Cleveland was the second largest chapel in the Stockton (Brunswick) Circuit, seating 800 people. Thirty-one men associated with chapel were killed during the war. Lance-Corporal Lumsden died on the final day of the war.
Details of some of these men may be found on the 1245 Sunflowers website
http://www.1245sunflowers.org/
There appears not to have been a memorial in the church.
Pte. N. Anderson 3/1 Essex Yeomanry
Sgt. R Blake [1/5th Bn.] Durham Light Infantry
Carpenter’s Crew T.T. Bainbridge Royal Navy
Pte. J.T. Bradley 1/5th Bn. Durham Light Infantry
Sgt. W. Bradley 5th Bn. Durham Light Infantry
[Sgt.] A. Brogden [12th Bn, Yorkshire Regt.]
Pte. N. Brown 10th Hussars
Pte. R. Brown Machine Gun Corps
Pte. Roy Brown 22nd Drms
Pte. T.R. Donnison 2nd Bn Yorkshire Regt.
Pte. R. Franks Machine Gun Corps
Company Sgt. Major J. Harrison 2nd Bn. Yorkshire Regt.
[Pte.] W. Heal [18th Bn King’s (Liverpool Regt.]
Pte. M. Huitson [2nd Bn.] Durham Light Infantry
2nd Lieut. W. Hunter Royal Naval Division
Sgt. L Jones. Northumberland Fusiliers
Gunner A. Leeson Royal Field Artillery
L/Cpl. W.T. Lumsden [1/5th Bn.] Durham Light Infantry
Pte. G. Marshall 5th Bn. Durham Light Infantry
Pte. H. Mustard [1/5th Bn.] Durham Light Infantry
Sgt. W. McCulloch [16th Bn.] King’s Royal Rifle Corps
Pte. N. Raper [7th Bn.} Yorkshire Regt.
[Sgt.] H.H. Reed [Machine Gun Corps]
Pte. J.R. Sharp [8th Bn.] Yorkshire Regt.
[L/Sgt.] Reg Simpson [13th Bn.] Rifle Brigade
[Pte.] Ray Simpson [6th Bn] Yorkshire Regt.
Cpl. W. Tanfield 10th Bn. Yorkshire Regt.
Pte. R. Thompson Grenadier Guards
[Pte.] J.G. Wales [9th Bn.] Yorkshire Regt.
Pte. C. Wood 8th Bn. Leicestershire Regt
S. Wood Royal Engineers
Comments about this page
Thank you Mr Thornborrow (Phil) for your kind comments, as a child I along with many others knew you could reach RAF Thornaby airfield perimiter by walking along the cinder track found almost opposite Thornaby cemterary gates, at the far end was what we wrongly called the ‘bomb shelter’ but was a defence post if the airfield was attacked by enemy paratroops, we used to climb on top of it and wait sometimes for hours for aircraft to take off, in those long-gone days we called all aircraft then Lancasters (following the famous raid on the Mohne Dams), I later learnt they were either Stirlings or Halifax bombers and Thornaby was not an air fighting base but an RAF aircraft service base, every time an aircraft took off we naturally assumed it was about to set off to bomb Germany, all the pilots, aircrew and tail-end Charlies used to wave enthusiastically to us ten or more kids as they were waiting for take-off clearance which made our day. I am now a Pacifist and strongly opposed to WW1 and WW2. I now think it could have all been sorted out without conflict. After leaving the airbase we kids visited the Pleasure Gardens, sometimes the Cemetary, then home. I lived just yards from the Five Lamps. PS: I forwarded your main post to Stockton Pics run by Stockton Library for their reader’s information. 31 Methodist dead is a rather sobering and somewhat shameful piece of Britains political history.
Thanks for your comment Bob. My parents used to push me in my pram across Thornaby Airfield on their way to Maltby when I was very small.
I was born just over the road from this Methodist Chapel in the Mandale Road area of Thornaby on Tees. I have fond memories of attending it daily for lunchtime school meals as the hall was hired to the National School in George Street for that purpose. Sad to say my brother Jim was struck by a bus on the main road outside its door in 1941 and killed. In September 1941, my father was in the RAF stationed in Bristol, when Bristol was bombed heavily the Commanding Officer suggested to him that it might be a wise move to transfer to RAF Thornaby to escape the bombing, Bristol airfield was a prime target and my parents had 6-children, so they got moved north. Just a week later after moving to Thornaby their son James was killed in Mandale Road, my mother always cursed Hitler and blamed him for this tragedy, he was aged six.
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