William Henry Rossington

Chart 11: John Pask, (c1745-1793) who married Elizabeth Fountain and they lived in Gautby, Lincolnshire.  

Yesterday, we received an usual request from Christopher Woodcock. He is the Tower Captain, and Bell Ringer, from St. Oswald's church in Blankney, Lincolnshire.

He is searching for information on William Henry Rossington, the younger son of Henry & Hannah Rossington née Pask.  

Christopher writes:

I am in the process of researching William Henry Rossington who was a bell ringer at St Oswald’s Blankney and who was killed on 15^th April 1918 aged 21 in the Great War.

It is our intention to hold a service of remembrance at St Oswald’s Blankney (organised by the local Bell Ringers) to commemorate the centenary of the death of William Henry Rossington. We also intend to ring a half muffled peal lasting 3 hours on the bells at Blankney in memory of him and all being well to visit the Ploegstreet Memorial which he is commemorated on to lay a wreath on behalf of the Bell Ringers and to ring hand bells their. The date for all this is still to be decided and set but it will be around 15^th April 2018.

We hope to get as much background information and history on William Rossington so that we can tell his story. We would also like to try and find a photograph of him which could then be framed and put up in the bell tower at Blankney as a permanent memorial to him there.

We would also like to try and invite family relatives of William Henry Rossington to attend the Memorial service in 2018.

If anyone can help with more information on William, please do contact Christopher, or ourselves. It would be great to honour William in such a way.

Herbert Pask (1882-1915)

A brief commemoration service took place at 11:00 am on Friday 19th June 2015 at Clare War Memorial, Suffolk. A wreath was laid on behalf of Clare Town Council to mark the 100th anniversary of each of the Clare men who died in World War 1.

The first to fall from Clare was Herbert Pask on 19th June 1915.

Phil Gryce, Clare Town Councillor, gave a brief summary of Herbert's life, as described below. Two students from Stour Valley Community School laid the wreath on the Town Council's behalf. A minute's silence was held. Deputy Chair of Clare Town Council, Alan Parsley, recited from the Lawrence Binyon poem:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

The last line was repeated by those present. The Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, Paul Lord, had a brief word of thanks to the fallen and the need to commemorate them.

HERBERT PASK
Private 5965 2 Bn Suffolk Regiment
Enlisted Saffron Walden
Medals: 1914 Star, Victory Medal, British War Medal
1st Theatre of War France 22.9.1914
Died 19th June 1915, killed in action, age 33
Burial/Memorial Menin Gate, Ypres, Belgium

Born 1882 Stoke by Clare
Parents Walter Pask and Hannah née Peacocke
Cousin of John Meekings who died in 1919.

Herbert Pask was the youngest of seven children. The Pasks came from Stoke by Clare and lived in Chilton from about 1891. Walter Pask was in charge of the cattle at Chilton Lodge Farm.  In 1901, Herbert was 18 and working as a hay binder in Black Notley. In 1911 he was living with his parents at Chilton Lodge Farm and was a horse keeper on a farm.

One of the streets in the new development off Stoke Road has been named after him.

Many thanks to Terence Farant for forwarding this information, kindly provided to him by Phil Gryce, Clare Town Councillor.

This information on Herbert will be included in the next Pask website update. His cousin, John Meekings, was the son of Charles and Ursula Meekings née Pask.