Young Joseph attended the Staveley Works School at Barrow Hill and was known in the village as "quite a lad as a newsagent for Sunday papers". Joe was a miner at Ireland Colliery when he enlisted at Staveley and joined the 10th Bat The-Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) as a Private in June 1915. Killed aged 22 at the battle of Flers_Courcelette during the Battle of the Somme. Brother to Beatrice, Sarah, Mary Ann, Luke, Elizabeth, Hannah and Alice my grandmother who married Bertie Turner and had 4   children, Joe Arthur Elsie (my mother) and Alwyn.  Cousin James Benison also died on 17th July 1916 aged 22 andcousiFrank 

Kelvin Bates