This is dedicated to the men who died that year and are remembered in Adel Church and Churchyard.

The year opened with the Allies (primarily Britain, France & Russia) rejecting the German’s offer of peace…the terms were those dictated by Germany and not acceptable.  Adel’s first victim that year was Mark Denman Draper^th February in a training exercise less than 2 weeks after he had joined the Royal Flying Corps – the Army predecessor of the RAF.  Mark was the eldest son of the Rector, aged 32 and was an actor. He joined the Artists Rifles Battalion – an Officers Training Corps, which eventually became the S.A.S.  He is buried in a military grave in Alfreton, Derbyshire.

On 16^th February, the Wharfedale and Airedale Observer (WAO) printed a report of a collection made in Adel for the War effort from a membership of 53…, which might have been a large proportion of the parish then, assuming one per family. 

On 27^th another death occurred which is remembered on a family grave.  This was of Thomas Edward Senior who is on a headstone erected to his mother, Anne, of Mavis Lane, Cookridge.  She may not have lived in Adel (Adel-cum Eccup at this time included Cookridge) for long as the construction of Mavis Lane (part of the Cookridge Village estate) was only started in 1927.  Her son belonged to the Bradford Pals – the Pals were battalions of professional people from industrial areas.  Several Pals Battalions bore the brunt of the casualties on the Somme in 1916, including Leeds.  Leeds did not encompass Adel-cum-Eccup until 1926, which meant that Adel did not suffer such severe losses as some areas.  Private Senior was killed in action on the Somme after an attack on the German rearguard in Rossignol Wood.  He lies in Owl Trench Cemetery, Hebuterne, France and is probably in a mass grave of 46, 43 of who belonged to his battalion.

Germany withdrew to the Hindenburg Line between 14^th March and 5^th April of that year and the Arras Offensive was the Allies attempt to break through this Line.  A report appeared in the WAO on 19^th April stating that John Thomas Hartley, of Denton Row, Lineholme was wounded in the left arm.  It is possible that he was injured in the first battle of the Arras Offensive.

In June, also in the WAO, a report appears on the AGM of the Adel Training School for Boys held at Leeds Town Hall.  It states that “since the school was established (as Adel Reformatory in1857) the 2,460 boys had passed through it.  During the last 3 years, 151 boys had left the school of whom 100 were in the Army and 5 in the Navy, while 3 had been killed in Action, 4 had died of wounds, 4 of sickness and 21 had been wounded or gassed.  Two old boys had gained the DCM” (Distinguished Conduct Medal).

In July, the same paper printed a letter from a serving soldier, which describes a large horse show held in a French chateau, 20 miles from where he was fighting.  It is a wonderful letter which conveys the size of the event “a Military Tournament at Olympia is a plaything to it” and his pride that his team were placed second in the corps and third in the whole army.

We then move to November and to four deaths in relatively quick succession.  On 2^nd November was the death of Staff Sergeant Major Ernest Hemingway, born in Batley, married with a wife living in Leeds.  He is remembered (with no mention of the war) on the grave of two of his sons: Percy Scholes aged 29 and Robert aged 22. The last address for both was Kismet, Occupation Road, Moseley Wood (not on today’s maps).  Ernest himself was interred in a war grave in Hereford Cemetery.

Five days later, on 7^th November, Captain Alec McDougal Gordon died in the most (in)famous battle of the year – the Third Battle of Ypres, commonly known as Passchendaele as it was an attempt to capture that village.  He featured in the May edition of Adel Bells when a school party visited his grave.  His death occurred the day after Passchendaele was captured, in a military post at Vlamertinghe and he was buried in the New Military Cemetery there.

The final two deaths were just three days apart, both dying in the Battle of Cambrai, which took place in November and December 1917.  Lance Corporal William Rack Wilkinson of Ivy Cottage Cookridge died on 20^th November.  Percy Crofts Ottley aged 32, followed on the 23^rd. His parents and wife lived in Doncaster, but he is remembered on his grandmother’s grave – Emma Ottley.  Both are commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial, Louverval, France.  Soldiers commemorated on a monument were those whose bodies could not be identified.

The year is summed up in the WAO on the final edition of the year as being “one of ups and downs”.  It ends with “If victory is obtained it will not be cheap or easily attained”.

Two members of the Adel History Group, Donna Shoe-Smith Evans and Ann Lightman have written a much more detailed guide to Adel at War in 1917 – from which the above is abstracted. If anybody would like a copy, please ask. Also available are transcriptions of the 1910 valuation survey for Adel-cum-Eccup (which includes Cookridge) and a list of Absent Voters in 1918 (from the Electoral register – the list with details of regiments has not been located) are available. If anyone has any information of any of the above named, or indeed anyone who fought in either of the Wars, or stories of Adel at this time, Donna and Ann would be delighted to hear.