| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Joshua joined the Coldstream Guards in 1909 at the age of 17, he was a groom at the time. He was born in Cottingham. Joshua was born in Jan 1892. Whilst his parents’ address is recorded on the 1911 Census as West Green, Cottingham, Private 8457 Joshua T Grantham, as a regular soldier, was in barracks at Aldershot and within two weeks of the outbreak of war on 28 Jul 1914, the Coldstream Guards were already on their way to France.
The Guards were involved in major battles during the summer of 1914 and suffered serious casualties. According to letters Joshua sent to his mother and a young woman, Miss D Hairsine, which were printed in the Beverley Guardian, he had been separated from his own regiment from 3 September and had joined up with the 1st Cheshire Regiment. He told of the hard fighting and the damage to towns and villages from “Jack Johnsons”, the nickname used to describe the impact of German 15cm artillery shells. But despite all of this his letters remained positive and he even joked “as for a bed, I shall not know how to get out of one if I ever get in one again”. He thought he might be recommended for the DCM for his part in rescuing injured soldiers behind enemy lines. And having been made Sergeant in charge of headquarters cyclists by the Cheshires he writes “I haven’t got such a bad job and don’t go near the trenches until night”. This letter was supposedly dated 18 November but we now know Joshua had died of wounds on 15 November in No 3 Field Hospital Ypres. He was aged 22 and had been on the Western Front for just 3 months.
A copy of Joshua’s Short Service record tells us he was buried in the grounds of Staatweldans School, Ypres although he is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial. Joshua’s name can also be found at the Garden of Remembrance in Cottingham and on the war memorial at the front of St Mary the Virgin Church, Hallgate, Cottingham.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |