The Dowson Parkin Connection

Ria's Christmas Card

2011-12-27T14:19:00.001-08:00

We received a very nice Christmas card, bringing family who were related in the past back together again once more. Reunited genes and hopefully this will please The Ancestors. See video for full details.

It is a lovely breath of fresh air to come across distant cousins who take the time and trouble to want to bridge the gap of ages. Of course, some people just want to add another notch to their family tree, but that tree is not moving and speaking in the same way that newly discovered family does.

The Tree Of Life is the moving, speaking tree of those relatives sharing information and stories of their branch of the family in friendship.

The Eternal Flame of Remembrance

2011-11-13T18:56:00.000-08:00

Early in the morning on Remembrance Sunday we held our own Remembrance Ceremony for all our ancestors and their friends who had passed over as a result of wars. We remembered Gunner Fred Barraclough and Private George Dowson among them. Fred and George's names are both carved in stone on the Cenotaph in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire.

But a million paper poppies and stone monuments will not right the wrongs done by governments to these men or to the families left behind. At the end of the day, it is world government corruption and mismanagement that causes wars to happen. Families have been robbed due the greed and need for even more power by those allowed to control the nations of the world past and present. This is not glory it is sadness.

Dr Dorothy Parkin, Arthur Barraclough's Cousin

2010-08-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

Dorothy Parkin was the cousin of Arthur Barraclough. Her father worked in the UK Government Patent Office and received an OBE. Dr Parkin's specialist subject was researching blood disorders and it is for this reason she is still remembered to this day. A bursary award is partially named after Dr Parkin, along with others.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL BLOOD GROUP REFERENCE LABORATORY

Alice Dowson Oliver, Richard Oliver, Kathleen Vermeulen and Margaret Mullany, Family Connections of Cleckheaton and Huddersfield

2010-01-03T10:12:00.001-08:00

Alice Dowson was one of the sisters of Mary Dowson who became Mary Barraclough. The Dowson children had been born in Worksop, Nottingham, but moved to Cleckheaton, Kirklees, West Yorkhire early in the 20th century. Many of the Barraclough family came from the Kirklees area (Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Cleckheaton and other nearby towns) and had lived in the area for a very long time.

Eliza Louisa Dowson and her daughter Mary Barrraclough are both buried in the churchyard at Cleckheaton in West Yorkshire. The family connections to Spenborough and Huddersfield go back over 150 years without doing any genealogy tracing at all.

Alice Dowson married a Huddersfield solicitor, Mr Oliver and had three children, who were cousins of Arthur Barraclough. These children were Richard Oliver, who became an RAF pilot and who's plane went missing in World War Two, G.I. Bride Kathleen Oliver who married French Canadian Mr Vermeulen and went to live in Canada and Margaret Oliver, the youngest, who married Mr Mullany of Huddersfield and went on to have seven children some of whom were twins. Alice Oliver and her family lived in Huddersfield and were regularly visited by the Barracloughs.

Margaret Mullany left her husband who was in the Civil Service, when one set of twins were around 13 years old. This was because she did not like the fact that he was a devout Catholic and she felt very strongly that she did not want follow his Catholicism any longer. Margaret Mullany, after leaving her husband and children, went to work as a secretary in London for a university professor, before returning to her very forgiving family in Huddersfield, some considerable years later, in old age and living with one of her sons. One of her daughters lives in Spain, but many members of her family, even her husbands relations, still live in Huddersfield and have thoroughly forgiven her for walking out on them all.

Barraclough Almanac

Johanna Barraclough, Louisa Barraclough, Joyce Herity, Pamela Beck, Daniel Beck and David Beck

2009-12-14T20:20:00.000-08:00

The photo shows Johanna Barraclough (later Wadsworth), Louisa Barraclough, Joyce Herity their maternal grandmother, Daniel Beck, Pamela Beck (nee Herity )and David Beck, taken on July 5th 1982.
David Beck was related to Caroline Beck and Heaton entrepreneur, Geoff Cobb, the family came from Lynfield Drive, Haworth Road, Bradford, a Heaton council estate. David Beck worked for 'Double Two' and was a keen footballer, but a kidney problem put him out of action. In the summer of 1977, Bradford pop band Smokie made a presentation to David Beck at the Chellow Grange public House, Chellow Grange Road, Bradford BD9. The Becks also married at Idle parish Church and went to live in a house in Baildon, near Shipley, West Yorkshire, once owned by a former famous cricketer.

Louisa Barraclough, Johanna Wadsworth, Peter Barraclough, Susan Barraclough and Sean Herity

2009-12-14T17:45:00.001-08:00

These blogs are for lovers of genealogy only and they interlink, so there may be further genealogy information on corresponding blogs or websites. There is more information about Peter Vivian Barraclough, November 1946 - July 2004, on the Pighills Barraclough Connection,(see link). Peter's two best friends when at Belle Vue School Bradford, where he became deputy head boy, were David Philips who apparently now lives in the Grassington area and Richard Johnson.

In January 1971, Peter Barraclough married Susan Penelope Herity of Westfield Grove, Idle, Bradford, at Idle Parish Church. They had two children, Johanna Elizabeth Barraclough (born July 1975), who later became Johanna Wadsworth, of Fulham, London, and Louisa Jane Barraclough (born March 1978).

Susan Herity (born December 1948) was an audiology technician at Bradford Royal Infirmary as well as working as a waitress at famous fish and chip restaurant, Harry Ramsdens, at Guiseley, near Leeds. Her sister was Pamela Christine Herity an insurance clerk who became Mrs David Beck and lived in Baildon, West Yorkshire.

Her younger brother, Sean Herity, married a lady from Saffron Walden, but the marriage did not last, Sean returned to Bradford and lived in a flat on Thorpe Edge housing estate and at one stage he was jailed for offences connected with his ex wife. On another occasion he worked as a taxi driver whilst signing on and, by a stroke of bad luck on his part, picked up the employment officer he signed on with, in his taxi, as he was quite a character. He later returned to the family home in Heysham, Morecambe, together with his wife, Julie. Julie used to work at Hammonds Sauce factory in Apperley Bridge, near Bradford. Now an aspiring Angler, Sean recently intervened in a local UFO sighting debate, providing a local newspaper with information regarding a UFO mystery in Morecambe;

'Another explanation for the sightings comes from keen local fisherman, Sean Herity, who called to say that he'd often heard other anglers pointing out strange lights in the sky which turned out to be gulls.' - 'UFO mystery solved in Morecambe' - Lakeland Echo (January 14, 2009)

Susan Herity was Head Girl of her secondary school but left without taking any 'O' levels (the old equivalent to GCSE's), however she did very well in later life. On marriage, Peter and Susan Barraclough lived at 55 Knightswood Towers off Springmill Street, West Bowling, in Bradford. This was a high rise council tower block, now demolished. They moved because of the snobbery associated with living in council accommodation which sadly still exists. They moved to Shakespeare Avenue, Rayleigh, Essex and spent some time with relatives in Heysham, Lancashire, before moving to Winderemere, Lake district, with Peter Barraclough's job as an HEO in the Customs and Excise, Kendal Office.

The Walker Hornshaw Connection

The Pighills Barraclough Connection

Louisa Barraclough - Fidget Design

Susan Barraclough - North West Evening Mail - Help for the deaf

Barraclough Almanac

Commedia dell'Arte

2009-03-31T23:36:00.000-07:00

It was said that a branch of the family had Gypsy blood and were directly related to gypsies. This lost the writer a job at a car auction company in the days when people could get away with discrimination. The particular family branch has yet to be fully researched, but the fanily can apparently trace themselves in one branch back to performers in the original Commedia dell'Arte times.

Peter Barraclough acted in the Baildon Players, the Windermere Players and the Ambelside Players, receiving good reviews in the local papers though some critics suggested him prone to overacting his part.

Outrageous, Embarrassing, Sad and Funny Moments

2009-03-31T23:35:00.001-07:00

The stuff here relates to all the other 'connections' too. Its just easier to put it in one place.

Mary Barraclough, who was known to her friends as 'Marie' used to mix with the theatre crowd. Many of her friends were actors, singers and stage performers. In those days they would often meet in the Old Crown public house in Ivegate Bradford. Mary, even in later life, was a flamboyantly dressed, eye catching lady. When applying for a job at 60 (the then legal age for women to stop work), she pretended to be 48. She got away with it, until the tax office informed the company of her real age and then she was asked to leave.

On another occasion, in the centre of Bradford, for some reason or another, a policeman was rude to Mary. Feeling disrespected, she hit the policeman with a loaf of bread, knocking his helmet off. Peter Barraclough was out in town with his friends. he witnessed his grandmother being taken off by the police and pretended he did not know her. The police later saw the funny side and Mary got off with a caution.

Peter Barraclough loved climbing, as a teenager, on to roofs and up trees. he fell off the roof of Belle Vue boys School on Thorn Lane Bradford and also out of several high trees. He even took the writer as a small child on to a building site, up a gangplank and all over a partially built property. The nurses at Bradford Royal Infirmary casualty knew him by by name as at one time he was in there so much. He fell on his head and got concussion on a number of occasions.

Arthur Barraclough and a friend once fell in to Lister Park (Manningham Park) lake. they went out in a rowing boat and somehow fell in, back in the 1930's.

Doris Richardson (later Walker), once fell in the Chellow Dean Reservoir Bradford, near the fountain. she was on a school walk from St Josephs College, Cunliffe Road, around 1910, was messing around with friends and fell in. Luckily she was a good swimmer and did not get caught up in the quicksand-like mud around Chellow Dean. The teachers got her out.

It is chillingly like what happened to Thomas Hornshaw, another relative, of Whynns Farm,Thorpe Arch, who fell in to the river Wharfe in 1884 although he drowned.

Arthur Barraclough was also a biker as a young man and himself and friends would race on motorbikes on a Saturday, from Bradford to the Red Lion Inn at Burnsall, near Bolton Abbey to see which one would could get there first.

Nicholas Pighills once kept a Panther motorbike in his living room and his bathroom was in an outhouse outside. He was a folk singer and played guitar. One of his favourite songs was 'Yellow Bird'. He was also an artist and in later life is an architect.

Nicholas Pighills once chased a bull on his motorbike that had escaped from a farmers field near Hallow Bank Kentmere Cumbria (Lake district) in his hippy days. He also drove an old red ex-post office van.

When Peter Barraclough and his wife lived at Fyfe Grove, Baildon, Shipley, West Yorkshire, they both went to work on motorbikes. Peter Barraclough kept his bike for a long time even after moving to the Lake District. Jack Richardson Walker also owned a motor bike as a younger man.

Peter Barraclough bought and sold cars when he was in his teens and early 20's. He had at least three cars at any one time which he would do up and sell. One of his newly purchased cars that he took to Inverness, Scotland packed in completely and he could not bring it home.

Peter Barraclough had a car at 17 which he drove to school, a few hundred yards down the road, probably to show off! He managed to put the writer off driving cars as Peter never stopped talking about them. In the 1960's, Peter Barraclough and about 4 other friends rented a one bed flat in Kings Road, Chelsea, London. One person slept in the bath and others on the floor just to have the address. They also hung out in Carnaby Street,

The writer bought a pair of flat, gold 'Colonel Kleb' shoes (from Russia With Love - James Bond) from a shop in Kings Road, Chelsea, and won a number of disco dancing competitions whilst wearing them (flat gold heavy 'sensible' shoes with white laces).

The Walker Hornshaw Connection

The Pighills Barraclough Connection

Whatever Happened To Peter Barraclough?

2009-03-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

Peter Vivian Barraclough was born in November 1946, the son of Arthur Barraclough and Sheila Walker Barraclough. Both Arthur and Sheila Barraclough had been in the RAF during World War II. When Arthur was demobbed from the RAF the family moved into a 'prefab' (prefabricated housing built for former members of the forces at the end of the war in 1945), in Ravenscliffe, Bradford, near New Line in Greengates.

Shelia already had a young daughter in 1944, the child resulting from an unfortunate sexual offence committed by an American airman, William Foggerty of Pennsylvania, USA. This attack caused Sheila to have to leave the RAF early, but Arthur Barraclough took on the child as his own with her becoming to all intents and purposes, his daughter. The circumstances were that Sheila had been at an RAF posting in the area of Epping Forest, near London, early in 1944, when she had accepted a lift one evening from American GI Mr Foggerty. Mr Foggerty had stopped his military jeep and raped Shelia Barraclough, who was a married woman, in Epping Forest. Sheila was very traumatised and discovered she was pregnant from the assault. Her husband, Arthur Barraclough, was still serving abroad with the RAF at this time.

In case Arthur Barraclough had refused to accept the child, the Walkers, Doris and Charles, (The Walker Hornshaw Connection) had included this child in their will. As a Catholic, abortion was out of the question to Shelia.

The two young children, this first daughter born in 1944 and Peter, born in 1946, were extremely close, more like twins than children born two years apart. They looked out for each other and never really accepted the existence of a third child, born much later, when they were teenagers, the second natural child of Arthur Barraclough and Sheila Walker, Peter Barraclough's only true biological sister.

When Sheila Walker Barraclough died due largely to having motor neurone disease in December 1989, Peter Barraclough and his half sister, along with his wife, did their best to expel Arthur Barraclough's only daughter from the remaining family. Jack Richardson Walker died in December 2002, an old man born in 1914 and former employee of Lister's Mill in a management position, of Oakdale Avenue, Wibsey, Bradford. Peter Barraclough's sister was not informed of her uncle's death.

In 2003 it was found Peter Barraclough had a brain tumour. In October 2003 he had an operation on this tumour. In December 2003 a party including, Peter Barraclough,(after having undergone major surgery) his wife, Susan Barraclough, their eldest daughter, bank worker Johanna Wadsworth (acting as executor) a solicitor friend from Hayton Winkley solicitors, of Crescent Road, Winderemere, acting for them and Elizabeth Hammill, Peter's half sister, arrived at the Bradford Royal Infirmary bedside of Margaret (Peggy) Walker, Jack Richardson Walker's wife. This very old woman was ill in hospital. With a nursing sister acting as witness, they forced Margaret Walker to sign a will leaving her house at Oakdale Avenue, Wibsey, to Peter Barraclough. In the event of his death the house was to go to Susan Barraclough, Morecambe Bay's senior audiologist and Peter's wife. A large share of money was to go to Peter Barraclough's half sister, Elizabeth Hammill.

The exercise was a deliberate act to make sure that Peter Barraclough's real sister and also her two cousins, one from Kentmere and one from Kendal, got nothing. Peter's deteriorating physical health had lead to mental health problems that impaired his rationale. If Jack Richardson Walker had wished this then he himself would have made a will in this way.

In May 2004, Margaret (Peggy) Walker, Jack Richardson Walker's wife, died after a fall down the stairs at her home in Oakdale Avenue, Bradford, she was an elderly lady in her late 80's.

On July 4, 2004, Peter Vivian Barraclough died in hospital. He got out of his hospital bed to go to the toilet, collapsed and died. He was 57. Although religious in his earlier life, indeed he had considered becoming a vicar, Peter Barraclough was cremated.

Peter Barraclough started married life in 1971, marrying at Idle Parish Church, Idle, Bradford, living at 55 Knightswood Towers, Springmill Street, West Bowling, Bradford, a council tower block of flats (now demolished). He then bought a house at Shakespeare Avenue, Rayleigh, Essex. At 26 he bought the house now pictured at Fyfe Grove, Baildon, Shipley. In 1983, he moved to Windermere Park, Windermere Cumbria.

Peter Barraclough was an HEO (Higher Executive offcier) in the UK Customs and Excise. He worked in taxes and also the Investigation Division also known as the Investigation Bureau and by various other names these days, in Leeds and London before moving to the Kendal office where his uncle Ronald Pighills had also worked for the Customs and Excise.

Peter Barraclough was a member of Baildon Round Table. He was good friends with Willie Clark of the notorious T & W H Clark (Holdings Ltd.) of Canal Road, Bradford and was secretary of Baildon Round Table in 1980.

Louise Parkin writes to Manningham

2009-03-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

On 12th September, 1923, Arthur Barraclough's Aunty Louie (Louise Dowson Parkin), wrote to him at 1 Grosvenor Road, Manningham, Bradford (now demolished, the houses start at number 5 these days). The baby in the photo, Dorothy Parkin, Arthur's cousin, grew up to be a doctor and hospital consultant, specialising in blood disorders. She married Ernest Casberry, also a doctor and both husband and wife went to work at hospitals in the Newcastle area. Dorothy died in her 50's of a blood disorder.

Louise Parkin's husband received an OBE and there was obviously enough money around for their daughter to train as a doctor. However, Arthur was soon to move with his mother to the then newly built council estate at Lower Grange, Allerton, Bradford around the mid 1920s, where they lived on Arthur Avenue. The family has the dubious accolade, if you can call it that, to being one of the first families ever to set foot on Allerton/Lower Grange Estate soil and one of the first families ever to live there. This was largely due to Arthur Barraclough's mother being an unsupported lone parent and war widow. Arthur and his mother Mary later moved to Lynfield Drive, near Heights Lane, Bradford 9, again, one of the first families ever to live on the Haworth Road Estate, where Arthur Barraclough resided until April 1940 when he married Sheila Walker of Duchy Drive, Heaton, Bradford 9.

We are still proud of this part of our heritage.

Peter, Hannah and Breaks Barraclough

2009-03-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

12 Clayton Lane, Bradford 14 (centre image)

Peter Barraclough was born in Wibsey, Bradford, Yorkshire in 1821. He married a girl called Hannah. Breaks Barraclough was the son of Peter and Hannah Barraclough. He was born in Wibsey, Bradford, Yorkshire in 1842. By the age of 60, in 1881, Peter Barraclough lived at 12, Clayton Lane, Clayton, Bradford. He was a woolcomber.

In 1913, Breaks Barraclough lived at Highfield House, Ramsden Street Littletown Liversedge (now demolished). His profession is listed as 'War Dresser'. He supplied material for military uniforms and also sold cloth. His son, Fred Barraclough was 24 at the time of his marriage to Mary Dowson in 1913. They married at St John's Parish Church, Cleckheaton. Fred worked as a travelling salesman for his father's drapery business.

One of the Barraclough relatives had emigrated to Australia. There were also other Barraclough relatives, an uncle Victor and an uncle Vernon.

Fred Barraclough and his wife Mary began married life in 1913, at 45 Brook Street, Cleckheaton, Yorkshire, in the Kirklees District, now governed from Huddersfield. The family has very strong roots in the Kirklees area, dating back to the 19th Century. The Barraclough family's roots in Bradford can at the time of writing be traced back almost 200 years.

Also in 1913, Arthur Barraclough was born at 45 Brook Street, Cleckheaton, Kirklees, in the Spenborough area.

In 1914, World War I began. Fred Barraclough became a heavy artillery (heavy battery) gunner, in charge of a huge wheeled, horse drawn cannon. The 'big guns', one of the most dangerous military positions in the war.

The Heavy Batteries of the Royal Garrison Artillery (courtesy www.1914-1918.net)

On August 2, 1918, just over three months before the end of the war, Fred Barraclough was killed in Salonika (now Thessaloniki) Greece. Gunner Barraclough, the writer's grandfather, is buried in the Karasouli Military Cemetery, Thessaloniki, with full military honours.

'We are the Champions, my friend and we'll keep on fighting...' - good on you, Grandad.

Fred Barraclough CWGC Certificate

The Death of Arthur Barraclough

2009-03-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

On Monday, April 16, 1984, during the afternoon, my father, Arthur Barraclough called at my house, Brantdale Road, Heaton, Bradford. I had asked him to collect some items for me from Bradford. However, he explained he would not be able to do this until the following Wednesday. On the Tuesday he was going on a coach to Doncaster to be presented with a sales award from Miller Brothers Electricals of Thrope Arch Trading Estate and also Doncaster, as at that time they had a store in Bradford. Even at the age of 70, my father was still working and had sold more electrical goods than anyone else in the store. At weekends he worked at S. Jerome & Sons, Victoria Mills, Shipley, as a night security guard and on Sunday, April 15, 1984, had been to work at Victoria Mills as usual.

Around 9.15 pm on Monday, April 15, 1984, I received a call from my friend, Jackie Jones, of Lynfield Drive, Haworth Road. She said, "Your dad's collapsed. "Your mum wants you to go and lock their house up and go straight to the BRI (Bradford Royal Infirmary)". I left my young son with my then husband, Roger Dale and, pulling on my green Afghan coat, rushed down Haworth Road to Thorn Lane. The door was open as my mum had left in a rush. I went up to my dad's bedroom and said, "You're here aren't you?" - I knew he'd died for some reason.

At Bradford Royal Infirmary I entered the casualty department and was shown to a side room. My mother was there and my sister and my brother, Peter Barraclough was on his way from the lake district. My father, Arthur Barraclough, lay dead on a table. He was still wearing his green coat and army stores seaman's beret.(I asked for and was given, the clothes he'd died in). The hospital had put a white rag in his mouth, probably because his jaw had dropped open. A policeman was also in the room. The scene was quite bizarre, because my father's body was just left there on the table, fully clothed the whole time, like it was the most normal thing in the world. At this point I rounded on the policeman with something like 'as if you care, I bet you do this every day'.

It was just four days from my parents 44th Wedding anniversary. Sheila Walker married Arthur Barraclough at St. Barnabas Church, Heaton, on April 20, 1940 (she was a Catholic but married in an Anglican church). Their first home was at Clifton Villas, Manningham, Bradford.

All Arthur Barraclough's friends from the Haworth Road Estate had a collection for him at 'The Chella' the Chellow Grange Public House, Haworth Road.On the night the collection was presented, by caring people form the Haworth Road estate, (where Mary Dowson Barraclough, his mother, had lived for almost 40 years, after leaving Cleckheaton) it was stolen. On top of my father dying, my mother then had to cope with police being all over. Luckily, friends of Arthur's in the Haworth Road area helped out. His death shocked the community. Dying as he did following a traumatic aortic rupture in Haworth Road, half way between Thorn lane and the Chellow Grange pub, on his way to meet Mr Yeadon, of Cowley Crescent, Heaton, one of his friends.

My father was a DOA. His last living moments were spent on the site of the Haworth Road field, which was once a quarry, then a council tip and finally turned in to children's playground. He hit the ground in Haworth Road between 9-9.10 pm on April 15, 1984. There was no front page of the Telegraph and Argus newspaper about the death in Haworth Road, Heaton, Bradford, of a man who had lived in the area apart from his young years in Cleckheaton and his first married home in Manningham, all of his life.

The Barraclough's of Heaton and Cleckheaton, had closed yet another chapter in their history.

Barraclough's Almanac

Eliza Louisa Dowson - A Life Defined By Pencil Pushers

2009-03-07T22:31:00.001-08:00

Eliza Louisa Dowson, formerly Cooper, was the wife of George Dowson, a Coachman and later a stud groom for George Rowney & Co. In the 1890s we find the couple living at 164 Carleton Road, Worksop, Nottinghamshire. George and Eliza-Louisa had several children; Ella, Alice, Mary Elizabeth, George and Louise (known as Louie).

As part of his employment with Rowney & Co, George Dowson and his family took up residence at the coach house. George Dowson caught typhoid and died around the age of 34, leaving his widow with no money and five children to look after. In those days there was no state welfare system. Instead of offering Eliza Louisa Dowson some work, the hard-hearted Rowney family threw Eliza and her five children out on to the street.

Managing to find lodgings, Eliza was forced to ask for help from one of the various committees of the late 19th and early 20th Century, sat on by often arrogant women who were wealthy yet who had never needed to work. As a poor Eliza stood before the panel of women, one of the women noticed Eliza's wedding ring on her finger suggesting she sell her wedding ring. Eliza was so incensed that she walked out.

Eliza and her children are next heard of in 1913 being resident at Coach Lane, Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire. They later move to Howard Park, Cleckheaton. Eliza has found work as a midwife and is in demand for delivering the locals babies. Telling her children to keep quiet and leaving the eldest, Ella, in charge as Eliza goes out at all hours to deliver babies. However the family are in for some nasty surprises as war threatens.

In 1913, Mary Dowson married Fred Barraclough of Highfield House, Ramsden Street, Littletown, Liversedge. He was the son of Breaks Barraclough and was a salesman working for his father. Ella became Ella Proctor and went to live in Yelland Conyers, Lancashire. Alice married a solicitor, Mr Oliver and went to live in Fartown, Huddersfield. Loiuse Parkin (Louie) married William Parkin who worked for the Patent Office. They lived at 'Camden' College Avenue, Maidstone, Kent. Will Parkin received an OBE for his work and their daughter Dorothy Parkin became a doctor, marrying Ernest Casberry also a doctor; both went to Newcastle, later becoming hospital consultants.

In October 1913, Arthur Barraclough was born to Mary and Fred. However tragedy hit the family. George Dowson (Jr.) was killed in France in 1915 during World War I. In August 1918, Fred Barraclough was killed at Salonika (now Thessaloniki) also during World War I. Mary was left a widow with a young son, Arthur, who was born at Brook Street, Cleckheaton. Mary had wanted to be a teacher but there was no money for this. Her sisters were all married and she was left alone, a single parent and war widow.

In December 1921, Eliza Louisa Dowson died of tuberculosis and pneumonia aged 51. She was buried on 21st December,1921, at St. John's Church, Cleckheaton, Spenborough, Kirklees, West Yorkshire.

Between 1922 and 1925 Mary Dowson moved first to Arthur Avenue, Lower Grange Bradford, to a newly built council house. She later moved to another new build council house in Lynfield Drive, Heaton, Bradford. Mary found work as a packing supervisor. She left her son in the care of a woman in Grosvenor Road, Manningham while she went to work. In 1925 Arthur Barraclough went to Belle Vue School which was then on Manningham Lane, Bradford, near Grosvenor Road. Arthur Barraclough became a top electrical contractor's salesman, manager, then area manager and interestingly enough he obtained the lighting contract at that time for City Hall, Bradford.

Mary, who was arguably the most attractive of her sisters, was left on her own by her family, some of the jealous sisters taking delight in pitying her for her plight, as they swanned round with their well to do, professional husbands, whilst she was forced to live in a council house and work as a packer/packing supervisor at both Lund Humphrey and Bulmer and Lumb, Bradford. The writer can confirm this, speaking to Mary's niece Margaret Mullany of Huddersfield in 2008 when it became obvious that 'Aunty Mary' was pitied by the jealous sisters and their families who were obviously glad that her once great beauty came to nothing and that she was forced to live in greatly reduced circumstances. However it is also clear that she was the best of the lot of her sisters. Describing her in her later years as 'lonely' and driven mad by grief, Mary Elizabeth Dowson Barraclough died in hospital in the late 1960s.

This is a tribute to all the Dowsons and their connected families.

George Dowson CWGC Certificate

Fred Barraclough CWGC Certificate

Visit the other sites in the series:

Barraclough's Almanac

The Walker Hornshaw Connection

The Pighills Barraclough Connection