Two memorial plaques commemorating employees of Wood & Sons who served – and lost their lives – in the Great Wars have recently been rediscovered at the National Memorial Arboretum.
Originally displayed at the company’s Burslem factories – including Trent, New Wharf and the Stanley works – these memorials stand as quiet witnesses to the profound loss experienced by one of the Potteries’ most significant manufacturing communities. Today, as part of a wider local heritage project, work is underway to create a complete Memorial and Roll of Honour for Burslem’s Fallen with thanks to Mike Lightfoot and his team of Burslem’s War Memorials Steering Group. Mike led the team behind The Kilngate Memorial Project which took pride in Honouring the Royal Doulton Fallen supported by volunteer researchers Ruth Butler and Rob Price from The Doncaster Museum Memorial project.
This blog begins by remembering some of the men who gave their lives in the First World War.
With thanks to research undertaken by prominent British military historian and leading expert on the British Army and its commanders during the First World War, Professor John Bourne who grew up in Burslem.
The Men Behind the Names
The First World War memorial from Trent, New Wharf and Stanley Potteries records employees who left their roles in kilns, workshops and offices to serve their country. They were painters, turners, mould-makers, clerks and labourers – skilled craftspeople whose working lives were rooted in the industrial heart of Stoke-on-Trent.
Below are brief biographies of some of those who fell.
Hood, Frederick (1890-1915)
3402 Private Frederick Hood, 1/5th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment, was killed in action on 13 October 1915. 1/5th North Staffords were part of 137 (Staffordshire) Brigade, 46th (North Midland) Division, the first Territorial division to deploy to France as a complete formation. He was killed during the division’s first major action, the disastrous assault on the Hohenzollern Redoubt at Loos. 13 October 1915 was the worst day of the war for Staffordshire.
Frederick Hood was born in Burslem in 1890, the son of Arthur Hood (1862-1936), a weighing machine man, and his wife Emma (née Scott) (1863-1918), a decorating mistress. At the time of the 1911 Census he was living with his parents at 12 Jenkins Street, Burslem, but at the time of his attestation on 21 September 1914, aged 24 years 9 months, the family had moved to the nearby 63 Price Street. Frederick worked as a warehouseman at Wood & Sons’ Wharf Pottery. He was unmarried. He had an older brother, Albert, and three younger sisters, Nellie, Dorothy and Jessie.
Hood has no known grave but is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, France.
Mitchell, Thomas (1896-1916)
27501 Private Thomas Mitchell, 7th (Service) Battalion Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, was killed in action on 14 November 1916. (He was originally 3944 North Staffordshire Regiment.) 7th Loyals were part of 56 Brigade, 19th (Western) Division. Mitchell was killed during the Battle of the Ancre, the last stage of the Somme campaign.
Thomas Mitchell was born in Burslem in 1896, the son of Thomas Mitchell. At the time of the 1911 Census he was living with his aunt and uncle, John and Margaret Ellen Bebbington at 92 Stanley Street, Burslem, and working as a handle maker for Wood & Sons.
He has no known grave, but is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial, France, and on the St Paul’s Church Memorial, Dalehall, Burslem. He was aged twenty at the time of his death and unmarried.
Newton, Thomas (1891-1915)
16321 Private Thomas Newton, 2nd Battalion Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment) was killed in action on 3 June 1915, aged twenty-three. 2nd Duke’s was a Regular battalion, part of 13 Brigade, 5th Division.
Thomas Newton was born in Hanley on 23 January 1891, the third of nine children of Thomas Newton (1863-1903) and his wife Ann (née Leonard, later Rhead) (1871-1936). Thomas married Martha Davis on 2 November 1912 at St Joseph’s R.C. Hanley. They had two children, a son who died after a few months in 1913 and a daughter born in July 1914. They lived at 26 Union Street, Hanley. Thomas volunteered for military service on 2 January 1915 and was posted to 3rd (Reserve) Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment, but on 28 April he transferred to 3rd (Reserve) Battalion Duke’s before being posted to 2nd Duke’s on the Western Front on 4 May 1915. He was killed less than a month later. At the time he joined the army he was employed as a potter’s placer.
Thomas Newton is buried in Voormezeele Enclosure No. 3, Belgium, and commemorated on the Hanley War Memorial. Two of his brothers were also died during the war: 10324 Private Isaac Newton, 7th Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment, killed in action at Gallipoli on 17 July 1915; and 214320 Corporal Albert Edward Newton, Royal Field Artillery, killed in action on 15 February 1918.
Peppiatt, Ernest Harry (1887-1917)
54498 Private Ernest Harry Peppiatt, 1/7th Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment (Leeds Rifles), was killed in action on 9 October 1917, at Poelcappelle during the Third Battle of Ypres. The Leeds Rifles were part of 146 (1st West Riding) Brigade, 49th (West Riding) Division TF.
Peppiatt was born in Great Brickhill, Buckinghamshire in 1887, the son of Joseph William Peppiatt, a foreman baker, and his wife Alice. The family had moved to Goldenhill by 1901. At the time of the 1911 Census Ernest was living with his family at 11 John Street, Goldenhill. He married Mary Elizabeth Green (1885-1962) in 1913 and they had a daughter, Marjorie (1916-92). He worked as a potter’s clerk for Wood & Sons.
Ernest Peppiatt was thirty years old and married at the time of his death. He has no known grave, but is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium, and on the Tunstall War Memorial.
Ratcliffe, Frederick (1897-1915)
CH/19383 Private Frederick Ratcliffe, Royal Marine Light Infantry, died on 19 July 1915, aged 18. His death was the result of ‘shock due to haemorrhage caused by an accidental fall through [a] window of Drake’s Institute [for Soldiers and Sailors], Devonport’. (Ratcliffe was based at HMS Gibraltar, Devonport.)
Frederick was born in Burslem on 27 March 1897, the son of Arthur J. Ratcliffe (1871-1908) and Mary Elizabeth Ratcliffe. At the time of the 1911 Census he was living with his mother and sister Florence May at 27 William Street, Burslem, and working as a mould runner for Wood & Sons.
Private Ratcliffe is buried in Burslem Cemetery and commemorated on the Barnfields Memorial, Burslem.
Watson, Joseph (1894-1917)
39173 Private Joseph Watson, 1st Battalion South Wales Borderers, was killed in action on 10 November 1917, during the Second Battle of Passchendaele. 1st South Wales Borderers was a Regular battalion, part of 3 Brigade, 1st Division. Watson had formerly served as 3451 Montgomeryshire Yeomanry.
Joseph Watson was born in Burslem in 1894, the son of Joseph, an assurance agent, and his wife Susannah. At the time of the 1911 Census he was living with his parents at 97 Dartmouth Street, Burslem, and working as a clerk for Wood & Sons.
Private Watson has no known grave, but is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial, Belgium.
Yates, William (1877-1914)
6056 Private William Yates, 1st Battalion North Staffordshire Regiment, died of his wounds on 21 December 1914, aged thirty-eight. Yates was a pre-war Regular soldier who had been recalled to the colours from the Reserve on 5 August 1914, deploying to France on 22 October.
William Yates was born in Tunstall in 1877, the son of Richard Yates, a joiner, and his wife Margaret. The family lived for a time in Newport Lane, Burslem, but at the time of the 1911 Census William was living at 25 Hanover Street, Hanley, with his wife Selina and a son, and working as a potter’s placer for Wood & Sons.
Yates had joined the army on 27 December 1899, aged twenty-two, and served throughout the South African War, being awarded the Queen’s Medal, with the Clasps “Cape Colony”, “Orange Free State” and “Transvaal” and the King’s Medal, with Clasps “1901-1902”. He also served in India and Egypt. On 1 April 1904 he extended his army service to complete eight years with the colours.
Yates died of his wounds at No. 2 Clearing Hospital, Bailleul, and is buried in the Communal Cemetery (Nord), France.
Wood. T.
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From the Potteries to the Front
For many pottery workers, enlistment meant leaving tightly connected communities centered around chapel, terraced streets and factory life. Entire shifts signed up together. Letters home would have travelled back to Burslem describing trench conditions in France and Belgium, service at Gallipoli, or campaigns further afield.
The loss of these men would have been felt not only by their families, but across the factory floor – empty benches, silent wheels, and unfilled roles marking their absence long after the war ended.
The rediscovery of the memorials offers an opportunity not simply to list names, but to restore stories – to understand who these men were before they became casualties of war.
Help Us Reconnect Families with Their History
We are now appealing to trace descendants and relatives of the men named on the memorial. Families may still live locally or may have moved further afield. Photographs, letters, employment records, medals or family memories all help to piece together the fuller picture of their lives.
This work forms part of a wider community-led effort to ensure that Burslem’s fallen are remembered with dignity, context and care.
If you believe you may be connected to any of the individuals named – or those in the World War II memorial board below from Stanley Pottery, or if you can help in any way – please get in touch:
THANK YOU.
Read more about Wood & Sons in the Second World war here.
