More than 100 years after his death, a private soldier commemorated on the St Mary’s Selby Roll of Honour has full recognition for his military service in the Great War, thanks to years of painstaking research by parishioner Rona Houlton.
Leading up to the WWI Centenary, each man named on the St Mary’s memorial plaque was researched so that the parish could honour the men who served, find photographs, and even relatives. Among the names was Emmanuel Joseph Foxton – but no other information was to be found through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). In effect, Private Foxton was an ‘unknown’ soldier, unlisted in the CWGC’s database, and his final resting place was a mystery.
Over several years, Rona’s research produced enough information for the Commission to open a file in 2018, and by 2023 enough was known to include Emmanuel Foxton’s name in the United Kingdom Book of Remembrance. By the following year, searches of local burial registers established that Emmanuel, whose mother seems likely to have been a Catholic, was buried near his father and grandfather in the churchyard at St Helen’s Church in Escrick.
Although attempts to find living relatives have so far proven fruitless, by 3 September this year, Pte Foxton’s grave was marked by one of the familiar white headstones denoting a Commonwealth War Grave – and on 6 November, the local Church of England Vicar, Rev Jackie Doyle-Brett, led a Service of Remembrance and Commemoration, with prayers from Fr Anthony Wilson, Parish Priest of St Mary’s in Selby. The service was attended by representatives of The West Yorkshire Regiment with which Private Foxton served (now amalgamated with the Royal Yorkshire Regiment), The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), Keith Mather MP, parishioners, and local veterans.
Rona’s research into this ‘lost’ casualty of the ‘War to end all wars’ discovered that Emmanuel Joseph Foxton was born into a farming family on 17 March 1896 and died on 3 January 1919, aged 22, as a direct result of injuries sustained during WWI. As a child he had lived in Selby, before moving to Armley in Leeds with his Mother after his father’s death.
He had enlisted with the Prince of Wales’ Own West Yorkshire regiment on 1 December 1915 and was deployed to the Western Front on 5 January 1917. The Regimental War Diary extracts tell of weeks of bitterly cold weather, insufficient rations, and heavy enemy barrage fire. Gassing incidents were becoming a common feature and resulting in multiple injuries, and it was to this that Emmanuel fell victim and was evacuated from France on 5 March 1917 on Ambulance Train 27. He was discharged on 24 April 1917 and was resident in Hemingbrough when he died as a direct result of his gassing injuries. He was buried in Escrick Churchyard on 7 January 1919.
Attending the service in Escrick to remember Emmanuel Foxton, St Mary’s parishioner Rona said of her labour of love: ‘Many times over the last years I never thought this day would ever come. I send my thanks to all who helped me conclude this achievement and are helping to make this day a fitting one for Emmanuel.’
Fr Anthony Wilson & Rev Jackie Doyle-Brett at Pte Foxton’s graveside Service of Remembrance
(Photos printed with permission of Forge Photography & Film Production Ltd)
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