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A/Sgt. Joseph Harold Wilson
British Army 29th Brigade, 143rd Bty. Royal Field Artillery
from:Hampsthwaite
My grandfather, Joseph Harold Wilson, served with the Royal Field Artillery and the Labour Corps throughout the First World War. He was born in Leeds in 1888, the son of Thomas and Margaret Elizabeth Wilson. He enlisted in the Royal Field Artillery about 1905 aged seventeen as a regular soldier (presumably for the standard period of twelve years). In 1911 he was with 143rd Battery, RFA stationed at Royal Artillery Barracks, Aldershot, Surrey, as a Gunner Fitter.
His medal card indicates he was a Fitter serving with 29 Brigade, RFA a unit of Britains pre-war regular army under the command of 4th Division which went to France as part of the expanded British Expeditionary Force in late August 1914. He was a lance corporal (probably at the outbreak of the war) and became a full corporal in August 1915. His medal card also indicates he was attached to the Labour Corps, presumably sometime during or after 1917, with the rank of acting sergeant. He was wounded in the leg by shrapnel in 1916 which might be why he was transferred to the Labour Corps and was eventually demobilised from the army in 1919. He received the 1914 Mons Star, British War and Victory Medals.
On the outbreak of the Second World War he rejoined the Royal Artillery with the rank of sergeant and served with the home forces until he was invalided out in 1942. He had married Ethel Georgina Barker of Hampsthwaite at Hampsthwaite Parish Church in December 1910 and had eight children, the youngest being my father. Joseph Harold died at Hampsthwaite in October 1967.
The extracts were published in the Harrogate Herald in 1915 referring to Joseph Harold:
3rd March -
Fitter Wilson, whose home is at Hampsthwaite, is "fit" and joined his depot on the 2nd March.
H Breare (Editor) letter:
Fitter Wilson, of Hampsthwaite, called in to see me on Friday. He is invalided home with a bad throat. He belongs to the artillery, and those chaps are not billeted in the towns and villages, therefore they have to get in where they can and rather further away from the comforts of civilisation. You know what the weather has been and how much there has been of it. Well, he had to sleep over an intensely rural pig sty that had not received attention for - well - ages. He has never had trouble with his throat before, but under these conditions it came, an abscess formed. He was so bad they sent him to a Manchester hospital, where he had an operation. He is nearly well now and will be returning to the Front by the time you read this. Wilson is thoroughly enthusiastic about the artillery, and remarked that if the young men at home only knew the life and conditions of the artillery branch of the service they would rush for it. No trench business. It is life. Full of excitement and satisfaction. Like the rest of the boys he was chock full of admiration and good feeling towards his commanding officer. It was with a regretful voice he told me they were losing him. He has been made a colonel. They had met with very few casualties. This he attributed to the extreme care the officer took of his men. They could and would follow him anywhere. It was nice to hear Wilson speak thus of his major, and he said it with all the enthusiasm of conviction.
"If any man tells you he wants to go back to the Front, don't you believe it; he's trying to make himself think so. Now, I wouldn't be kicked out of the artillery. I like it; but I'd rather be at home, and so would any man if circumstances permitted it".
The above is what Wilson said to me. I quite understand it. You boys have no wish to creep out of your responsibility. You are, like every other Briton; determined to see the thing successfully through. Like everybody else, you will be glad when it is over; but you are not going to say you prefer war to peace, or the battlefield to the dear home for which you are fighting. You also know that upon your success depends not only the peace and prosperity of the world, but the freedom and protection of the weak against the strong.
22nd December -
Corporal Fitter H Wilson writes:
I take the greatest of pleasure in writing you a few lines to thank you once more for your paper, which I have received regularly every week. You will see that I have been made full Corporal. I was promoted last August. Since my last letter some months ago we have had some rough times of it at Ypres and Neuve Chapelle. The last "scrap" our Division was in was at Loos, and we got a severe bending. Since then we have been moving about getting reorganised, as you will see by the change of address. We shall be going up amongst it again very shortly. Xmas is drawing close. I never thought last Xmas that I should have another one out here, and I am afraid we shall have a few more on service somewhere yet. Anyhow, the first five years will be the worst. Probably I may be home on short leave in a few weeks' time, so I will call in and tell you more then, as they are getting stricter in censoring our letters. Do you mind obliging me by thanking the people at my village for a very nice, welcome parcel I received from them, and a card enclosed. It was from the people at Hampsthwaite. I thank every one of them for their kindness to us who are doing our duty either at home or abroad or on the sea or land, or in the air, and may they all have a merry Xmas and a very prosperous New Year. Anyhow as happy as may be expected in this terrible crisis. Thanking them once more for their kindness as it shows we are not forgotten. I will close, wishing you and your paper every success, also with the old Yorkshire saying, "A merry Xmas and a prosperous New Year to you".
