Northumberland Archives

James White was born in 1916, the son of William James White and Mary Jane White [nee Chrisp]. His parents were living at 13B High Market, Ashington when they heard the sad news of James’ death.
James joined the 1st Battalion of the Tyneside Scottish, The Black Watch [Royal Highland Regiment] his service number being 4459525. He left for France as part of the British Expeditionary Force, but never made it home from Dunkirk as he was killed in action on 20 May 1940.

His name doesn’t appear in the war diaries, but this is what happened to his battalion on 20 May 1940. The battalion arrived at Neuville by 03.00. At dawn, enemy spotter planes had been seen and full concealment was ordered with no movement allowed. At 06.50 refugees had reported that they had seen tanks, but different groups stated that they had been seen in different directions so this was ignored as unreliable. By 07.00 orders to march had been received the route taken was to be Mercatel – Ficheux- Beaumetz – Saulty.

At 07.45 RAF Hurricanes were spotted machine gunning enemy positions some 2 kms north of Neuville. It was reported again at 09.05 that enemy tanks had been spotted, but again the information was sketchy. There was to be a rolling withdrawal, company by company, starting with ‘A’ company’s move to Mercatel. Enemy Armoured Vehicles were slowly being spotted and companies began to be fired at by light machine guns. ‘A’ company took cover within a coppice, but were heavily shelled by tanks and eventually had to surrender. ‘B’ company was overrun by tanks and sustaining heavy casualties. They were ordered to break up into smaller groups and head north. ‘C’ Company took cover in a number of houses, but were attacked by armoured vehicles sustaining heavy casualties. With no ammunition left the survivors could only do one thing – surrender. A small group managed to escape, but were captured some three days later. ‘D’ Company split into small groups after being attacked by tanks and light machine gun fire, some succeeded in escaping. The Headquarters Company took refuge in farmhouses, which they fortified. However, they took heavy fire and were forced into the open where they were captured.

In the engagement the battalion was able to disable two enemy tanks. Their organised resistance lasted from 0830 at Neuville and 0915 from Ficheux, till 12.30. Even so, small arms fire by the smaller groups could be heard until around 16.00 in the afternoon. The battalion held the Germans up for five hours. It has been recorded that a German officer expressed his admiration and surprise at the resistance the battalion offered as they were lightly armed and poorly trained. These troops were only armed with rifles, a scattering of Bren and Lewis Machine guns, and a few Boys anti-tank rifles. Many had not even received full training and were exhausted, not only with the marching, but also wearing full equipment in the boiling sun. We don’t know what company James was in, but the battalion suffered many casualties, 100 soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice. James was one of these.

James is buried in Bucquoy Road Cemetery, Ficheux which is 9kms from Arras. It also contains soldiers of the Great War. There are 136 World War Two soldiers buried in this cemetery plus 26 unidentified servicemen and a memorial to 39 who can not be found. According to Hugh Sebag-Montefiore’s book ‘Dunkirk – Fight to the last man’ he suggests from reports that only 80 of 450 Tyneside Scottish soldiers escaped”

Information obtained from: – Find My Past, Commonwealth War Graves Commission
and the Battalion War diaries on Wikipedia written by North East War Memorial
Project [NEWMP].

Commemoration scroll

Information obtained from: – Find My Past, Commonwealth War Graves Commission
and the Battalion War diaries on Wikipedia written by North East War Memorial
Project [NEWMP].

Stories relating to those who appear to rise from the dead are somewhat universal. One such tale of ‘suspended animation’ from the seventeenth century is told in ‘The Monthly Chronicle of North-Country Lore and Legend’, Volume 3.

The story centres around Mrs Erskine, wife of Reverend Henry Erskine. He was a minister in Cornhill-on-Tweed who was ‘ejected’ in 1662 due to being a nonconformist. He was later banished from Scotland as punishment for preaching and returned to England. He was caught, again, and imprisoned in Newcastle; upon securing his release he went to Moneylaws in Northumberland where he became the “pastoral charge of a dissenting place of worship”.

It was whilst living in Moneylaws that his wife died and was placed in the family vault. When she died she was wearing a valuable gold ring that could not be removed from her finger. The sexton became aware of this and decided that such a valuable item should not be left ‘among the mouldering remains’. He decided to open the grave to remove the ring; when the ring would not budge he got out his knife and cut the finger. It was at this point that “to his amazement and horror, the supposed corpse sat up in the coffin”. 

Needless to say, the sexton fled. Mrs Erskine walked home, knocked on the door which was answered by a rather startled husband. It is believed that Mrs Erskine lived for many more years after this and went on to have more children, including Rev. Ralph Erskine who later became minister for Dunfermline.

The incident was reported in ‘The Newcastle Weekly Chronicle’ in 1888. Mr. R.A. Hill, the then custodian of the gold ring, wrote later in the same year that the story “has been handed down from one generation to another in our family”.

This blog has been split into four parts.

As a member of staff working for Northumberland Archives, I am now working from home doing a variety of jobs including, typing lists of various records, writing Facebook posts, completing online courses and compulsory learning. Some of my colleagues have written blogs for social media and I thought I would give this a try too.

At the present time it is very important not only for physical health but also for our mental health to make sure we take time out to exercise; this is where I got my idea from to write this blog. Everyday my husband and I go for walks from our front door. We are very lucky as we have the beach right opposite the house, but many walks we do involve visiting the beautiful Ridley Park in Blyth.

Ridley Park was established in 1904 on land donated by Viscount Matthew White Ridley. It is now managed by Northumberland County Council, Blyth Town Council and also Friends of Ridley Park, a community group set up in 2012.

Pictured below is a bust of Viscount Matthew White Ridley which proudly stands at the entrance of Ridley Park. The original bust, created by local sculptor George Skee, was unveiled in the park in 1909 but unfortunately it was stolen in 2008. In 2019 this new bust was unveiled thanks to the Friends of Ridley Park who received a grant from the Ridley family charity and also a grant from Blyth Town Council.

Ridley Park holds many happy childhood memories for me. I grew up in a house right opposite the park. A small terraced house which was lovely except it had no garden. A small concrete backyard with a few flower pots, not an ideal place for children to play in, however we were lucky having the park on our door step. My sister and I spent many hours especially in the summer months playing in our gang at the park. We made dens in the woods and played fairies and witches, mixing brews and potions out of any old sticks, mud, berries and leaves we could find, then went home covered in mud only to be shouted at by my mother “ look at the colour of you get in the bath now! “. But I didn’t care we had had fun. On hot days we would pack a picnic and towel and play in the paddling pool. Anyone forgetting their bathing costume would have to paddle in their vest and knickers. ( I always made sure I had mine!).

In my teenage years we used to play tennis in the tennis courts. It cost 20p for an hour and we would reenact that year’s Wimbledon. I was never very good at tennis and often got the job as ball boy. As well as tennis we regularly played pitch and put. There was a wooden hut on the edge of the green where we paid to hire the clubs and balls. The clubs were ancient and were kept in a large metal dust bin and were all bent and out of shape which made the game harder to play!