Driver Edward Arnold Illingworth, 32298, 4b Reserve Brigade, Royal Field Artllery
Edward Arnold Illingworth was born in Ossett on the 11th April 1896, one of eight children of Ossett born rag merchant Wilson Illingworth (1855-1923) and his wife Mary nee Tong, who was born in Earlsheaton, Dewsbury in 1856. The Illingworth family lived at 34 Cross Ryecroft Street in Ossett in 1911.
Edward Illingworth enlisted on the 6th April 1915 in the Royal Artillery as a driver with service number 32298 aged 18 years. Illingworth then served in France from July 1915. He was later awarded the 1915 Star, plus the British and Victory Medals for his WW1 service.
At some stage during 1918 according to his WW1 record, Edward Illingworth was injured by a serious gunshot wounds to the abdomen, bladder, liver and intestine. Lucky to survive, he was discharged from the Royal Artillery on the 8th May 1918 because of his wounds, giving his home address as Ivy Cottage, Ivy Grove, Ripley, Derbyshire. Illingworth was subsequently awarded the Silver War Badge which was issued in the United Kingdom and the British Empire to service personnel who had been honourably discharged due to wounds or sickness from military service in WW1.
In June 1921, Edward was back at home at 34 Ryecroft St in Ossett, living with his 65-year-old father Wilson Illingworth, who is now widowed, but with five children still at home. Edward's mother Mary Illingworth had sadly died in 1903 aged only 45 years. Edward was out of work at this time, but had been working previously as a dental mechanic for Andrews Dental Surgeons, Ripley, Derbyshire.
At some stage after leaving Ossett in 1921, Illingworth went to work as a coal miner at Higham Colliery in the Barnsley coal fields. He was a keen cricketer and he had played first-class cricket for Warwickshire in 1920. Illingworth appeared in six matches in the early part of the 1920 season as a professional, left-handed, tail-end batsman and slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler. He made only 17 runs in 12 innings (three of them not out) and took just eight wickets, and was not offered a further contract. In his final match, the game against Surrey in June 1920, he had just come out to bat at No 11 on the final afternoon of the game with 29 still needed to avoid an innings defeat when the match had to be abandoned because of a torrential thunderstorm.
Above: Warwickshire County Cricket Team in 1920. Sadly, Edward A. Illingworth is missing from this picture.
On the 25 August 1923 at Gawber, St Thomas Church, Barnsley, 27 year-old miner Edward Arnold Illingworth of Sykes Row, Higham, Barnsley married 20 year-old Edith Williams, who was living at nearby Barugh Green, Gawber, the daughter of miner Alexander Williams. Edith remarried local Barnsley miner Ernest Marshall in 1929 and went to live to 100 years, dying in Barnsley in 2002.
Whilst playing cricket, Illingworth was hit by a cricket ball in the stomach, dislodging shrapnel from his injury in 1918, which eventually killed him and he died from his wounds sustained during WW1 on the 2nd April 1924.
Sadly, Edward Illingworth was never to see his new son, Ralph Illingworth who was born 9 days after his death on the 11th April 1924, on the same birthday as his late father.
Edward Arnold Illingworth is not remembered on any WW1 Memorial, but having been born and lived in Ossett, and dying from wounds sustained during his WW1 service, he qualifies for inclusion on the Ossett War Memorial.
References:
1. Wikipedia Edward Arnold Illingworth
2. Ancestry Edward Arnold Illingworth