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I don't think so but I believe that there may be lodges elsewhere in Cumbria - Barrow, Carlisle, etc.

The number of lodges varied over the years but if we look at 1948 there were 2 male lodges, 2 female lodges and 2 junior lodges in Workington. No, I’m not from Workington and have never been there!

I do not have a complete set of records, but from the records I have I see that a Mrs Rhoda Clark of 4, Lonsdale Street, Workington, was the Mistress (i.e. the leader) of Ladies Loyal Orange Lodge (LLOL) No. 138 between the years 1934 and 1949. I don’t have records for all the years between 1934 and 1949 but it is quite likely that her role as the Mistress of the lodge was continuous during that period and possibly extended on either side of that period. The full name of the lodge was ‘Christ Church Star of the North LLOL 138’ and it met on the 3rd Monday of each month at Christ Church, Edkin Street, Workington. The lodge ceased to exist sometime in the 1950’s. I hope this information is helpful.

Hi .......  Here is the detail from the book (Pages 80 and 81):

Major Pratt, who had served in the South African war and had been mentioned in Despatches, was soon to be promoted to Lt. Col. He decided to make a raid on the enemy positions. He wanted intelligence to determine if gas was installed in the enemy positions, the name of the enemy unit and the position of the machine guns.

The raid whic was meticously planned was carried out by four raiding parties divided into small groups of men. Each group was led by an NCO. In overall command was 2nd Lt. T Adams. It was very well supported by the Artillery.

These men were all heavily armed with rifles, bayonets and knobkerries. They also carried 10 bombs each and they had scaling ladders, wire cutters, grapnels and amongst other things a dinner bell for signal purposes.

They left their own trenches in the south corner of the Bull Ring to enter the enemy trenches forty five yards east of their own position on the night of September 15th.

As they went over the parapet they heard cheers from a neighbouring trench 'Go on the Inniskillings'. It turned out that the cheers were from the Nationalists in the 'Irish Brigade'  who gave a hearty send off to their Orange brethren from their home county. Theie trenches were on the immediate left of the 11th that particular night.

They crossed their own parapet at quarter to nine with the moon rising behind some cloud. They formed up in a large shell crater twenty five yards from their own trench. Dashing forward they entered the enemy position through an unbelievably convenient gap in the wire.

A sentry challenged them as the leaders were mounting the parapet, fired a couple of shots and missed. Stray bullets from machine gun cross fire in No Mans Land caused two casulaties.

The first group led by L/Cpl Charles Wray from Taughboyne, Co Donegal, went south along the enemy front line. They met tough resistance and retaliated with bomb and bayonet. They killed eight and took one prisoner. A deep dug out was bombed. Sets of equipment were found on the parapet and these were thrown out but could not be recovered later.

L/Cpl Wray having used all his bombs collected German grenades and used them effectively. Sadly he was killed in this raid. He was awarded the MM for his courage on July 1st but the notification was not published until 4th October 1916. He did not live to receive the award.
 


 





 

Thanks for this. Very sad that so many died so young. The dates confirm that John was the youngest to die from the Carrigans area.