JUDITH​ HOLMAN-CROOK

John Thomas was born on the 27th of  February in 1885 in Blackburn, Lancashire. His parents were George Crook and Mary Ann Crook. John Thomas came from a very loving fairly large family of the time. But when he was a little four year child his mother Mary died during an operation in the Blackburn Infirmary to remove a needle from her stomach. Mary was only 41.

 

Even though children grew up tough in the late 1880's it would still have devastated John Thomas to lose his mother only to find the very next year he was to lose his father to Pneumonia, George died in the Blackburn Infirmary, Blackburn, Lancashire. So what was to happen to little John Thomas. He along with his siblings was now an orphan.

 

How it was decided I don't know, but out of the seven children who was left after George and Mary Ann died, three went into orphanages. Catherine (12), Mary Ann (8) and John Thomas.

 

A very young five year old left his family life behind and started his short life journey in institutions. John Thomas went immediately to a Boys home in Paradese-street, Blackburn, where he stayed until the 5th April 1891 when the Wilpshire Orphanage was opened. John Thomas was the third boy of 150 to be admitted to the Wilpshire Orphanage, his sisters were the first girls of 150 to be admitted to the Wilpshire Orphanage.

 

If anything would help a little boy maybe this would, maybe he would be near his sisters. But boys had to be separated from girls. So although John Thomas knew his sisters were in the same building he couldn't see them. It was a progressive orphanage but it was still the 19th century and although James Dixon did his best some things took time to change.

 

Time went on so a little boy who had lost his parents in a very short time and put into a Boys Home, then an orphanage, then separated from his sisters and all at the tender age of 5 would have to grow up very quickly.

 

Then on the 2nd of May 1900 at the age of 15 years John Thomas left the orphanage to take up work for Mr William Ireland at Wind Bank Farm at Rishton, Lancashire. But things were not a lot different everything he did was reported back to the orphanage. His next employment was at the Wallbanks Farm, Walley Road, Samlesbury according to the 1901 Census and the Blackburn Orphanage Report on the 31st March 1901.

 

One of the saddest documents I found was the 1911 Census which shows the next story.

 

On the 2nd November 1911 John Thomas was found in the Chorley Union Workhouse, age 25, occupation, formerly a farm labourer from Blackburn, Lancashire.

 

CHORLEY WORKHOUSE

 

Life at the Chorley Workhouse was probably no different than other in their day so I will draw you a little of the multiple Workhouses of 1911 just to be fair.  Bathing: Patients were to be bathed on admission and every week afterwards exempted by doctor. Patients head not to go under water. Patient not to share the water with any other person at the same time. The water must be warm. It is the duty of the Officer present to see that these regulations are carried out. (I wonder) The men and women were to wear a uniform so wether they liked it or not everyone knew they lived in a workhouse. The  beds set out were dormitory style in very large rooms.

Union workhouse inmates were strictly segregated into seven classes which initially comprised:

1. Aged or infirm men.

2. Able bodied men, and youths above 16.

3. Youths and boys above seven years old and under 16.

4. Aged or infirm women.

5. Able-bodied women and girls above 16.

6. Girls above seven years old and under 16.

7. Children under 7 seven years of age.

 

The daily routine and work varied with the years and the workhouses only those workhouse inmates who were able to work did  The women mostly did domestic chores and others worked in the garden.

The medical care improved in the workhouses as the years went and by 1911 with the onset of WW1 and Florence Nightingale things were indeed improving for the inmates and not too soon.

Around 1931 workhouses were abandoned.

 

After more research I found that John Thomas had joined the Army during WW1 joined the local East Lancashire Regiment part of Kitcheners new army or Kitchener's Mob,.

 

[Contrary to the popular belief that the war would be over by Christmas 1914, Kitchener predicted a long and brutal war. He believed that arrival in Europe of an overwhelming force of new, well-trained and well-led divisions would prove a decisive blow against the Central Powers. Kitchener fought off opposition to his plan, and attempts to weaken or water down its potential, including piece-meal dispersal of the New Army battalions into existing regular or Territorial Force divisions (the view of the Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, Field Marshal French).

 

In the early days of the war, the Territorial Force could not reinforce the regular army, as it lacked modern equipment, particularly artillery. In addition, it took time to form First-Line units composed only of men who had volunteered for "General Service."

 

Those recruited into the New Army were used to form complete Battalions under existing British Army Regiments. These new battalions had titles of the form "xxth (Service) Battalion, <regiment name>". The first New Army divisions were used at the Battle of Loos in the autumn of 1915, and they were sorely tested in the Battle of the  Somme.

 

All five of the full army groups (meaning a group of divisions similar in size to an army, not a group of armies) were made up of volunteer recruits, which included the famous Pals' Battalions. Due to the huge numbers of men wishing to sign up, in places queues up to a mile long formed outside recruitment offices. There were many problems in equipping and providing shelter for the new recruits.

 

By the beginning of 1916, the queues were not so long anymore. Information about the true nature of the war had reached Great Britain, and enthusiasm for volunteering plunged. Great Britain had to resort to conscription like the other great powers involved in the war.

 

The first conscripts arrived in France in late 1916 to fill the gaps in the volunteer units, which had been greatly diminished during the Battle of the Somme. After the bloody battles of 1916 and 1917, the British army facing the Ludendorff Offensive of 1918 were mainly conscripted youths, most of them under 20 years of age, although there were also some men in their late thirties or older. Roughly half of those who served in the British Army throughout the war, including more than half of the five million men serving in the British Army in 1918, were conscripts.] [Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia]

 

On the army records where John Thomas should have put next of kin, there was nothing. I can only presume that John Thomas has a very good reason not to put a member of family as next of kin. He had no wife or children, no family to call upon if he need them, he had no one at all. He was alone when he went into the orphanage where he stayed for 10 years, his sisters had each other he didn't. He was alone went he went to work on both farms. He was alone went he was in the workhouse and he was alone when signed up in the army. Now he may have made friends while in the army, I hope so but even that was short lived because his life was short lived.

 

John Thomas went into action in France with the British Eighth Division to oppose the last great German offensive of WW1. They then linked up with the Australian Fifteenth Brigade under Brigader (Pompey) Elliott and halted the German offensive at Pozieres where on the 24th of April 1918, 203329 Private JT Crook of the 2nd Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment, was killed in action fighting and dying with our diggers in Fromelle in what some say was the worst battle of WW1. (Refer to the battle of Fromelle).

 

John Thomas was buried in the British War Grave in the Pozieres Memorial Cemetery, France.

 

Howard and I were so upset about John Thomas Crook's lonely life that we took ownership of him. As he is Howard's great-uncle, Howard applied for John Thomas's Commerative Scroll that were sent to family members of those who were killed in action in defence of Freedom, King and Country. John Thomas's Scroll lay unclaimed at the British War office. Howard has proved he was the closest living relative as his great nephew. And now finally we received John Thomas's Memorial Scroll from the war office and it is now hanging proudly in our lounge and now our lost great-uncle is within the memories of his family and home. This has been a very emotional journey for us but it is good for us to have our great-uncle home with us for good. 'JOHN THOMAS IS NOW HOME'

 

[This story has gone round circle a little. The Blackburn Orphanage, now called Child Action Northwest has now on their records the end of their story of John Thomas Crook. Howard and I have sent them a letter of what happened to John Thomas after he left the orphanage and a copy of his Memorial Scroll from the war office. As fitting end as we could give our great uncle.]