Whitley Bay Rockcliff Rugby Football unveiled a war memorial dedicated to those players who lost their lives during the First and Second World Wars. The club's memorial board only recorded the names of those lost during the Second World War. The names of those killed during the First World War had been lost over the years. A project was launched to trace those Rockcliff players "We lost them. We found them. We brought them home"
The project discovered 14 players names and those names were added to the men lost during World War Two. The memorial was unveiled by the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear. A final roll call for the 14 players was read out by the clubs age grade section aged 5 to 18.
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| Whitley Bay Rockcliff War Memorial Dedication |
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| Whitley Bay Rockcliff War Memorial |
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| Poppy Sword Challenge Rockcliff v Hartlepool Rovers |
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One of those commemorated on the war memorial is Thomas Rogerson who played for Rockcliff in the two seasons prior to the First World War and was killed in action serving with the Tyneside Scottish.
Lance Sergeant Thomas Rogerson 21/1105
21st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers
2nd Tyneside Scottish
KIA La Boisselle 1st July 1916
Commemorated Thiepval Memorial
The First World War player-soldiers traced by the project includes:
- Frank Bastow. His family lived in Victoria Avenue in Whitley Bay. In 1914 he gained a mathematical scholarship at Clare College, Cambridge, intending to take an engineering degree. On March 16, 1915, as a second lieutenant, Frank landed in France and for the next year was almost continuously in the trenches in the Ypres Salient in Belgium. He was severely wounded in the elbow and this kept him back home in the UK for 18 months. He was promoted to captain and returned to France in April 1918. In May 1918, the Germans launched their spring offensive. Frank’s unit was manning frontline trenches and suffered heavy casualties. When the battalion had moved into their positions on May 20, their strength had been 18 officers and 524 men. After the attack only six officers and 128 men survived. Frank’s body was never located.
- Ossie Chambers lived at Dove Street, Cullercoats, with his wife their five children He enlisted in 1915 in the Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in action on May 7, 1916.
- Richard Christopher lived at Marine, Drive, Monkseaton and was a pupil at the Royal Grammar School (RGS) in Newcastle. He was employed as a clerk in a shipping office. He joined the Northumberland Fusiliers and was a second lieutenant in the Machine Gun Corps. In 1917 this section formed the Tank Corps, and Richard was promoted to lieutenant. On September 29, 1918, in the Battle of St Quentin Canal the Allies attacked the highly fortified German Hindenburg Line. All of the tanks were eventually put out of action, with the battalion having two officers and 21 men killed. A shell struck Richard’s tank, killing him instantly.
- Frederick Gibbon lived at Esplanade Avenue, Whitley Bay and attended Dame Allan’s School in Newcastle. He worked as a clerk for the North East Railway Company in Newcastle. He enlisted in the Northumberland Fusiliers and was promoted to second lieutenant. On October 8, 1918, the Northumberland Fusiliers attacked at Walincourt as part of the Allied advance on the Hindenburg Line. Frederick was one of eight members of his battalion who died on that day, and whose body has never been found.
- Thomas Jobling was born at Swalwell, Gateshead and by 1911 he was living at South Parade, Whitley Bay. He was married with two daughters. He was a member of the United Methodist Church and also the honorary secretary of the Rockcliff Swimming Club. He served as a corporal with the Northern Cyclist Battalion and died, aged 28, on December 12, 1915.
- Edwin Laidlow lived at Marine Avenue and worked as a travelling salesman. He was a keen motorcyclist and a member of Tynemouth Rowing Club. Edwin was in London when the war broke out, and enlisted in the London Scottish regiment, leaving for France in September 1914, where the London Scottish were packed on to 34 London buses and driven to the front. During the first Battle of Ypres on November 1, 1914, the London Scottish lost 394 of their 700 men, Edwin being one of them.
- Robert Meikle lived in Marine Avenue in Whitley Bay. He served in the Durham Light Infantry and died in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. This was the first Battle in which tanks were deployed.
- Lucien Penther was born in Finistere, France. As he is recorded on the Commercial Exchange Monument at the Newcastle Guildhalll, it is believed that he was involved in the import/export trade. At the outbreak of war he returned to France and enlisted in the infantry, He was killed in the first Battle of the Marn on September 7, 1914.
- Ernest Phillips worked for the North Eastern Railway at Percy Main Station, and enlisted in the Northumberland Fusiliers. He was killed in August 1918, while taking part in an attack near the Bapaume Arras railway in France. He was buried at Railway Cutting Cemetery, Courcelles.
- Walter Platten lived at Holywell Avenue, Whitley Bay, and worked as a shipbroker’s clerk on Newcastle Quayside. He served as a second lieutenant and was killed in September 1916 at Loos in France on his first night on duty in the trenches.
- Pattison Ridley, known by his middle name of Reay, was born at Heworth, Gateshead, with the family moving to Linden Terrace in Whitley Bay. He attended the RGS and became an apprentice naval architect. He served as a lieutenant and was awarded the Military Cross for his actions in February 1917 in leading an attack on German trenches. In May 1917, his battalion took part on the opening day of the Battle of Bullecour. Reay was reported missing believed killed in action and his body was never recovered.
- Arthur Robinson lived at Windsor Gardens in Monkseaton and gained a scholarship to the RGS. Before the war he worked as a clerk for the North Eastern Railway in Newcastle. He was killed in 1916 on the Somme. His body was never recovered.
- Thomas Rogerson lived at Cambridge Avenue in Whitley Bay and worked as a clerk for a coal exporter. He served with the Northumberland Fusiliers and was one of 131 men from his battalion who were killed at Lo Boisselle in the murderous first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Thomas’s body was never found and his name is one of the 72,331 recorded on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme.
- John Routledge was born at Blyth, but in 1901 his family were living at Park Terrace in Whitley Bay. Educated at St Oswald’s College, Tynemouth and the RGS, in March 1915 he was a lieutenant with the Northumberland Fusiliers. At some point he served with the Cameroon Expeditionary Force in an arduous African campaign. The campaign ended when German forces surrendered in February 1916. On May 20, 1917, he arrived in France, where he was killed by a sniper. The area where John was buried was the scene of further fighting and his grave could not be located.