Joseph William Woodhouse

War Service

Joseph enlisted on 8.2.1916. At the time of enlistment he was working as a ‘Rope Lad’ for the Wheldale Coal Company at Fryston. At the time he appears to have been placed in the ‘Reserves’ and probably carried on working at the colliery as his records state he was in the “B” reserves until 21.4.1918 when he ‘rejoined’.
On 22.4.1918 he was posted to the 35th Training Regiment of the Machine Gun Corps and assigned the service number 172876.
15/8/1918 - compulsorily transferred to 8th battalion MGC at Clipstone Camp near Mansfield, Notts.
25/10/1918 - embarked from Folkstone
25/10/1918 - disembarked Boulogne
26/10/1918 - joined depot at Camiers
30/10/1918 - posted to 19th battalion MGC
1/11/1918 - joined battalion in the field.
The 19th MGC were attached to the 19th division of the army and in the final days of the war were involved in the Battle of the Sanbre. There is no evidence of the part that Charles would have played but a machine gun team consisted of 6 men all allocated specific tasks. No. 1 was a lance corporal in charge and he fired the gun and carried the tripod when on the move. No. 2 fed the 250 round belts into the gun and carried the gun when required. No. 3 supplied the ammunition belts to the gun. The other three did various jobs including observation, range finding and carrying ammunition and supplies.
3.1.1919 - ordered to report to Labour Corp base at Boulogne for dispatch to U.K. For release from army for coal mining. Placed on ‘Z’ list.

Family Life

The Woodhouses were relative later comers to Brotherton in that the earliest listing in the census records is not until 1891.
At that time there were just 2 families consisting of 5 people. The first was 51 year old widow Mary Woodhouse with her son Alfred (23) and daughter Elizabeth (17). Mary had been born in Nottinghamshire and the two children in Golden Hill, Staffordshire. They lived in Low Street and Alfred was a ‘Coalminer’.
The second family was Henry Woodhouse and his wife Alice living on Bunker’s Row. Henry was also a ‘Coalminer’ and the son of Mary.
In 1881 the Woodhouse family headed by Henry (born 1828) were living in Whittington, Derbyshire the place of his birth. With him was wife Mary and 6 children - John aged 22, Charles (18), Henry (2nd) (17), Alfred (15), Sarah A (10) and Elizabeth (7). Henry and his John were both employed as ‘Miners’ whilst Charles and Henry (2nd) were ‘Pit Pony Drivers’ and Alfred was a ‘Colliery bank Labourer’.
Although living in the village of his birth the family had not been there all his life. At some stage he had moved to Staffordshire where in Golden Hill all the children had been born. Following his death between 1881 and 1891 it would appear his family went separate ways with some ending up in Brotherton.
On 26.5.1895 Alfred Woodhouse married Amelia Richardson of Brotherton and by 1901 they were living in Top Fold, High Street with their first three children – Joseph born in 1896, Charles (1899), May (1901). Alfred was still a ‘Coalminer’.
By 1911 the family had moved and grown. They were in Quarry Yard and also included Gladys (1904), Harry (1907), Willie (1909) and Fred (1910). By this time Joseph had joined his father in the mines as a “Pony driver”.
After the War it is presumed that Joseph returned to Brotherton to live with his parents after demobilisation but nothing else is yet known about his life after 1919.
Unfortunately for the Woodhouse family Joseph’s younger brother Charles Woodhouse did not return having been killed just one day before the Armistice on 10.11.1918 aged just 19 years (see separate account).
Joseph W Woodhouse died in 1939, the death being registered in Pontefract.
Alfred Woodhouse died on 30.4.1952 aged 84 and was buried in Brotherton. His widow Amelia followed him on 28.11.1953 aged 78.
Amelia (Richardson) wife of Alfred Woodhouse was the sister-in-law of George Austwick.
A Woodhouse family lived in the Three Horse Shoes Inn for many years in the mid 1900’s but it is not known if they were related to Joseph.