FREDERICK ALLISON MONCASTER was one of the most intriguing names on our list of 155 Darlington men who died in the First World War and yet is not on the town’s formal memorial at the hospital.
He is especially intriguing because although he is not remembered in his home town, he is commemorated in Nigeria.
Research by Paul Stephenson, of Darlington, shows that Frederick (surely he was known as “Fred”) was born in 1879 and at the age of two was living in School House, St John’s Terrace at Bank Top. His parents came from Easingwold.
Fred married in 1906, and he lived with his wife, Mary, and his father, Richard, in Pattison Street, which is just down Neasham Road from Bank Top.
He worked as a foreman boilerman in the Merchant Navy and, from at least 1912, he was sailing regularly from Liverpool to Nigeria on the west coast of Africa.
On April 24, 1917, he was returning to Liverpool on his usual ship, SS Abosso, which was owned by a British company, the Elder Dempster Line, but fell under the auspices of the Nigerian Navy.
About 180 miles west of Fastnet, on the Irish coast, the Abosso was hit by a torpedo fired by U-boat U43, and began sinking. Three of the Abosso’s lifeboats were launched while the ship was still in motion.
When the lifeboats hit the water, they were immediately overwhelmed, and 60 or so people drowned.
In total, about 110 passengers and crew were lost but nearly 200 were saved. Fred was one of those who didn’t make it.
Because of the navy connection, this Darlingtonian is remembered in St Saviour’s Church in Lagos (below), but he is not on the hospital memorial.
Darlington mayor Cyndi Hughes waits to lay a wreath at the obelisk outside Darlington Memorial Hospital on Remembrance Sunday
CLICK HERE: The list of the missing 155 names
RONNIE DIXON recognised one of his family members, Pte Arthur Dixon of the 2nd Durham Light Infantry on our list.
Arthur was a labourer living with his parents, William, a platelayer, and Isabella, in Sedgwick Street in the Denes area of town. He had a twin sister, Lilian.
He was 19 when he was killed on April 19, 1917, fighting near Bethune in northern France.
He is buried in a cemetery in Mazingarbe.
“I THINK I can bring some clarity as to why there are so many missing names from Darlington’s war memorial,” writes Malcolm Middleton. “Early in the Great War, the town clerk, Henry G Steavenson, selflessly took on the task of recording and updating the deaths of all Darlington service men and women.
“These were published in Dodd’s Annual, printed by James Dodds of 33 Northgate. Dodds freely admitted there were was bound to be omissions, but promised if they were notified, they would correct their record.
“It’s almost certain this was the source of the inscriptions on the memorial plaques.”
PTE HARRY MILLER (above), who is recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission as coming from Cockerton, was one of the nine Northumberland Fusiliers whose newly identified bodies were buried near Ypres last week amid great ceremony. He was killed, aged 28, at the Battle of Passchendaele on October 14, 1917.
His name is not recorded at Darlington Memorial Hospital, but the 1891 census shows that he was living with his parents in Reservoir Cottages in Harrowgate Hill.
“The 1891 census has Harrowgate Hill as a village in the parish of Cockerton,” says Gillian Hunt, explaining how Harry can come from two places at once. “When my grandparents moved to the semi-detached houses on Thompson Street East in 1926, looking north towards the Reservoir Cottages was still farmland, so it was still almost a village.”
Harrowgate Hill Reservoir in 1964, with the misty outline of Reservoir Cottages behind. The wall near the Thompson Street roundabout survives. It looks like there were public toilets beside the reservoir, as well
The Harrowgate Hill Reservoir was built, on the highest spot above Darlington, in 1872 and it originally held five million gallons of water. In 1908, a pumping station and water tower holding 80,000 gallons was built beside it, creating an odd-shaped landmark.
Just before the Second World War, the reservoir was enlarged to hold seven million gallons.
It fell out of use in the 1960s, but the tower was not demolished until 1990.
Reservoir Cottages still stand, and presumably Harry lived there as a child because his father was a waterworker.
Harry’s parents, James and Annie, moved to The Green in Gainford, which is where, in 1909, Harry married his wife, Melita.
“Harry’s is a very sad story as his wife died in 1915,” says Gillian, “leaving four young children who were orphaned on his death in 1917.” They were brought up by their grandparents in Gainford.
“Harry is on the Gainford War Memorial, which is possibly why he is not on the Darlington memorial, and his name was read at Gainford’s Service of Remembrance along with the other fallen of the parish on Remembrance Sunday,” says Gillian.
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