Redfern’s Cottage WW1 Centenary event success

The Redfern’s Cottage WW1 centenary event, which took place on the 4^th June, was hugely successful and well attended by people looking to learn more about their relatives named on the war memorial.

This event gave visitors the chance to meet Gillian and Alan Talbot who have dedicated the past ten years to researching the lives of the men named on our war memorial on Bear Hill in the Market Place and who now have information on every single one of them, such as what they did in civilian life and where they lived in the town, as well as their war careers and eventual deaths.

One particular visitor to the 4^th June event brought her own family memorial brooch which was given to her husband’s family following the death of Joseph Copeland in 1917.

Before the war Joseph was employed at the Leighton Ironworks in Uttoxeter, where agricultural machinery was made by the Bamford family. Joseph was determined to serve in the war, but he was rejected several times. He finally met with success in 1916, but died shortly afterwards from pneumonia in February 1917 in hospital in Ripon. He is buried in Uttoxeter Cemetery. He left a wife, Harriet, and a child, Bill who went on to marry Pauline Copeland who brought the brooch in to Redfern’s Cottage.

In March 1917 the Uttoxeter Advertiser published a description of Joseph Copeland’s funeral. This said that his coffin, placed on a gun carriage, was escorted to Ripon railway station by a band, 60 drivers and 110 gunners. A bunch of flowers from his comrades was on the coffin when it arrived at Uttoxeter station.He was accorded full military honours and on the day of his funeral a detachment of the Uttoxeter Volunteer Force, under Sergeant Major John Latimer Collyer, preceded the funeral cortege from the house to the cemetery, where the service was held. The graveside was lined by the Volunteers, who stood at the salute while a bugler sounded the ‘Last Post’.

Mrs Copeland brought in a number of other documents and was able to provide Gillian and Alan with another piece of the puzzle.

“We are absolutely thrilled to see another of these unique and beautiful objects as they are now extremely rare, even at the time as Uttoxeter was the only town that we know of to produce them for the families of the Fallen men.” Said Hon. Curator, Laura Wigg-Bailey

Thanks to all those who attended and brought more information about the Fallen men of Uttoxeter to the attention of Gillian and Alan Talbot, who will be publishing a book containing all their research which is due to be launched in November this year.

If you have one of these amazing brooches please make contact with Redfern’s Cottage on 01889567176 or [email protected] as we would love to see and photograph them with your permission.

The exhibition ‘WW1 Uttoxeter’s Fallen Heroes’ is free and open at Redfer’s Cottage until the end of the year but we will be changing some of the exhibits around in August in order to show more of our collection, so we invite everyone to come down and see what’s on display. For more information see our website www.redfernscottage.org.