| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Sep Douthwaite was born in Beverley 11 May 1880 and baptised at St Mary’s Church the 9 Jun 1880. He was the youngest of nine children born to William Douthwaite and his wife Jane, three of whom died in their teens. William was a veterinary surgeon. The family home was 9 Westwood Road. Sep joined the drapery trade, in 1901 he was recorded as a draper’s apprentice in Harrogate and in 1911 was a drapery assistant (in rug wools) at the Jones’ business in Bridgnorth, Shropshire. Sep was a poet of some distinction and his poems regularly appeared in the Hull Daily Mail and the Beverley Guardian and some taking on a patriotic slant once war had been declared. Many of the proceeds of his poetry went to the Purple Cross Service, an animal welfare charity that particularly focused on the care of horses (“warhorses”) in use on the battlefields of France and Belgium. Though not resident in this area, he had connections through his mother who lived in Beverley until her death in 1914 and some of his siblings: William, born 1869, was a banker in Beverley, Frederick born 1871, a vet in Scarborough, and Frank born 1872, the Chief Cashier with Hull Corporation.
In his poem “There’s a vacant place for you” Sep encouraged men to enlist. According to the Beverley Guardian of 10 Mar 1917 Sep was not a “shirker” and had tried to join up several times but had been rejected on health grounds. He was however finally accepted by the Royal Field Artillery as a gunner and pictured as such in the paper on this date. However it seems that he did not serve abroad as he did not receive the War or Victory medals but nothing else is known of his military career.
Sep died unmarried in Bridgnorth in early 1926.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |