The following notes are provided by John Dixon.
1. A brief note of the military career of Gunner J W Cuthbertson, who is listed as a local casualty as follows: -
Gunner J W Cuthbertson
No. 64265 19th Div. R.F.A.
Enlisted 2/1/1915
Went overseas on active service 21/6/1915.
Engaged in battle of Loos Sept 1915.
?7th February 1916 transferred to Divisional HQ Army Service Corps.
Engaged in battle of Somme July 1916; also engaged in less important battles up to 6/6/1917 when transferred to 19th T.M.B. and killed next day 7/6/1917 while employed at a bomb dump and was buried at La Clyte.
The undated note is signed by Joseph Cuthbertson, Littletown, (Durham County Archives Ref: EP/Pi 55)
Peter Whittaker and Peter Nicol have supplied the following:
There is no record of anyone with the surname Cuthbertson living in Bishopton in the Census Returns for 1891, 1901 or 1911. In that period the highest incidence of the surname in England was in County Durham so it is difficult to identify with certainty just who the “J Cuthbertson” remembered at Bishopton was. The name, sometimes written with the two initials “J W”, also appears on a number of Memorials and Rolls of Honour in the Sherburn area.
Despite there being no directly traceable and obvious connection to Bishopton for him, Joseph William seems the most likely person to have been named on the Memorial there. Joseph’s name is out of alphabetical order and is the last of the 14 WW1 names listed. The newspaper report of the 1923 unveiling ceremony, however, describes the Memorial as having “Thirteen names…engraved thereon…”, which seems to indicate that Joseph’s was added at an unknown later date.
The Joseph identified here was born in 1894, the son of Andrew and Elizabeth Cuthbertson, born respectively in Cassop cum Quarrington and Marley Hill, Durham. In the 1901 Census the family lived at Whitwell Wood Row, Whitwell House, Durham. His father was then a “coal mine hewer” aged 40 and his mother was 44. Their children were; John (14) – “bank boy – mine”, Catherine (12) – “scholar”, Joseph William (7) – “scholar”, Watson Marshall (1).
By the time of the 1911 Census, when Joseph was aged 17, the family were living at 3 South Street, Sherburn and Joseph described himself as a “colliery labourer at bank – shoving tubs into cage”. He may have later moved to live in the Bishopton District, perhaps to find new work, such as the Carlton Ironworks might have provided. This, however, is conjecture and the nature of his link to Bishopton remains unclear.
Joseph enlisted on 2 January 1915 and served initially in the Royal Horse Artillery. As his entries in the Medal Rolls and on his Medal Index Card show he was posted to France on 20th July 1915, thus entitling him to the award of a 1914-15 Star. He was later posthumously awarded the British War Medal 1914-18 and the Allied Victory Medal.
An undated note signed by a Joseph Cuthbertson of Littletown and held in Durham County Archives (Ref. EP/Pi55) is quoted in NEWMP Durham District Notes. This records that Joseph fought in the Battle of Loos in September 1915, transferred to Army Service Corps Divisional HQ in February 1916 and then fought on the Somme in July 1916. He transferred to the 19th Trench Mortar Battery on 6 June 1917 but, as CWGC records show, he died from asphyxia the next day when working at a bomb dump.
At the time of his death Joseph’s parents were living at 77 Council House, Sherburn, County Durham. His father, Andrew, who chose the inscription “Greater love has no man than this” for Joseph’s headstone, received a total of £9-4-10 from his effects in October 1917 and two years later a War Gratuity of £11-00-00.
Joseph William Cuthbertson is remembered at Sherburn on S121.01 S121.02 S121.04 and S121.08 and possibly in Bishopton on B142.01
