Great Ayton History Society
Notes on some of the men from Great Ayton who served in the Great War
Ernest Pearson (1893-1915)
1 Ernest's parents,
Ernest Pearson's father, Paul Pearson, was born in Great Ayton and worked as a whinstone miner. Ernest's grandfather was Born in Great Ayton and worked as a whinstone miner. Ernest's great grandfather was also born in the village and worked as a handloom weaver; this would have been in the declining days of the flax weaving industry in the village. So the Pearsons were very much a local family. Ernest's mother, Jane Constance Dixon, came from Lackenby and married Paul Pearson at Wilton parish church in 1889. Her family had come to Middlesbrough from Cumberland; her father seeking employment in the iron works.
After the marriage Paul and Jane lived for a few years with Paul's father in Mill Row, but later moved into their own house in Bridge Street, where they were at the time of the 1901 census. They had seven children, all born in Great Ayton. Tragically Ernest's mother died in 1910 at the age of 41, probably in childbirth. This left Paul Pearson to bring up the family with his youngest daughter only two years old.
By 1911 Paul Pearson, now a widower with seven children, was living in one of the newer village houses in Monkabecq. With his three older sons all working he could afford a housekeeper to take the place of Ernest's late mother. She was Mary Dixon from Lackenby, almost certainly a cousin of Jane, who had previously worked as a housemaid. By 1915 Paul Pearson had moved again, to Fairview (might be in Monkabecq?).
2 Ernest's younger days
Ernest grew up with his brothers and sisters:
Maurice Pearson, born 1892
Ernest Pearson, born 1893
Bertie Pearson, born 1897
Raymond Paul Pearson, born 1900
Lilian Pearson, born 1902
John Pearson, born 1905
Doris Mary Pearson, born 1907
The children all went to school in the village, to the British School in the High Street and then to Marwood School. They all would have left school at the age of 13 to find employment. By the time Ernest left school, in 1906, his elder brother Maurice was apprenticed to a house painter in the village. Maurice would go on to set up his own painting and decorating business based at his house, 28 Addison Road.
We know that Ernest was working as a horse driver in the Ayton (Monument) Mine at the time of the 1911 census. However, Ayton Mine only began operations late in 1908 and so it is likely that Ernest began his working life in one of the whinstone quarries, probably the quarry where his father was employed. Young boys usually started as knappers, shaping the whinstone into setts. This was arduous work, and when Ayton Mine began to recruit workers, a hopeful Ernest must have presented himself at the Mine Offices. He was taken on as a horse driver, responsible for taking empty waggons to the underground miners and taking out laden waggons. It was one of the lowest paid positions in the mine, but would have been relatively pleasant work. His brother Bertie began work as a whinstone breaker, probably in 1910, while Raymond joined Ernest at Ayton Mine in 1913.
3 Ernest enlists
Like so many young men, William was caught up in the wave of patriotic enthusiasm for King and Country in the months following the declaration of war. He enlisted at Stokesley, joining the 4th Battalion of Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own (Yorkshire Regiment) usually known as the Green Howards, as Private Ord 2470. The 4th Battalion was established at the start of the war as a territorial battalion to supplement the 1st Battalion of regular soldiers. A good number of Great Ayton men joined the 4th Battalion at this time, including several of Ernest's workmates at the mine.
The 4th Battalion underwent intensive training for the rest of 1914 and into 1915, based in the Newcastle area. On 17 April they left for Folkestone and arrived in Boulogne at 2:00am the following day. They joined up with other Battalions to form the 150th Brigade of the 50th (Northumbrian) Division and started the normal training for new recruits to the Western Front.
Their training was cut short by the German offensive on 22 April 1915 which became the Second Battle of Ypres. This German onslaught began with a release of chlorine gas along the north-east edge of the Ypres Salient, defended by French Colonial troops who were in some disarray. Canadian troops to the right of the French heroically prevented a German breakthrough, but it became imperative for British troops to push forward to fill gaps in the line. So Private Ernest Pearson and his fellow soldiers from Great Ayton were thrown into battle within a week of sailing from England.
4 Ernest's first experience of battle
The Battalion was taken by bus to Poperinghe, from where they marched to a camp near the front line. In the early hours of 24 April, in steady rain, they marched past gaping shell holes and broken-down wagons to arrive at the Yser Canal, near Ypres, just before dawn. Under German artillery fire they crossed the canal by pontoon bridge to meet up with the beleaguered Canadians, who had suffered a second chlorine gas attack. From here the 4th Battalion and the 4th East Yorkshires made a gallant attack which held up the German advance at St Julien. They suffered many fatalities, including Quarter Master Sergeant Frederick Barr from Nunthorpe who must have been well-known to the Ayton lads.
After their attack on St Julien the 4th Battalion had two days rest behind the front line, but were then sent to the trenches near Passchendaele. On the way they passed piles of dead animals and the utterly destroyed village of St Jean, reaching the front line at the end of April. During the following five days they lost many men.
5 A brief respite and then death in Battle of Bellewaerde
The Battalion then had a quiet few days in billets away from the front line, then into huts on the west side of Ypres, where they stayed until 23 May. They then moved up to the front line again, marching through Ypres, where many houses were on fire. Positions were taken up on the Menin Road, in an area known as Bellewaerde, with the 9th Lancers. During these first three weeks of May the German offensive reduced in intensity, but any thoughts of quieter times ahead were shattered at dawn on Whit Monday, 24 May. Artillery, machine gun and rifle fire rained down on Ernest Pearson and his colleagues, followed by a chlorine gas release. This heavy bombardment did not dislodge the Green Howards and 9th Lancers, but at a cost of 23 lives from the 4th Battalion, mainly from Middlesbrough and Cleveland. Private William Ord from Great Ayton was one of these fatalities, killed in action on 24 May 1915.
After the battle the Battalion began to arrive back at their huts, exhausted and suffering from the effects of the chlorine gas. They stayed in the huts, recovering from the battle, for the best part of two weeks. In a sad commentary on the poorly equipped British army, Second Lieutenant George Dawson from Middlesbrough appealed through a letter in the North Eastern Daily Gazette for donations to provide the Battalion with periscopes. They only had four periscopes to observe the enemy without exposing themselves to the deadly accurate German snipers, particularly important as they also lacked steel helmets.
On 6 June the 4th Battalion sent 150 men, everyone in the Battalion of about 600 men who was fit enough to move, to trenches in Sanctuary Wood. Although there were no German attacks over the next 2½ weeks, men continued to be lost through sniper fire, mortar bombs and grenades.
6 Moving south
The Battalion received orders on 16 June 1915 to move south from Ypres to the trenches opposite Messines and Wytschaete. This was quieter than the area around Ypres, but still subject to artillery, bomb, and rifle fire, with mining taking place under the trenches. After a week here the Battalion were relieved and taken to huts at Ouderdom, and then to billets at the village of Locre, nine miles behind the front line. Apart from a short spell of four days in trenches at Tea Farm, they remained at Locre until 8 August.
7 Armentières
The entire 50th Division, including the 4th Battalion Green Howards, now went to Armentières, no doubt singing a good few choruses of Mademoiselle from Armentières as they marched the ten miles south from Locre to Armentières. For a week Ernest Pearson and his fellow soldiers and NCOs enjoyed billets in the town and were even able to take a dip in a swimming pool. This brief respite ended on 16 August when the Battalion was sent to the trenches east of Armentières to relieve soldiers of the Durham Light Infantry. For the following three months they alternated between periods in the trenches and periods of relief back in Armentières. Although there were no formal battles during this time, 23 men of the 4th Battalion perished. They were killed by artillery shells, mortar bombs or sniper fire, some fell instantly, others died later from wounds.
It was during this period in the trenches at Armentières that Private Ernest Pearson was killed in action. The exact cause of his death is not known.
8 Remembering Private Ernest Pearson
Ernest is remembered on the War Memorial at Christ Church, Great Ayton.
He is recorded on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium to the 11,367 British and Empire missing soldiers who have no known grave.
Because he worked at the Ayton Mine Ernest Pearson is also commemorated on the Whitbread Bridge erected in 1919 by George Whitbread, under-manager at Ayton Mine, as a memorial to the five men from Ayton Mine killed in action.
Eleven Ayton men from the 4th Battalion Green Howards were killed in action:
William Ord, Ernest Pearson, Gilbert Rumbelow, Arthur Edward Wilkes (ironstone miner), Robert Theobald (ironstone miner), Richard Etherington, William Hindmarsh, Joseph Nicholls Baines (labourer at ironstone mine), William Cockerill, Harold Surtees, Charles Wildman.
Ernest Pearson, Robert Theobald, Arthur Wilkes and Charles Wildman all worked at Ayton Mine, Joseph Baines was a labourer at one of the other two mines.
Acknowledgements
Original research by George Heron, Ian Pearce, Dave and Ernie Taylor of the Great Ayton History Society.
George Pearson of Guisborough, Pearson family historian (Ernest Pearson has no known relations in the Great Ayton area)
References
Census returns, birth, death and marriage records, etc.
1/4th Battalion, Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment
Website at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bandl.danby/001BnIndex.html
Detailed diary of the activities of the Battalion during the Great War.
Glimpses of Monument Mine, Great Ayton 1908-1931
Richard Pepper
Cleveland Ironstone Series
Peter Tuffs, Guisborough, 1996
©Great Ayton History Society
12 September 2015