Dickinson,+Harry+K

Corporal Henry Keighley Dickinson, A/104 Brigade, Royal Artillery. Regimental Number: 41097.
 * Harry (Henry) Keighley Dickinson**



1889: Birth, 7th April, (probably at 14, Gladstone Street) Keighley. Parents Thomas Beck, and Harriet Ann, Dickinson. Father's occupation: Wholesale Draper. Baptised, 6th May at Heber Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Keighley. (Building is now 'The Spiritual Temple') 1891: Census. Aged 2 years, living at 14, Gladstone Street, Keighley, with his parents, 3 sisters and 2 brothers. 1898: Entered Keighley Trade and Grammar School and was a pupil there until 1907. First Head Prefect of the school. 1901: Census. Aged 11 years, living at 48, Manville Road, Keighley, with his parents, 2 sisters and 2 brothers and his maternal grandmother Elizabeth Spencer. 1907: Left Keighley Trade and Grammar School. 1911: Census. Aged 21 years, 8 Townshend Road, Richmond, Surrey, as a boarder with the Horton family. Occupation: Newspaper reporter. 1914: Aged 25 years and 180 days, attested for the West Riding Regiment on 17th October at Huddersfield. Living at 84, Malsis Road, Keighley. Listed in 'Keighley's Gallant Sons'. (this was also his parents' address). Occupation: Sub-editor. Height 5 feet 8, 1/4 inches. Weight 147 Lbs. Chest 37, 1/2 inches plus 4 inches expansion. Complexion: Sallow. Eyes: Blue. Hair: Brown. Religion: Wesleyan. Attached WRR, Private on 17th October. Posted RFA Depot, Private on 10th November. Posted 104 Brigade RFA, Private on 23rd November. 1915: Appointed paid Acting Bombardier 1st February. Promoted Bombardier 24th February. Promoted Corporal 1st April. Posted Corporal A/104 Brigade Staff 9th June. Marriage to Elsie F. Crafford in Edmonton, Middlesex, 3rd August. Entered France on 26th August. 1917: Killed in action on 24th June. Buried in Perth (China Wall) Cemetery, near Ypres. Special Memorial Row C. Grave 9. This usually means the precise position of the grave was lost, possibly due to later bombardment. Headstone lower inscription confirms this with the sentiment: 'Their Glory Shall Not be Blotted Out', which appears on a series of graves in this section. 1918: Probate record. Henry Keighley Dickinson of 84, Malines* (sic) Road, Keighley, Yorkshire. Corporal RFA died 24 June 1917 in France. Administration London. 26 March to Elsie Florence Dickinson widow. Effects £272 10s. *actually Malsis Road, source: Keighley's Gallant Sons.

Awarded the 1915 Star, British War Medal and the Victory Medal for his war service. Remembered on: Keighley's Roll of Honour in Keighley Library and the Keighlian Magazine WW1 Roll of Honour, for Keighley Boys Grammar School.

Listed in 'Keighley's Gallant Sons' of WW1 volunteers, published by the Bradford Daily Telegraph Newspaper.

Harry Keighley Dickinson was a gifted scholar and well regarded by all it seems. The story goes that he was taking a walking holiday in the Lowlands with a school friend in the early years of the twentieth century, probably about 1906 we think, when caught in an awful rain shower that are all too common around Kirkcudbright the pair sheltered in an omnibus stop and bumped into a couple of chaps from the Manchester Grammar School who had a camp nearby. The pair were invited to camp overnight with them, and the experience was such a powerful one at on his return Harry petitioned the masters to set up a camp for Keighley Boys Grammar School in the same location. The first camp happened in the summer of 1911, and it was small affair using some borrowed scouts equipment, but soon grew to a larger affair in the following summers. 1914 was a particularly good summer and the weather was remarkable. After the war the School acquired a wooden hut which was formerly an Officers mess, and there it remains on a field at the sea's edge a few miles outside the town of Kirkcudbright. There have been dozens of trips up there every year since, thousands of Keighley kids have swum, run, built sand castles and got soaked every summer for over a century!
 * From Oakbank School archive:**

//Andy Wade's note: If this hut was a former officers mess building then it's very likely that it's an original WW1 Army hut and these are currently being sought after for listed status and there's even a Heritage Lottery funded project called 'Great War Huts' which finds examples under threat of demolition, then dismantles and relocates them. (Of course, Oakbank's hut is not currently under threat)// //See Great War Huts or their Facebook page//

//And Oakbank's school holiday venue at Kircudbright appeared in the Keighley News here: Keighley News feature//

HARRY K. DICKINSON. Corporal. Royal Field Artillery. Harry K. Dickinson was a pupil from April, 1898, to July, 1907. He was always a very popular boy in the School and was equally devoted to his studies and to the best interests of the School in every direction. He was in his final year the first and Head Prefect of the School and Editor of the Journal in which this article appears. His work for the School Magazine may have turned his inclinations to the field of journalism as his future calling, but his tastes were always in the direction of literature and in the two highest Forms he carried off the First Prizes for English besides passing the Senior Oxford Local Examination with Honours at the end of his School career. He served his apprenticeship in journalism on ” The Surrey Mirror,” and was afterwards on the staff of “The Richmond Herald,” and later on ” The Essex Weekly News.” For two years afterwards he was associated with his home weekly, “The Keighley News,” and at the time of joining the Army he was on the sub-editorial staff of “The Huddersfield Daily Examiner.” Harry Dickinson was a very promising journalist and was rapidly making a name for himself in his profession. It has been our privilege to read one of his vivid pen-pictures of a soldier's life in the fighting line, and no doubt he would have been able to give an absorbing description of an artilleryman's life in the Army if he had been spared to see the end of the War. He had a very happy disposition combined with a keen sense of humour and was esteemed and loved by everyone who knew him. The following extract is taken from a letter written by his Major, Mr. J. C. Walford, to Mrs. Dickinson : “In offering you my very truest sympathy in your loss I will only add that in him I lost a very valuable and able assistant. I left the management and working of the signal and telephone services almost entirely to him, and his constant cheeriness and devotion to duty undoubtedly will be and is hard to replace. The body of your gallant husband is buried with four other signallers in the Ypres salient.” Corporal Harry K. Dickinson was 28 years of age at the time of his death, and was the son of our respected townsman, Mr. T. B. Dickinson, Malsis Road. In the Prefects' Room, there hangs the photograph of our first Head Prefect, Harry K. Dickinson, surrounded by his Assistant Prefects, Frank Lister, who died in 1911, Lewis Whalley, who is serving with the R.G.A.; Jackson N. J. Hartley, who is now Captain, R.A.M.C., and who is attached to the Special Surgical Observation Ward, B.E.F.; Norris Greenwood, who is in the R.A.M.C. at the General Hospital, Bombay; and Tom Barrett, at present Headmaster of a School in Birmingham. To one who never spared himself in any good work the School is proud to put on record this short appreciation.
 * Keighlian Magazine Obituary:**


 * Family grave inscription in St John's Ingrow graveyard:**

In loving memory of Harriet Anne, Wife of Thomas Dickinson of Keighley who entered into rest May 14th 1904, aged 56 years. Also of Thomas B. Dickinson, who passed away Oct 14th 1918. aged 71 years. Also Henry Keighley, (Cpl RFA) their youngest son who was killed in action near Ypres, June 24th 1917, aged 28 years.