| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Eric Crowston joined the army in 1915. He was a shipping clerk for the Wilson Shipping Line, Hull. Eric joined the 10th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, the "Hull Commercials" in December 1915.
He was involved in the attack, NE of Arras on 3 May 1917 on the heavily fortified Oppy Wood and Oppy village. The 10th Battalion lost 16 Officers and 484 Other Ranks on that day. According to the Battalion War Diary, "a considerable number of men undoubtedly crossed the German line and got some way forward…possibly in places reached the first objective (Oppy village)". Eric was one of those stranded as their comrades were forced to withdraw. He was taken prisoner. He spent the rest of the war in captivity, not returning to Beverley until Jan 1919. He spent most of this time in a POW camp at Parchim, Mecklenburg, northern Germany. He was awarded the 1914-15 Star and the War and Victory Medals.
Eric was born 18 Oct 1896 in North Lincolnshire, living at Roxby and Barton on Humber before moving to Bentley, near Beverley. Before the war the family moved into Beverley, firstly living on Norwood, and then Holme Church Lane. His father Frank was a joiner by trade who married Alice Usher at St Mary's Church, Beverley, in 1894. Eric's brother, Kenneth was a shipyard joiner. Eric left Spencer Street School in 1910 and became a shipyard storekeeper.
After the War Eric continued to be a shipping clerk living for a while in Hull before returning with his wife, Georgiana Bray who he married at St Peter's Church in Anlaby in 1923, to his parents home on Holme Church Lane. Eric died in 1963
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |