War Memorial Project - News and Updates

Most of the research work for this project was completed in 2014 and 2015 but the project continues with new information and additions. We are very grateful to everyone who assists in any way possible. If you have any information please contact us.

Patterdale School Project

Newspaper Coverage

Tyne Cot Cemetery - Photo by Rob Shephard

Belgium Trip February 2018

Nov 2018 Centenary

November 2018 - The Centenary of the end of the First World War

To mark the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War we are aiming to complete a number of activities as part of the project. These include:

“Face to the Name” - we would like to find photos of the four brave men whose names are inscribed on our memorial but for whom we have no photographs. These are Driver John Slee and Private John Wilkinson from World War One and Corporal Frank Mallinson and Corporal William Carmichael Wilson from World War Two.

Creating a “Patterdale Parish Book of Remembrance” to be placed by the war memorial with details of the lives of each of the men listed

Installing a new artwork “John” on the site of the War Memorial

Please click the link below for more information on these activities.

Nov 2018 Update

November 2021 - Lockdown Updates

We try to keep the website updated with any new information that we are kindly provided by the relatives of those listed on the site. We apologise that sometimes this can take some time to be updated but a fringe benefit of Covid-19 (the only one?) is that we have had some more spare time to do additional updates and research. Two new updates this year

Pearl Engels (nee Jones) 1893 - 1944. We were sent information on Pearl and her family some time ago and have been able to do some research on the remarkable and tragic story of Pearl and her family. Pearl married a Belgian diplomat and was living in Brussels when the Germans invaded in 1940. She and her husband were involved in the resistance network helping allied servicemen, and were arrested by the Gestapo in January 1942. Tragically they both died in captivity, Pearl at Ravensbruck Concentration Camp in January 1944. Her father John, a Greenside Miner and ex-soldier fought in Egypt for Queen Victoria, and three of her brothers who also both fought in World War One. Find out more about Pearl and her family by clicking the links below.

John Jones Percy Jones John S Jones Bertram Jones Pearl Jones

John Wilkinson’s Death Penny

John was one of the local lads who sadly gave his life in World War One. We had researched his story back in 2014 but been unable to find many details as he had been born out of wedlock and seemed to have been disowned by his family. In the summer of 2021 local legend Jimmy Brown saw a strange object wedged between 2 stones in the bottom of beck on Deepdale Hall farm. On closer examination he realised that it was a “death penny”, issued to the families of all those soldiers who died in the First World War, and which had possibly been dropped into the beck by one of his cousins who farmed at Deepdale Hall over 100 years ago.

Find out more about John’s story and Jimmy’s remarkable find by clicking the link below.

John Wilkinson

Robert Brown and the Mystery Soldier

As well as thos who tragically died in the Wars, this site also commemorates those who fought and survived and appear on the Glenridding Village Hall Roll of Honour. Following contact from the grandson of Robert Brown in 2019 we have finally updated the site with the story of Robert, how he met his wife Hilda after she sent him an egg with her name and address on it when he was serving at the front, and how he tragically died in 1938. He also provided a story from his mother

“There is another tragic tale relating to a Glenridding soldier. My mother told us that one man (we think a relative, but aren’t sure) returned very badly disabled. To free his wife of the burden of having to look after him and to enable her to start a new life, he drowned himself in Lake Ullswater. That at least was the romantic version. Years later when our mother was elderly she told us the story again (perhaps forgetting she had already done so) and in this later version the man killed himself because his wife had left him. You may know more details.”

If you have any clues on who the mystery soldier might be please let us know…

Robert Brown

November 2023 - The Work Continues

We are still being contacted by relatives of those listed on the site and our determined researcher Norman Jackson is still looking into some of the stories generated. This year with the release of the 1921 Census records he finally solved the mystery of Miles Cooper.

Miles had seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth in 1915 having deserted whilst training in England, leaving a distraught wife and child in the Dale. In fact it appears he had met a new lady friend, married again, and continued to live in London with his new family until his death in 1946.