SHIPLEY (Hirst Wood) Church Burial Ground contains eight war graves maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Yet hidden here are many more private memorials within the undergrowth, from which tragic family stories from the Great War may still be found.

There is one grave here that visitors to Hirst Wood might just pass by without realising... one that has quite a story.

Recently Alan Raistrick and Stephen Wood were walking through Hirst Wood when they came across a damaged grave of which one surviving part stated: ‘Also of their three sons Sam, John and Herbert who were killed in the Great War’. Other parts of the grave indicated the family name was Gill. Three brothers killed in the 1914-18 war - they simply had to be found.

The CWGC database came up with several possibilities for Sam and John, but without further information on the family, it wasn’t possible to identify the correct ones. A search of the 1911 Census revealed the family; a typical Bradford family, residing at Nearcliffe Road, Heaton. John (Henry) Gill Snr was a joiner as was his eldest son, Sam, John Gill Jnr a stone mason and Herbert a painter. Completing the family were Fanny, the mother, and two daughters, Mary Ann and Dorothy Gill. John Henry Gill died in 1911, aged 47. The realisation that Fanny had lost her husband then all three sons in the Great War spurred me on to trace their stories.

Pte Sam Gill enlisted into the 2nd Bradford Pals in March 1915 and went to Egypt in December, returning to France the following March. Based at Bus-les-Artois, Sam Gill marched off on the evening of June 30, 1916 to assembly positions in front of the German-held village of Serre. On the way, they halted at the ‘Euston Road’ RE Dump to pick up equipment. More observant Pals would notice a large freshly dug pit. It is not known what happened to Sam Gill in the following day’s attack on Serre, but it is likely he was one of the many wounded and taken to the Advanced Dressing Station at Basin Wood, then the Field Ambulance. Medical Services were hopelessly inadequate for the numbers of casualties. Sam Gill died of his wounds and was buried in that pit he would have marched past less than 24 hours before.

Pte John Gill may have been a member of the 6th Bn West Yorkshire Regt (Bradford Territorials) at the start of the war, based near his home, at Belle Vue Barracks. He went to France in April 1915. The battalion war diary reveals they were in the front lines on Pilckem ridge in the Ypres Salient on September 24, 1915. He is recorded as having been killed, with two others. The diary makes no mention of casualties but there was a recommendation that shellfire from a planned artillery bombardment on enemy lines would come just above the trench and the men were ordered to keep their heads down. Casualties of ‘friendly fire’ weren’t always documented in war diaries.

John was buried just behind the lines. Remarkably, his cross survived the war, found in battlefield clearances, but there was no sign of a body. His cross was relocated to Artillery Wood Military Cemetery. Such memorial crosses were later removed, as permanent ‘Memorials to the Missing’ were being constructed. John Gill is commemorated along with 54,000 others ‘Missing’ from the Ypres Salient, on Menin Gate, Ypres. The Last Post sounds each night for them at 8pm.

Pte Herbert Gill joined the Seaforth Highlanders (4th Bn) in May 1915. This regiment held recruitment drives in Bradford. He joined the battalion in France after January 1916. Of the three brothers, Herbert saw the most action, fighting on the Somme then the Battle of Arras in April/May 1917. In August 1917, the battalion moved up to take over positions on Pilckem Ridge - exactly the same area where his brother, John, was killed in September 1915. The battalion was subjected to artillery fire and sniping, 25 were killed and 90 wounded. One of the wounded was Herbert Gill. He died on August 6 and was buried in Dozinghem Military Cemetery.

Further records revealed that Herbert was married and had a daughter, Emily Alice, in 1912. She married, becoming Emily Lumb, in 1939 but died in 1945 leaving no children. Neither Sam nor John Gill married. Their sister Mary Ann married Edwin Dewhirst in 1919, they had a child in 1921 but sadly the baby died the same year. Mary Ann died in 1930. Dorothy Gill never married and looked after her ailing mother, Fanny, who died in 1944. Dorothy died in 1980 - the last of the Gill Family.

There are no known direct descendants. No one to care for their grave at Hirst Wood or keep alive the memory of the three brothers who lost their lives in the Great War. Data held by the CWGC can be variable; Sam and John Gill have no family information, barely just initials and regimental details. Together with Herbert’s fuller information (from his widow), there was no indication the three had even been brothers. Although the CWGC will accept corrections to war casualty data from anyone providing suitable documentary verification, it will only accept updates from family members.

Take a careful look at the photograph of the broken Gill family grave at Hirst Wood. It is not a war grave as such and will not be cared for by the CWGC. A century ago, the Gill family of Nearcliffe Road lost their three sons in the Great War, their mother and sisters’ lives would be marred by its consequences too. They are all gone now and one day their grave, and their story, may be lost too... in Hirst Wood.