Sydney Bone ….. a story linking Withington with Salford and the Great War

I doubt we will ever be able to identify which of these men of the 5th Platoon of B Company, the 22nd Manchester’s is young Sidney Bone.

5th Platoon, B Company Seventh City Battalion

I know he will have been roughly 20 years old when the picture was taken, and he will have enlisted in late November 1914 in the Seventh City Battalion which was one of the Manchester Pals Regiments.

He lived on Hill Street in Withington and three years earlier gave his occupation as an office boy in a Bleach Works.

Now there were quite a few bleach works with offices in the city and the chances of identifying which one he worked for is slim.

Bronze Plaque, Private Sidney Bone, 1919

But I have seen Private Bone’s bronze Memorial plaque, which was one of 1,355,000 issued to commemorate those men and women who died of their wounds during the conflict.  It measures 122mm in diameter and depicts an image of Britannia holding a trident and standing beside a lion.  

Two dolphins swim around Britannia and a second lion appears at the bottom.

Each plaque carried the name of the dead servicemen, omitting any reference to rank, and with the inscription “He died for Freedom and Honour” which was changed to “She died for Freedom and Honour" for the 600 issued to commemorate women.

In all 1, 355,000 were made and they continued to be made into the 1930s.

And this is the clue that all did not go well for Private Bone.  The records show that he was discharged from the army on October 12th, 1917, and died in Broughton House of his wounds on November 2nd, 1920.

Just what those wounds were is impossible at this point to know, but Broughton House had been opened in 1916 to care for disabled servicemen who “through paralysis, wounds and amputations will never be able to follow any trade or occupation.  They must receive special care and constant attention which could not always be provided in their own home.  Most of these men will be entirely dependent on the ministrations of others, even more so than the ordinary home for incurables”*

It was hoped to be one of a number of homes for  “totally disabled soldiers and sailors belonging to the industrial districts of Lancashire and to be known as the East Lancashire Disabled Sailors’ and Soldiers’ Homes”.*

Broughton House, 1894

In response to an appeal made in Manchester in the September of 1916 a sum of £28,400 had been obtained towards the £100, 000 required, with plans for a series of Flag Days In December of that year to raise more money as well as an appeal through the churches..**

Broughton House was in Park Lane, Broughton Park and was set in 2½ acres of gardens. It was the former  home of the Sutton family, and consisted of 24 rooms along with extensive cellars.

It still exists today, continuing the work it began over a century ago evolving into “a dedicated charity and nursing home for veterans living their remaining years amongst friends and a team committed to serving all those who served us”.***

And that I thought was pretty much all there was, other than to record that Private Bone is buried in St Paul’s Church on Wilmlsow Road, along with three other servicemen.

Private Sidney Bone, 2020

But then I decided to ask Daniel Daly who lives in Withington to visit the church yard and locate and photograph the grave.

This he did adding that he "searched one side of the cemetery near St Paul's School, on the south east side of the Graveyard, and then started searching the north east side and sure enough there he was.

I cleared the foliage away from the grave and that of the air cadet and said a prayer and took photos
the grave headstone which sits against the boundary wall dividing the Rectory from church.

The other Airman is located on the South East back boundary wall in the church yard".

And I have to thank Daniel for turning out on a day when the weather was iffy, and returning with not one but three war graves.

All of which is a fitting end to the story and has brought Private Sidney Bone out of the shadows.

Location; Salford and Withington

Pictures; 5th Platoon of B Company, 7th City Battalion, the 22nd Manchester’s circa 1916 from Manchester City Battalions Book of Honour, 1916, the Bronze plaque of Private S Bone, from the collection of David Harrop, and Broughton House, Broughton Park, 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ and the gravestone of Private Bone, 2020, from the collection of Daniel Daly.

*Disabled Soldiers Progress of the East Lancashire Scheme, the Manchester Guardian, October 20, 1916

** Disabled Soldiers Homes for East Lancashire Men A Beginning at Broughton, Manchester Guardian October 12th, 1916

***Broughton House, https://www.broughtonhouse.com/about-us/

Brookfield House on the edge of Chorlton

This is Brookfield House and it is still there today, although it is a long time since it was a home.

It stands on the edge of Chorlton Park.  Now I can’t be sure of when it was built, but there are buildings on this site as early as 1750.  That said I suspect this one dates from the early 19th century.

In the 1840s it was the home of an accountant and later the doctor James Partington.

It was actually in the township of Withington as was Hough End Hall.

I am not sure when it passed into the ownership of the Corporation but I guess it will have been in the late 1920s when Chorlton Park was finished.

It is somewhere I have tried to get into but with no success, although I am reliably told that there is nothing left inside of the original building.

Picture; Brookfield House, circa 1913 from the Lloyd Collection

A history of Withington in 20 stories …....no. 6 ….. The Withington Four

The two world wars left  their impact across the country in damaged buildings, interrupted lives, and above all in the loss of loved ones.

The graves of Private Bone and Flight Cadet J. Barber, 2020

After the Great War, monuments were commissioned and paid for by local subscription to honour those who went and in particular those who never returned.

And with the end of the Second World War, the same communities added a second list of names.

Most of those who died on active service are buried where they fell, but some who died later from wounds they sustained in the fighting or from other causes were interred in private graves.

Such are the Withington Four who lie in St Paul’s Church on Wilmslow Road in Withington.

Sergeant J.G. Hammond, 2020

Three date from the Great War and the fourth died in 1945.

I came across them by chance, while researching the story of Private Sidney Bone, who grew up in Withington, enlisted in the Seventh City Brigade of the Manchester’s in the November of 1914 and died six year later of wounds he received at the Battle of the Somme.*

He is buried alongside the wall separating the church yard from the Rectory, and beside him is gravestone of J. Barber, “Flight Cadet”, who died on December 3rd, 1918.

And not far away are the graves of Private G.W. Andrews of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry who died on September 22nd, 1919 and Sergeant Joseph Geoffrey Hammond of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who died on January 2nd, 1945.

So far their stories are incomplete, and what there is is patchy, and needs mush more research.

I know that Sergeant Hamond was a wireless operator and was a member of No. 150 Squadron which in 1945  flew Lancaster bombers.

Flight Cadet J.H. Barber, 2020

Flight Cadet J. H. Barber  was with R.A.F. 5th Training Depot Station at Wyton in Cambrideshire, and his family lived on Cross  Street in Didsbury.

Which leaves G.W. Andrews who remains the most elusive of the four.  I know he was 27 when he died in 1919, and that his father is listed as Harry Andrews of Manchester, but apart from his regiment which was the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, that is it.

Not much I know for men who fought for the country and paid the ultimate sacrifice, but it is a start, and I have every confidence that their stories will be added to.




Location; Withington

Pictures;. gravestones of the Withington Four, from the collection of Daniel Daly

Private Sidney Bone of Withington ………… wounded in 1916, and buried in St Paul’s

Yesterday with the help of Kim I came across a bit more of the story of Private Sidney Bone, who lived in Withington, was wounded during the Battle of the Somme in July 1916, and was buried four years later in St Paul’s Church, in Withington.

Private Sidney Bone, 2020

I knew that he had enlisted in the November of 1914  in the 7th City Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, and as such was one of thousands of young men who volunteered in the first few months of the war.

The records show that he was discharged from the army on October 12th, 1917, and died in Broughton House of his wounds on November 2nd, 1920.

Broughton House had been opened in 1916 to care for disabled servicemen who “through paralysis, wounds and amputations will never be able to follow any trade or occupation.  They must receive special care and constant attention which could not always be provided in their own home.  Most of these men will be entirely dependent on the ministrations of others, even more so than the ordinary home for incurables”*

And that was pretty much it, other than he had described himself as an “Office boy for a Bleacher works” in 1911.

But at that time a search of firms connected with the textile industry listed in the Manchester City Battalions Book of Honour, 1916 drew a blank, and I reasoned he might have sustained his injuries at Third Battle of Ypres in 1917.

 Bronze Plaque, Private Sidney Bone, 1919

But his battalion had been transferred to Italy in the November of that year and given the fearsome treatment it had received a year earlier at the Battle of the Somme I rather doubted, their participation at Passchendaele.

Leaving me just to make a not that I should research the war diaries of the battalion.

And as so often happens a fresh bit of the story pooped up in the form of a comment from Kim McMahon-Thompson, who had discovered a newspaper clipping from the  Manchester Evening News Saturday July 15th  1916

"Dangerously wounded by shrapnel Private Sydney Bone of the Manchester Pals is in hospital at Rouen. 

He was employed by Messrs Latham & Wilson, Indian House, Whitworth Street. His parent live in Hill Street, Withington’”.

The news clipping placed Private Bone at the battle of the Somme which had begun in the July of 1916.

Wilson, Latham, & Co, Roll of Honour, 1916

The 7th Battalion were part of the attack on Fricourt, on the first day of fighting and received heavy casualties.

 Of the 796 men engaged on that day, 472 were casualties, and the battalion was withdrawn from the fighting on July 3.**

St Paul's Church, 894

So Private Bone will have received his dangerous shrapnel wounds during those first few days and will have been treated in a field hospital before arriving at Rouen on July 15th.

The same newspaper account offered up one other piece of information which was that  before enlisting in 1914. he had worked for Latham and Wilson.

A search of both the Roll of Honour and the directories revealed that Wilson, Latham and Co, were Merchants located on the First floor of India Houses on Whitworth Street.

I doubt I will ever know how many staff were employed by the firm, but the Roll of Honour records that eleven of them joined up, with five enlisting in the Manchester’s.

In the fullness of time I think I will go looking for all of the ten who left with Private Bone, but for now it is enough to have got a little closer to the young man who died at the young age of 24.



Pictures; gravestone of Private Bone, 2020, from the collection of Daniel Daly, Book of Honour, 1916, the Bronze plaque of Private S Bone, from the collection of David Harrop,Wilson, Latham, and Co Roll of Honour from The Book of Honour, 1916,  and St Paul's Church, Withington, 1894, from the OS map of South Lancashire, 1894, courtesy of Digital Archives Association, http://digitalarchives.co.uk/ 

Additional research, Kim McMahon-Thompson

*Disabled Soldiers Progress of the East Lancashire Scheme, the Manchester Guardian, October 20, 1916

**The Twenty Second Service Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, http://www.themanchesters.org/22th%20batt.htm

Summer days in south Manchester No 7 early morning on Wilmslow Road in the summer of 1914

This is one of those scenes which look familiar and so it should for anyone who knows that stretch of Wilmslow Road as it enters Withington village.

But of course because it is 1914 it is not as we would recognise it today.

The horse trough will soon vanish to start its journey around the district before becoming lost and then rediscovered.  Nor is the library there. 

In that summer of 1914 this site belonged to three rather impressive properties, which stood in a fair bit of land and whose gardens stretched back on to Wellington Road. The larger of the two had 11 and 13 rooms while the smallest just 8.

The walls and railings of the properties along with a large tree dominate the bottom right of our picture.

Now I rather fancy there will be a story to tell about what happened to the three houses, because in 1927 they have been demolished to be replaced by Withington Library.  But all that is for another time.

Picture; Wilmslow Road circa 1914, courtesy of Mark Fynn http://www.markfynn.com/manchester-postcards.htm

Looking for the story of Brookfield House on the edge of Chorlton Park

Brookfield House, 2014

Now over the last few months I have been reflecting on the fate of Hough End Hall and its future.

And occasionally I have also written about Brookfield house which stood directly opposite.

It stands on the edge of Chorlton Park.

Now I can’t be sure of when it was built, but there are buildings on this site as early as 1750.

Brookfield House, circa 1913

That said I suspect this one dates from the early 19th century.

In the 1840s it was the home of an accountant and later the doctor James Partington.

Strictly speaking it was actually in the township of Withington as was Hough End Hall.

I am not sure when it passed into the ownership of the Corporation but I guess it will have been in the late 1920s when Chorlton Park was finished.

Brookfield House today

It is somewhere I have tried to get into but with no success, although I am reliably told that there is nothing left inside of the original building.

The Corporation seemed vague about its history and I was surprised that part of it is still in residential use and perhaps at some time in the future I may be able to find out more.

Pictures; Brookfield House, circa 1913 from the Lloyd Collection, and the building today from the collection of Andrew Simpson

The Holly Hotel on Palatine Road ........... once a family home and now just a big space waiting for Dennis the developer

Here is a building I always passed by without a second glance.

The Peace Inn, 2014

It is the Peace Hotel, which was the Holly Hotel and before that just Holly House and it is on Palatine Road.

I say is because Andy Robertson’s picture was taken in March 2014 and when he recently drove past it had gone and prompting him to wonder “I’m sure there used to be a hotel here.”

Now as these pictures show there is just a huge gaping space with just that sign as a forlorn reminder of what once was here.

Holly House, 1974

And that led Andy to begin to dig deep into the history of the building.

There is a listing for it as Holly House in 1969 and “during the seventies it seems to have been run by the council to house homeless families.”

He has also uncovered some very unflattering reviews of the place when it was a hotel some of which I have to say are very amusing, but are perhaps now left in the shadows.

Its history before 1969 is as yet a closed book but I know that in 1911 it was the home of Mrs Albertina Christinia who was a widow, had been born in Denmark in 1837 and shared the 10 roomed house with her sister, two children, a “lady companion” and the cook.

A sign but no hotel, 2016

I will in time go back and visit the lady companion who was a Mrs Fanny Luis from Manchester who was also a widow and aged 45.

But for now I am more interested in the two children who were Susanna Maria aged 35 and George Peter who was 41.  Both had been born in Manchester Miss Raundrup in West Didsbury and Mr Raundrup in Withington.

He gave his occupation as an iron merchant and in 1911 he was listed in Salter’s Directory as Raundrup & Co, merchants and shippers with offices at 41 Grosvenor chambers 16 Deansgate.

And for those with a really nerdy interest Mr Raundrup conducted his business from the fourth floor of Grosvenor chambers which is on that stretch of Deansgate currently occupied by Harvey Nichols.

I have no idea how he made his way from home to work and back.

It may have been by tram or perhaps by train from the railway station on Lapwing Lane which would have taken him into Central Station.

This was the family business which may have been established by his father who was already living in Albert Park in Withington by 1870.

That big space, 2016

And that is about it.

I know that Mrs Albertina Christinia Raundrup died in 1920 and her son George Peter in 1945.

A search of the directories in Central Ref should reveal who owned or lived in Holly House in the years after 1911 which will I bet offer up more stories and these will sit beside the memories of the place as a hotel.

And once the memories come flooding in I will go and look up the future of that space at the Corporation’s online Planning site.

Location; Palatine Road.

Pictures, Holly House at various times in its history, 2014-2016 from the collection of Andy Robertson, and in 1974, m43454, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov.uk/index.php?session=pass

Wilmslow Road, a scene now lost to living memory

Wilmslow Road and wellington Road, 1910

This is another one of those pictures which has all but passed from living memory.

The photograph was taken in 1910 but the scene with the horse trough and the trees behind would be gone in just another seventeen years.

We are on Wilmslow Road in Withington looking up towards Fallowfield and Wellington Road is there on our left.

The water trough errected in 1876

The horse trough was moved in 1927 to a site opposite the White Lion before moving again to Copson Street and disappearing sometime in the late 70s or early 70s only to be discovered in Heald Green in 1985.

Behind those tall trees the large house which was still occupied as a private residence would become the post office and temporary library in December 1911.

It was demolished in 1925 to make way for the new purpose built Carnegie library.

This was to be the last of three built in Withington as part of the promise made when the four townships of Burnage, Chorlton, Didsbury and Withington voted to join the city in 1904.

Withington Library in 1959

It was opened in 1927 and has so dominated the corner of Wilmlsow Road and wellington Road that it is hard to imagine the scene captured by the photographer in 1910.

The new library had 11,000 books including a small techical section.  It was according to Councillor Davy the largest ofthe  three built in the old Withington Districy Council.

Looking towards the water trough circa 1914

Pictures;Wilmlsow Road, Chalmers, 1910, m41784, and the same spot in 1959, taken by J F Harris, m42554, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council and the horse trough today courtesy of JBS.

The horse trough today on Copson Street