Great news !!! My wife is a councillor in Rochdale and she has just been informed by the powers that be that our village memorial has had the princely sum of £142.50 set aside for pointing/repairs, brilliant the generosity of Rochdale Council knows no bounds. Ralph. (She is NOT happy)

Given the current 'economic climate' I'm surprised they set aside anything. I'm not trying to be sarcastic or clever here by the way. £142 could be seen as an almost insulting amount, but I work for a local authority in Scotland and we receive notice of spending and budget cuts on an almost daily basis. It really is grim reading - it looks like almost everything here is going to be reduced or cut completely if it isn't an essential service. Not that I'm suggesting looking after war memorials isn't (or shouldn't at least be seen to be) essential, but when the school kids are having to walk to school because their bus service has been reduced and the pensioners don't get their wee bit extra for a Christmas lunch, I can't see many people in the street being too annoyed if the war memorial doesn't get a clean up.

Good points, I suppose we have to put everything in perspective in the great scheme of things. Wonder if our local MP could claim a bit for us on his expenses Ralph.

Hello Ralph,

I don't suppose there are any Tillotson's on your War Memorial are there?
I've been looking at a Leeds Rifleman who's mother moved from Leeds to Butterworth Hall, and I'd be interested to know if they had family there already or not.

£142 isn't much, but it is better than nothing I suppose.

Cheers,

Nigel

Money well spent me thinks.

Regards

Nigel. How many Tillotsons do you want I have two, Albert and James, not related, Albert was born in Leeds, your man ? His brother Joseph Edwin survived the war.Ralph.

Hecky thump, Ralph.

I can work out who your missus is - she IS the "powers that be".

If anyone can get more dosh for memorial renovation, it's the council's cabinet member for the environment. Maybe she needs a chat with her opposite number in Stockport (pleased to say same party in control) - they've always seemed quite forthcoming with memorial money.

John

John. You certainly have a detectives nose. Irene sent the building surveyor an email re budgets for the memorials round and about the area specifically ours and amidst all the other funding this was our allocation, as I said, she is NOT happy. Whoever is/was responsible for our memorial power washed it a few years ago until she stopped them, the memorial is made from sandstone, you can imagine the result, the £142 is to repoint it. I know for a fact that the memorial is missing at least 20 names (167 on the stolen original bronze plaques) 146 on the carved tablets at present plus another 40 names I have found who were never put on for one reason or another, plenty of discussion on this subject on the Forum in the past, also at least 10-15 names/initials are incorrect, so a wee bit more than £142 is required to put things right.Watch this space Ralph.

Joseph Edwin Tillotson is my man Ralph!

I have some 35ish pages of his papers. I'll try to copy them for you if you'd like them?

I wonder why Albert ended up in the RWF, but that's another thread!

Cheers,

Nigel

Nigel. Its a small world, thats what I like about this forum how one small comment can lead to things like this. Albert was formerly a Lancashire Fusilier number 59177 although according to the piece in the paper under his picture he was in the Kings Liverpool Regt attached Royal Welsh Fusiliers and his medal card says 73229 Welsh Regt, second son of Edwin and Annie nee Gall m 1891 Leeds. He was killed Chateau des Trois Tours and lived 4 Butterworth Hall which is still there, born 15-9-1899. I would love to see his brothers papers, will pm my email address asap. Regards Ralph.

Hi Ralph
Last year, Awards for All funded the refurbishment,repointng etc and the addition of missing names, 24 from WW1 and 4 from WW2 on the War Memorial at Stonehouse Lanarkshire, The application was by The Stonehouse Heritage Group.
see, http://warmemscot.s4.bizhat.com/

All the best
Wull

Cheers mate, you are a gent. Ralph.