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Joseph, aged 26, enlisted on 1 March 1915 and was allocated to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the East Riding Regiment. He was discharged on 4 May 1915 at Hedon. He was described by the commanding officer as “a very useless man” who “keeps others back.” The Medical Officer noted that “this man is of weak intelligence and seems incapable of understanding orders etc…” Categorised as “not likely to become an efficient soldier”, Joseph was discharged. Two years later, and in the midst of severe shortages of men following the Battle of the Somme in 1916, on 9 May 1917 Joseph was conscripted back into the army. He was rated medically as “B7”, having flat feet, and could not join the infantry; instead he was assigned to the recently formed Labour Corps and on 17 May joined the BEF in France, specifically the 297 Depot Labour Company and then the 233rd Salvage Company attached to the 36th (Ulster) Division) which saw service in France in 1917 at Messines and Cambrai, and at Langemarck at Passchendaele. In Mar 1918 they were at St Quentin and in Belgium for the final offensives against the German army in Belgium in late summer and autumn 1918. The Salvage Company was responsible for retrieving equipment and metals for re-use and it was dangerous work. Joseph was released from service in May 1919. He was awarded the War and Victory Medals.
Joseph was born in Beverley the 16 Jan 1889 and baptised at Beverley Minster the 20 Oct 1890, the son of Joseph Spivey, labourer and hawker, of Beverley and Lydia, from Salisbury, Wiltshire; they married in 1884. The family lived in Taylor’s Yard, between Flemingate and Beckside.
Joseph died in November 1929 and is buried at Queensgate Cemetery, Beverley
Includes information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |