Photo: Brian Chandler

Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-

Born in Dunston on 20th January 1895, Herbert was the fifth born child of school caretaker Robert Fulthorpe and his wife Emma Jane Hopper, whom he had married in 1890. In total they had eight children all born in Dunston between 1891 and 1906; Emma, who died in infancy, John Andrew, Coral May, Reginald, Herbert, Joseph Arnold and finally three daughters Edna, Effie and Emma.

Finding work as a carpenter on 28th March 1914 Herbert and his brother Reginald arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia on board the SS Empress of Ireland bound for Winnipeg, Manitoba, and then nine months later on 17th December he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, becoming Private 51163 in Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry.

On 29th April 1915 Herbert received a bullet wound to his right shoulder and Ypres, and after initial treatment at Rouen was evacuated to England where he spent a week in hospital in Bristol before being transferred to the Countess of Suffolk’s Hospital, Malmesbury, Wiltshire. His wounds healed well, but suddenly on 31st May his temperature rose to 104 degrees and he was diagnosed with pneumonia, and he was not well enough to be discharged from hospital until 22nd June. Given two weeks furlough Private Fulthorpe was called before a Medical Board at Shorncliffe at the end of the month and taking note of his stuttering and constant tremors he was diagnosed with nervous exhaustion due to injury, exposure and active service and recommended for medical discharge. A note on his medical record states “he is almost unable to express himself he shakes so badly”, but put this down to “shock affecting a previous speech disability”.

Herbert took his discharge in London on 24th July 1915 and was granted a six months pension of $48. He returned to the North East and settled in Beverly Terrace, Cullercoats.

Herbert Fulthorpe died on 14th September 1917 and is buried in Hartley Cemetery, Whitley Bay.

In 1920 his parents and younger siblings emigrated to Canada to join his older brothers living in Winnipeg, and remained there until their deaths.

Herbert Fulthorpe is remembered at Dunston on D38.07

Canadian Virtual War Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Fulthorpe