpl JOHN TODD DCM, 5th Border Regiment, Berles-au-Bois, nr Arras, May 23, 1918;

Cpl WILLIAM ATKINSON, 7th Seaforth Highlanders, Belgium, June 22, 1918;

CSM PETER McKEATING, 5th Border Regiment, Estrees (Somme) August 10, 1918.

DANIEL FLINN 7th East Yorkshire Regiment, Gouzencourt, September 18, 1918;

CHRISTOPHER HANLON, 7th East Yorkshire Regiment, Gouzencourt, September 18, 1918;

JAMES O'NEILL, 7th East Yorkshire Regiment, wounded Gouzencourt, died Abbeville, September 24, 1918;

HUGH LONG, 4th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, Martinpuich, September 30, 1918;

FRANCIS SIGNORETTI, 50th Tr. Mortar Btty, RFA, POW died at Glageon, October 1, 1918;

ARTHUR McARDLE, 2nd Lincolnshire Regiment, near Mons, October 25, 1918;

THOMAS HALL, 29th Northumberland Fusiliers, wounded Albert, died at Aldershot, November 3, 1918.

OUR story about Company Sergeant Major Tommy Aitken and the finding of his wartime grave in France sparked new interest about 2nd Lieut Rowland Baxter, also of the 5th Battalion Border Regiment, who served alongside Tommy and was killed by the same German shell in 1916.

Tommy was 48; Rowland was just 19.

Rowland Percival Baxter is one of the casualties of war listed on the Cleator Moor Roll of Honour, which is being researched by Joseph Ritson.

Lt Baxter was a mining engineer and an Old St Beghian (an old boy of St Bees School) and has no known grave. Like Tommy, he is commemorated on the Thiepval memorial, and also the war memorial at Egremont and at St John’s Church, Cleator Moor.

Mr Ritson told us: “After John Brotherston’s research discovered where CSM Aitken is buried, I feel there is a possibility Lt Baxter’s remains were also interred in the same cemetery, assuming they were recovered by the burial parties.

“It seems Mr Brotherston may well have identified Lt Baxter’s actual grave as well. There is one Border Regt 2nd Lt (currently unidentified) nearby to CSM Aitken’s grave.

“The Commonwealth War Graves Commission would need to be convinced Lt Baxter was the only casualty this could be, for them to change their records. But at least there is a chance they may consider it.’’

Rowland Baxter was the son of James and Mary Baxter (née Lowry). His father, James Dawson Baxter was a partner in Chapman & Baxter Solicitors of Whitehaven.

Rowland, named after his grandfather, a Yorkshire-born accountant who married a Cleator lass, was born at 25 Crossfield Road, Cleator Moor, in 1896 and later moved with his family to Cross Side House, Egremont.

He was one of six children and educated at Cleator Moor School, Bookwell School, Egremont, and at St Bees public school.

It is thought he had passed a preliminary law exam and may have been intending to follow his father into a legal career, although he had also received training in mine engineering.

Whichever, he got the chance to follow neither career path, cut down in his prime like the rest of his generation in World War One.