| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Joseph Harold Pudsey was born the 23 Feb 1889, the youngest son of Robert, a groom originally from Bempton, and Mary Jane (nee Edmond) originally of Driffield, the family were living at Pasture Terrace. In 1910 Joseph married Dora Dales, the daughter of a Cottingham joiner and later coal dealer. By the time of the 1911 census Joseph's mother had passed away and the couple were living at 21 Newbegin, Joseph was a shipyard labourer.They had two children Kathleen and Sydney.
Joseph enlisted in the army at the outbreak of war. According to Green's Almanac he was a driver in the Royal Field Artillery, but there are no records to support this. All Joseph's surviving military records place him in the Army Service Corp, enlisting on 13 Sep 1914 and being discharged through sickness on 8 Apr 1918. It is likely that he enlisted in the RFA and was at some point transferred to the ASC.
Joseph wrote to his sister, Gertrude May, in May 1915, the letter was published in the Beverley Guardian. He talked about being under heavy bombardment and serving alongside Belgians, French Algerians and Indians, playing football and coming across the grave of an East Yorkshire officer, strings of marching wounded and the noise of war.
Joseph received the 1914 Star, the British war Medal and the Victory Medal, along with his Silver Badge.
Joseph died in 1979 in Stroud, Gloucestershire aged 90.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |