For our 2021 Remembrance project we chose to focus on a single Selby soldier, Lance Corporal George Townsley.

We researched George's life before the war started and found that George had been born in North Duffield in 1891. His parents, Mary Jane and William were both agricultural workers at the Hale Farm in North Duffield and George followed in his parents' footsteps, gaining employment as a waggoner at the Copley family farm in Selby.

In 1913 George married Mary Ullathorne and together they lived at number 34 Buller Street in Selby. It was from here that George registered to join the Prince's Own West Yorkshire Regiment. George was killed on the 9th October 1917 and is commemorated at the Tyne Cott Memorial in Belgium.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our usual trip to the Belgium battlefields was not able to go ahead in the spring of 2022 and so we arranged for a local history group in Belgium to visit George's memorial on our behalf.

On the morning of Remembrance Day 2021, a representative from the group placed a named poppy cross at George's memorial and observed a minute's silence on our behalf. We intend to visit the site ourselves on our next trip to the Belgium battlefields.

We Will Remember Him

Following on from 2019’s fascinating project about Selby’s First World War soldiers, we have decided to focus our remembrance not just on the soldiers of the First World War, but on the women who joined the war effort also.

We are extremely proud to highlight these stories of Women from Selby who joined the war effort as nurses and other medical staff.

The events of this year have highlighted to all of us that our medical staff and carers are absolutely deserving of the title "hero", and the same was just as true at the time of the Great War.

We hope that you enjoy reading about the women who once contributed so much to our community, and that you will keep them in your thoughts this year as we commemorate Remembrance Day this November.

We Will Remember Them

Please contact smc@selbyhigh.co.uk with any information, comments or queries.