Bill Sykes' Newsletter
from America.
(February 2004)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Above and beyond the call of duty.
In June of 2003, whist vacationing in the UK,
my wife Sheena and I took a side trip to the north of
England to revisit, after many years of absence, the place
of my birth, the town of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.
If you wish to read my impressions of the "Old Home
Town", you can find them in the August
2003 Edition of, "View from America".
During a three day visit to Huddersfield I became re-acquainted
with a long lost cousin and her family who I hadn’t
seen or heard of for over 50 years. (But there again that’s
another story).
This is the story about the dedication of a Scout Master
and his troop of Scouts to their sworn oath, "To
perform their duties to the best of their ability in order
to benefit the people of their community and the people
of the world at large".
The Scout Master and his admirable group of Scouts, (attached
to the Parkwood Methodist Church), took on a task which
without question was quite a formidable one, especially
as it was for an unknown quantity, (myself), and admirably
performed a kindness that is above and beyond the call
of duty.
The story goes as follows:
During our travels about town, we went to the village
of Longwood and visited Parkwood Methodist Church for
the purpose of finding out the dates of the demise of
my Father and my Mother who are buried there.
The general idea was to approach anyone who remotely appeared
to have connections with the church and find out if there
was any means of examining the Parish records to determine
which year my parents were buried within the precincts
of the church.
In a chance meeting with the Scout Master I mentioned
my predicament and indicated that although I knew the
approximate location of the gravesite in the back lot
of the burial ground, my knowledge of the dates of their
burial was pretty vague as I was only a boy of eleven/twelve
years of age at the time of my Father’s death. My
guess was that my Father died and was buried in 1938,
and my mother died and was buried two years later in 1940.
The Scout Master said that if I would leave my name and
address with him he would research the Parish records
and would forward any information he could find to my
home in California.
In early January of 2004, much to my surprise I received
a letter from a Mr. Richard Jackson the Scout Master,
which not only contained the years of my parents burial,
1938 and 1939 respectively, but photographs of their grave.
I must tell you that at the time of our meeting six months
earlier in June of 2003, many of the graves against the
rear stonewall of the back lot were overgrown with brambles
and other vegetation which completely enveloped and obscured
the gravesites. The before and after photographs, (which
Mr. Jackson enclosed with his letter), showed much to
my amazement that all the brambles and the vegetation
had been cleared away and each grave was now in plain
sight and a headstone had been erected on the grave of
my Father and my Mother. I immediately telephoned Mr.
Jackson and asked him who had performed the reclamation,
knowing full well that it had to be the members of the
Parkwood Methodist Church Scout group.
I was somewhat overwhelmed by the generosity of the Scout
Group and any other parishioners who had assisted in the
transformation and tried to express as best I could my
sincere thanks and gratitude.
I requested as to how I could somehow recompense whom-so-ever
had provided the head stone.
Richard’s very generous reply was that everything
had been taken care of and it would suffice if perhaps
I would send a greeting, which could be presented to the
Congregation, at a special church service which was to
be held in February 2004 where the subject would be a
glimpse into the history of the Chapel.
I immediately got together a letter of appreciation,
which included a group of photographs, one showing myself
as a young boy taken on Armistice day, (the 11th of November,
1938), which seemed to me to be a very appropriate recognition
of my Father’s many years of military service to
his country, at home and abroad as a member of the King’s
Own Yorkshire Light Infantry.
To the best of my knowledge he served in many far away
places such as India and Africa survived some of the terrible
battles of World War One where he was wounded several
times whilst fighting in the trenches of France and Flanders.
By the way, as youngsters, my sister and I attended Parkwood
Chapel Sunday school, and believe it or not I sang in
the children’s choir and even read the Psalm, "The
Lord is my shepherd I shall not want", on one particular
Psalm Sunday.
I am very grateful to the Scouts and the parishioners
of Parkwood Methodist Church for their act of kindness.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
|
