1195869

The 2024 Remembrance Service with the help of historian and teacher Dan Eaton:

The Gautier family, well-respected members of the Ranmoor community, faced tragic losses during the First World War. Their story is emblematic of the pain and sacrifice endured by many families of that era. The family consisted of parents, their sons, and daughters who lived a comfortable and active life in Ranmoor before the war.

The Gautier family's sacrifice became a symbol of the shared loss experienced by the community. Their names were inscribed on the Ranmoor War Memorial, and their story continues to remind future generations of the cost of war.

Dan Eaton, with the participation of the congregation, brought this poignant history to life. Members of the congregation played roles representing the family members and the moments of departure, heartbreak, and reflection. Through this living history, attendees connected deeply with the emotional weight of the Gautier family's experiences.

Their story serves as a somber reminder of the human cost of conflict and the enduring importance of remembrance.


 

GAUTIER, Albert Edward Gaultier 1

(18672, Private, York & Lancaster Regiment)

Lived: 34, Tapton Bank       

Born: 1898, Attercliffe, Sheffield       

Killed in action 9th August 1915 (aged 16)

 

The first of three Gautiers from Tapton Bank to die around time of the Great War, Albert was another to lie about his date of birth and joined up aged 16 on the 1st February 1915, adding an extra three years onto true age.  Like many others from Crosspool he joined the York & Lancaster Regiment but instead of being posted to one of the new Service battalions was sent to the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, who were training re-enforcements to send to regular battalions already on the Western Front.  As a result on the 1st May 1915 he was sent to the 1st Battalion who had been fighting the Germans since the preceding August and who by this point were desperate for fresh troops to replace their losses.

After a slight misdemeanour at the beginning of June when he was absent from 7.30am roll call and did not re-appear until 4pm in the afternoon (and for which he was awarded 3 days Field Punishment Number 2) he had a relatively quiet time at the front until the beginning of the Battle of Loos in early August 1915.  Just as the battle began, Albert was killed in action on 9th August becoming the first (and youngest) Crosspool man to be killed who volunteered after war broke out just 190 days after enlisting in Sheffield.  He was the son of Francis and Edna of Tapton Bank and declared himself to be a Confectioner on enlistment (although if this was his actual career it would have been more likely that he was an apprentice rather than being in business for himself).

 

Gautier 2

GAUTIER, Francis Herbert 

(10885, Serjeant, Cheshire Regiment)

Lived: 34, Tapton Bank

Born: 1872, Wakefield           

 Died in hospital 11th June 1916 (aged 42)

 

The father of Albert and possibly one of the oldest of the casualties from the St. John’s men, Francis’ service record was very different to his son’s.  In 1901 he was listed as being a Police Constable (number 417) living with his family at 105, Broadoaks, Attercliffe and as he continued in this career until the beginning of hostilities in 1914 he would have been an ideal candidate for a Non-Commissioned Officers (N.C.O.’s) post despite his age.  He had previously served as a Private soldier in the Cheshire Regiment in the Boer War and it hardly seems surprising therefore that he volunteered to join one of their Service battalions in late 1914, and was placed in the newly formed 11th Battalion.  Although we can never be sure today it is very possible that this unit was short of experienced men to fill N.C.O.’s positions (many of the Service battalions were at this point as all regular soldiers and territorials were already actively engaged) and Francis was more than likely to have been asked to join them with the promise of quick promotion.  After training with them and by the time they arrived overseas on 25th September 1915 he was a Serjeant, one of the senior N.C.O. positions.  At this point he would have found out his eldest son Albert had been killed in action just weeks previously and the turmoil both he and his family would have been going through is palpable.

At this some point between this time and spring 1916 he was sent back from the front with cancer, although as his service records no longer survive so the specifics will now never be known, and he was evacuated back to Sheffield Royal Infirmary to receive treatment.  He survived until the 11th June when he succumbed and was laid to rest in the Sheffield General Cemetery.  His original resting place no longer exists as the Sheffield General Cemetery War Graves could no longer be maintained and a new memorial in the City Road Cemetery in the form of a Screen Wall was erected instead.  Nearly five years to the day another Gautier would be laid to rest in the General Cemetery and today is listed on the City Road Memorial Screen.

The grief for Francis’ wife Edna must have been unimaginable, having lost both a husband of 19 years (they were married in the summer of 1897) and her eldest son within the space of nine months.  She remained at Tapton Bank until after the war bringing up their remaining four children as a war widow.  Fortunately, they were all too young to be involved in the hostilities: Herbert was 17 when peace was declared, Wilfred was 14, Pierre was 10 and Edna was7, but fate was to have other plans for Wilfred.

 

 

 

 

 

GAUTIER, Wilfred (4525311, Private, (Prince of Wales Own) West Yorkshire Regiment)

Lived: 34, Tapton Bank Born: 1905 Died: 16th June 1921

 

Although not a casualty of the war, Wilfred died in the Armed Forces shortly after and was given a Commonwealth War Grave making his inclusion in this book a logical choice.  He was a boy soldier and must have voluntarily enlisted under age shortly before his death – being sixteen he would never have been allowed to serve overseas and must have only began his training shortly before his untimely demise.

Unfortunately, no records are available for Wilfred’s service and we must assume his death is attributed to either illness or accidental injury which just left his widowed mother and three siblings in Crosspool.  

The family remained in the community for many years after the conflict and interestingly the next generation of Gautier’s (presumably descended from the sole surviving son, Herbert Robert) were born from 1921 onwards on Cross Lane, beginning with Albert, who was presumably named after his Uncle, and then Edna followed a couple of years later.  A story told to me by local residents who remember this family is that Albert and Edna’s father was a Police Officer who eventually rose to the rank of Inspector and whose distinguished career included working on the Mooney and Garvin gang war cases in the late 1920’s.