Robert James Draycott
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Robert James Draycott was the son of Robert Andrew a cabinet maker and polisher and Eliza Ellen Draycott (née Whitehead). Robert Andrew was born in 1873 in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, Eliza Ellen Whitehead in 1877 at Sheffield. Married in 1895, they had three other children - Annie Elizabeth born 09/03/1895, Lilian Maud born 22/04/1896 and Edith Ellen born 28/09/1899. All of the children were baptised 1/11/1899 at the local parish church in Hunslet where the family lived at 16, Michael Street. In 1911, they lived at 4, Myrtle Grove, Beeston. Annie was a polisher, Lillian a lace mender, Robert a gardener whist Edith was at school.
Robert James Draycott enlisted in Sheffield on 3rd September 1914 and landed in France on 13th July 1915 He received a shrapnel wound to his left arm on 16th July 1916 which necessitated his return to England on the Hospital Ship St David. He returned to the Western Front on 3rd March 1917 and was killed during the allied Spring Offensive. Arras Memorial Bay 4 and 5
Article published 18th May 1917 in the Sheffield Daily Telegraph reads :- “How a Sheffield Signaller Met his Death. “Signaller Robert Jabes [sic] Draycott, of the East Yorks. Regiment, was killed in action on April 21st last. The only son of Mrs. Draycott, of 55, Kirby Road, Sheffield, he was formerly employed as a collier at Tinsley Park Colliery, and joined the Army in September 1914. He went to France in July of the following year, and was wounded at the battle of the Somme in July, 1916. After spending a period of convalescence in England he returned to the front last January. He was signalling in the front line trenches in one of the recent big attacks when he received the wounded which ended in his death. “We can ill afford to lose so brave a soldier, who was always so cheerful and always showed such a splendid example to his fellow men,” writes an officer about Signaller Draycott.” Article courtesy of Jim Grundy and his facebook pages Small Town Great War Hucknall 1914-1918.
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