The Annual General Meeting of the Friends will be held on Saturday 25th April at the Thackray Museum. Seconded nominations are welcome for the roles of Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and committee. It will follow the same format as previous years with Alun Pugh leading a half hour walk round the Cemetery at 1.30pm, followed by the meeting at 2.15pm. It will finish with a talk entitled “ From Battlefield to Beckett Street: Pte Herbert Middleton of 10th West Yorkshire Regiment” and will be given by Dave Stowe, who provided us with an outline of the talk:

“What I would like to do is give a general outline of the shifts and changes in attitudes to death and funerary practices in this period. A brief mention will be given to the 'draped coffin' and military presence. I would then [like to] offer some stats as to those buried in Beckett Street - and the diversity in regiment and units - before moving on to Pte. Herbert Middleton.”

“I will look at Middleton in terms of the actions involved [Fricourt] and what amounts to his death in a Edinburgh Hospital, and how this links to his final resting place in Beckett Street. I would prefer to stick with what I know rather than complicating things, but I see this in terms of a 'journey' - from the battlefield, through evacuation and casualty clearance, to Edinburgh by hospital ship, and finally laid to rest quite close to home and family.” “What I will also suggest is that the Great War afforded some a personalized and individual form of death which was denied others who had served and died post war. My Great Grandfather served throughout. He died in 1924, and remains without a headstone.”

It looks like an interesting talk generally about funerary practices during the First World War with some statistics of military personnel buried in Beckett Street Cemetery, including Herbert Middleton. We are hoping there will be a goodsized
audience to hear Dave.