The forgotten victims

One of them was Dewsbury man Private Tom Myers who was killed while training for war in a drowning tragedy in Gainsborough in 1915 .

Six of his comrades were also drowned when the raft they had built tipped over and sank in a deep pond.

Twenty men were on board, all wearing heavy military gear and carrying packs, but 13 managed to swim to the embankment or were rescued.

They were all territorials in the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry sent to Gainsborough to learn how to build bridges.

Most were from the Dewsbury, Batley and Wakefield areas, and had no experience of building rafts.

Some couldn’t swim and sank to the bottom in seconds, a tragedy which touched the hearts of the nation.

The men had been inexperienced, ill-prepared and there was only one lifebouy on the raft.

Verdicts of accidental death were recorded, and the man leading the exercise, Captain Harold Hirst, of Dewsbury, was cleared of all blame.

He was later to die in battle in France while performing an act of great courage, for which he was awarded the Military Medal posthumously.

Another soldier who witnessed the tragedy and gave evidence at the inquest, came from Batley Carr.

He was Private Ewart Whiteley Mann, who fought in France and later died from wounds received in battle in a Southampton hospital.

He was buried in Dewsbury Cemetery near to the grave of his old comrade Private Myers.

Private Mann was injured several times in various battles and suffered shell shock, and although he was hospitalised a nujmber of times, he was always sent back to fight.

The men taking part in the training exercise were all members of D company. The raft they had built was only a few yards from the shore when it tipped and sank.

THE victims of the drowning tragedy were buried in their home towns with full military honours.

The funeral of Private Myers, who lived in Savile Grove, Savile Town, attracted vast crowds.

A firing party was in attendance, and as his coffin was brought out of his home, they presented arms and the officers stood at the salute.

A large crowd gathered in the vicinity of his house, and most of the blinds in the neighbourhood were drawn.

All along the route to the cemetery there were groups of sympathetic onlookers and at the cemetery a dense crowd had gathered.

The funeral service was conducted by the Rev FJ Martin, curate-in-charge of St Mary’s Church, Savile Town, At the close, the firing party fired three volleys over the grave and the buglers sounded The Last Post.

A large number of relatives and friends were in attendance and floral tributes were sent as follows, “from his sorrowing father, mother, brothers and sisters,” also one from, “his sorrowing aunts and cousins”.

There were many more floral tributes from officers of the 4th KOYLI, also members of his regiment, neighbours and friends from Savile Town, and friends from Dickenson Terrace, Gainsboroough, where Private Myers was billeted.

Private Myers was the son of Mr and Mrs William Myers, and the eldest of a family of nine.

At the outbreak of war he had been a chauffeur in the service of Captain Surgeon Mill, of Ossett, and previous to that Dr T O Halliwell, Dewsbury’s Medical Officer of Health.

Private Myers had joined the Ossett detachment of the 4th KOYLI three years earlier and was a very popular member.

He attained his 24th birthday shortly before the tragedy and had obtained 48 hours’ leave to come home to attend the wedding of a friend.

He was an old boy of Boothroyd Lane Council School, and had four sisters and five brothers.

About 120 members of the 4th (Reserve) KOYLI under the command of Lieut. Norman Lee, attended the funeral.

A number of men also came over from Gainsboroough to represent Private Myers’ battalion.

THE survivors, including Captain Hirst were all called to give evidence at the inquest which was fully reported in the Reporter.

Private Mann, who had witnessed the tragedy, later wrote a letter to the paper paying tribute to those who had died and those who had taken part in the rescue attempts.

He wrote: “When the raft tipped I was about 50 yards away. We did not think the water was so very deep. We ran to the water edge, but all we could do was to give a hand out to those who had swum to the side, and throw poles out to those in distress.

“Swimmers jumped in, and more lives would have been lost had it not been for the promptitude of the men belonging to D Company.

“I should like to make special mention of the following men:- Lance Corporal Chorley, of Leeds, a solicitor, who bravely dived into the water time after time, rescuing man after man until he himself was almost exhausted.”

Another witness, Lance Corporal George Sykes, of Batley, who, at the time of the accident, was doing section drill in a nearby field, wrote the following letter to his parents.

“I rushed up and got my pack and coat off and dived into the water to try to save the poor chaps. It was awful. We could not tell who was drowning or who was wanting help, and we got two out only just in time.

“Many of the men looked like dead. Seven poor chaps had to be got out with grappling irons, and all seven were dead.

“Seeing the chaps struggling in the water was awful.”

• A book was written about the Gainsborough Drowning Tragedy, and I am hoping to contact the author to thank him for all the research he carried out, and to report further on it, and on Captain Hirst.

I would also like to thank Christine Leveredge for the loan of the photographs, which incidentally are included in her recent book on old Dewsbury Postcards, available at Dewsbury Book Shop, Crackenedge Lane, price £3.95.