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SKELTON - IN - CLEVELAND
IN HISTORY
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"WE WILL REMEMBER THEM"
1815/200301 Private Aaron THORPE.
4th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment.
Died as a Prisoner of War, aged 23, on the 1st of September 1918.
Born 14th May 1894 at Newcastle upon Tyne. Enlisted at Skelton in Cleveland.
Son of Henry and Jane Ann Thorpe, of 34 Park St, Skelton-in-Cleveland, N Yorks.
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Berlin South-Western Cemetery.
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FAMILY:-
1911. Aaron, aged 15, is living at 34 Park St, Skelton in Cleveland and is already working in the Ironstone Mine. He had been born at Newcastle upon Tyne.
His father, Henry, aged 38, worked in the Ironstone Mines as a Wood Sawyer. He was born at Knaresborough, Yorks.
His mother, Jane Ann, aged 38, had been born in Newcastle on Tyne. She had had 7 children and only 5 were still living.
Aaron had 3 younger sisters - Elsie, 10, Florence, 4 and Elizabeth, 4 months.
WAR SITUATION:-
The 4th Battalion, Yorkshire Regiment were part of the 150th Brigade, 50th (Northumbrian) Division.
Aaron's Medal Card shows that he was an early Volunteer for service in the War and was probably in the Territorial Force before it started.
He was awarded the 1914/15 Star and went out to France when the 4th Yorks first went on the 18th April 1915.
He must have been involved in the gallant charge that halted the Germans in the Battle of St Julien on the 22nd April 1915.
He was captured by the Germans at Craonne on the 27th May 1918, when the entire 50th Division was decimated in the German offensive on the River Aisne.
He was serving in "Z" Company at the time.
Full details of these events can be read here.
It is likely that Aaron spent some time out of the War wounded, as not many fought for so long unscathed.
He died at the German Prisoner of War Camp at Crossen [now in Poland] on the 1st September 1918.
The Camp record is shown below, where the cause of death is given as "infolge nierenentzundung", "as a result of Nephritis", or inflammation of the kidneys.
Another record shows that there was an inquest at Frankfurt on the 8th April 1919.
MEMORIAL:-
The Berlin S W Cemetery is located close to the village of Stahnsdorf, about 26 kilometres South West of Berlin and 15
kilometres East of Potsdam.
Private A Thorpe is buried in this cemetery near Berlin which consists of grouped re-burials from 146 cemeteries in Germany.
These included many POW camp burials and is one of four permanant CWGC cemeteries in Germany.
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