Now it is odd how a chance purchase in an antique show room in York leads a story but that is what we have with this brass plaque commemorating the members of the Clifton Cycle Cub who fought in the Great War.
It was bought by my old friend David Harrop who tells me that today is the anniversary of the death of Lord Helmsley who was the President of the club and who died on the Western Front during the war.
The club was formed in 1895 at the Old Grey Mare on Clifton Green in York and is still going today.
Like many organisations at the end of the Great War the club created a Roll of Honour in remembrance of those members who had participated in the conflict.
It is a simple and elegant brass plaque with the club crest, which records the names of members including
Lord Helmsley who was killed on the Western Front in 1916 aged 37.
For many years it had a place of honour in the Old Grey Mare, was later removed by a club member and eventually turned up at auction in York and was bought by my old friend David Harrop who has included it in his permanent exhibition of memorabilia from two world wars in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern
Cemetery.
Its chequered history highlights the plight of many such Rolls of Honour.
Most are still intact and remain in situ where they were first placed.
But others have been lost, stolen or mislaid and so I am pleased that this one is back on public display and the names of the Clifton Four can come back out of the shadows.
The brass plaque on display, 2015
Of these of course Lord Helmsley’s will be well known and his political, military and personal life are relatively easy to track down.
Less easy will be those of Harold Hiscoe, Robert Wilson Hope, and L Johnson.
Mr Johnson has so far drawn a blank but I know that Mr Hope of the Royal Field Artillery died on September 23 1917 and Harold Hiscoe on March 27 1918.
And of these last two it is Harold Hiscoe which has revealed the most.
He was born in 1888 in Ripponden and in 1911 was working in York managing a butcher’s shop and living in a boarding house on St Savioursgate.
It was a tall terraced property consisting of eleven rooms and was home to Mrs Buckle, five of her children, Harold and three other boarders. St Savoursgate is one of those very narrow York streets running from Collergate to the corner of Spen Lane and St Saviours Place.
If I have got this right Mrs Buckle’s house which was number 15 was opposite the church but sadly it has gone and is now a car park.
Picture; Clifton Cycle Club’s Roll of Honour, from the collection of David Harrop
The club was formed in 1895 at the Old Grey Mare on Clifton Green in York and is still going today.
Like many organisations at the end of the Great War the club created a Roll of Honour in remembrance of those members who had participated in the conflict.
It is a simple and elegant brass plaque with the club crest, which records the names of members including
Lord Helmsley who was killed on the Western Front in 1916 aged 37.
For many years it had a place of honour in the Old Grey Mare, was later removed by a club member and eventually turned up at auction in York and was bought by my old friend David Harrop who has included it in his permanent exhibition of memorabilia from two world wars in the Remembrance Lodge at Southern
Cemetery.
Its chequered history highlights the plight of many such Rolls of Honour.
Most are still intact and remain in situ where they were first placed.
But others have been lost, stolen or mislaid and so I am pleased that this one is back on public display and the names of the Clifton Four can come back out of the shadows.
The brass plaque on display, 2015
Of these of course Lord Helmsley’s will be well known and his political, military and personal life are relatively easy to track down.
Less easy will be those of Harold Hiscoe, Robert Wilson Hope, and L Johnson.
Mr Johnson has so far drawn a blank but I know that Mr Hope of the Royal Field Artillery died on September 23 1917 and Harold Hiscoe on March 27 1918.
And of these last two it is Harold Hiscoe which has revealed the most.
He was born in 1888 in Ripponden and in 1911 was working in York managing a butcher’s shop and living in a boarding house on St Savioursgate.
It was a tall terraced property consisting of eleven rooms and was home to Mrs Buckle, five of her children, Harold and three other boarders. St Savoursgate is one of those very narrow York streets running from Collergate to the corner of Spen Lane and St Saviours Place.
If I have got this right Mrs Buckle’s house which was number 15 was opposite the church but sadly it has gone and is now a car park.
Picture; Clifton Cycle Club’s Roll of Honour, from the collection of David Harrop
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