All text and images © Helvellyn Consulting 2023
Glenthorne (Glen) Jubilee Pattinson was born at the start of 1888 and baptised at Patterdale Church on the 29th January of that year. It is possible he was actually born at the end of 1887 and his middle name was a celebration of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee of that year. He was the youngest child of Abraham and Rebecca Pattinson. Rebecca had been born Rebecca Metcalf, married a Nixon, been widowed and thus married Abraham as Rebecca Nixon on the 1st June 1872. Joseph was employed variously as a labourer, Hunstman and by the time Glen arrived as a Gamekeeper at Patterdale Hall (a post he held for over 50 years), and the family were living at Grassthwaite How, alongside the Bowmans. His older brother Harrison was born three years earlier in 1885, and Glen also had other older siblings including Mary Jane (born 1874), Eliza (1876), Jessie (1878) and Abram (1880). Sadly at least 2 other siblings had died in infancy, Joseph in 1873 and John in 1882.
The Pattinson name has deep roots in Patterdale – there are over 256 Pattinson entries in the Patterdale Parish Registers. The most famous of all was probably Lancelot Pattinson, or “Lanty Patty” as he was known, who lived in a cave near Goldrill Bridge (“Lanty’s Castle”) until his death in 1865 aged 96. It is unclear given the family fondness for sharing the same Christian name exactly what relation Lanty was to Glen but suffice to say that the Dale would have been full of his cousins and relations. He attended Patterdale School and we know that he enjoyed playing football for Ullswater Rovers. We have a copy of a postcard Glen sent in 1906 to a Lena Smith (see below left) showing the “Black and Whites” as they were called after a game against Castletown of Penrith (Ullswater won!). You can see more about this photo on our Ullswater Football Club page -
A year after sending the postcard, on 30th October 1907 Glen married Jane Frith from Lane Head. At this point he was a Forrester and they settled at No 1 High Glenridding where their daughters Violet Mary (April 1908) and Rebecca (March 1910) were born. Glen had begun work at the age of 12 and followed in his father's footsteps at Patterdale Hall in the forestry department.
Private Glenthorne (Glen) Jubilee Pattinson
M2/193357, Mechanical Transport, Royal Army Service Corps
Born 1888 Patterdale. Died 5th January 1973 aged 85 in Glenridding
Son of Abraham and Rebecca (nee Nixon/Metcalf) Pattinson, of Grassthwaite How
Husband of Jane (nee Frith)
Father of Jean and Christine. Grandfather and Great Grandfather
The Postcard from 1906 showing Ullswater Football Club sent by Glen to Miss Lena Smith (card courtesy of Jimmy Brown)
Sergeant Harrison Pattinson
30401 Signals Section of the Royal Engineers
Born February 1885 Patterdale. Died June 1962 aged 77 in Ealing
Son of Abraham and Rebecca (nee Nixon/Metcalf) Pattinson, of Grassthwaite How
Husband of Annie King
Harrison Pattinson was born in 1885 and baptised at St Patrick’s Church in Patterdale on the 29th March of that year. He was the second youngest child of Abraham and Rebecca Pattinson. Rebecca had been born Rebecca Metcalf, married a Nixon, been widowed and thus married Abraham as Rebecca Nixon on the 1st June 1872. Joseph was employed variously as a labourer, Hunstman and by the time Harrison arrived as a Gamekeeper, and the family were living at Grassthwaite How, alongside the Bowmans. His younger brother Glenthorne Jubilee was born three years later in 1888, and Harrison also had other older siblings including Mary Jane (born 1874), Eliza (1876), Jessie (1878) and Abram (1880). Sadly at least 2 other siblings had died in infancy, Joseph in 1873 and John in 1882.
Harrison would have attended Patterdale School and by 1901 the 16 year old was working as a “Hall boy” in a vicarage in Longtown. He continued his life in service and by the time of his enlistment was working as a Valet (Groom of Chambers) for Lord Ashburton at The Grange -
Harrison enlisted in January 1915 into the Signals area of the Royal Engineers. We do not know much detail about his service as we only have copies of his discharge papers, which do not give full details of his time in the army. One interesting fact from his medical records was that he was a strapping six feet tall -
The only other fact we know from his time in Egypt is that he contracted dysentry in March 1918, brought on by the “climate in Egypt”. We know that he was not admitted to hospital but treated at the Reception Station at Kantara in the north east of Egypt on the eastern side of the Suez.
Harrison was finally discharged in August 1919 and was by now living at Birchwood, Albany Road, Leighton Buzzard. This was where he had married Annie King. We have no further details on Annie -
For more information on Harrison’s siblings please see the story of Glenthorne Jubilee Pattinson above. If you know any more about their stories then please let us know.
Harrison’s Regimental Conduct Sheet showing his Mention In Dispatches and also hint as to his possible role as a Despatch Rider
Alongside many in the Dale with families Glen signed up to the army reserve as part of the Derby Scheme in December 1915. When he enlisted his address was Laburnum Cottage in Glenridding and his occupation was Woodsman, although it also stated that he was a driver.
His initial stated preference was to join the Royal Army Medical Corps but his service record shows a series of correspondence in 1916 the conclusion of which was that he was accepted in the Mechanical Transport Section of the Army Service Corps (ASC). Although by no means an easy option this would have at least kept him out of the worst of the trench fighting endured by his friends in the infantry battalions at the front.
Glen was mobilised on the 3rd June 1916 and joined the Grove Park Regimental Depot of the ASC in Lee, London on the 8th July 1916. Less than a month later on the 1st August he set sail on the SS France bound for Flanders, arriving the next day and being assigned to 32 Section HAMT (Heavy Artillery Mechanical Transport), which was attached to 140 Siege Battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). Siege Batteries of the RGA were equipped with heavy howitzers, and were most often employed in destroying or neutralising the enemy artillery, as well as putting destructive fire down on strongpoints, dumps, store, roads and railways behind enemy lines. (see here for more details). As a driver Glen would have been responsible for transporting the ammunition for the artillery as well as the guns themselves. His service record shows that he transferred between various of the Mechanical Transport Companies of the ASC in Flanders through the course of 1916 and 1917, and in February of that year he was assigned to 406 Company, who were the ammunition column for the 27th Brigade of the RGA.
It’s possible that at this point his unit was involved in the action at Vimy Ridge, a famous and costly attack by the Canadians which was supported by British Artillery which included the 17th Brigade. Among those Canadians was John Dewis Place, also from Patterdale, and among those to die in the war.
Glen’s service record shows his was doing a good job, and he was awarded a Good Conduct Badge (worn as an inverted rank chevron on the lower left sleeve of his uniform). He continued to serve with various MT Companies throughout 1917, and other than a brief 2 week leave at the end of November 1917 and another a year later, was in Flanders until his demobilisation in March 1919.
When he returned from the war, he worked for a period with George Taylor and Co, a Penrith bus company. The first motor bus to run to Patterdale was owned by that firm and Glen was the driver on the initial run. At the time the company had the mail contract for Patterdale and district and as each village was reached, the postman was given time to take the letters to the Post Office. In 1925 he set up a haulage business, serving as a local carrier between Patterdale and Penrith for many years.
Glen and his wife later moved to Tenterhow Farm on the Patterdale Hall estate and farmed there for 34 years until their retirement. He was a regular attender at St Patrick's Church and had been a churchwarden for well over ten years.
He was secretary and treasurer of the Parish Hall for over twenty years and was one of the first members of the Ullswater branch of the British Legion. He was a trustee and one of the oldest members of the Loyal Hevellyn Lodge of Oddfellows.
9.2 Howitzers in Action in World War One on the Somme of the sort supported by Glen’s ASC Company
Glen continued to support Ullswater United Football Team, serving as treasurer, and later a vey active club President. According to his obituary in the Herald his duties included “signing on new players, putting up the goal-
He was also a supporter and vice-
Glen was also Westmorland's longest-
“He used to recall that he was encouraged to take up the duty by the late Mr. W. H. Marshall, of Patterdale Hall. Indeed Mr. Marshall, a local J.P. swore in the new recruit at Patterdale Police Station. Amongst his early duties were visits to Hayeswater after it became Penrith's main source of drinking water, and periodic inspections of the explosives store at the Greenside lead mine.
Mountain rescue operations also figured prominently in Mr. Pattinson's work as a special constable. In 1945 he led an R.A.F. mountain rescue team through a blizzard to look for a Mosquito aircraft which had crashed on Helvellyn. Conditions were so bad that police from Shap and Hackthorpe were unable to get through to assist in the search. Later he received a letter from Group Captain P.C.F.Lawton, of R.A.F. Cranefield saying: "I have received a full report of the arduous and dangerous conditions in which the search was conducted, in most difficult country and in very bad weather conditions, and I wish most sincerely to express my admiration and gratitude to you". Six years later, in 1951, he played a leading part in the search for two young women, who were later found dead in the Deepdale Head area.”
Their daughter Violet married to become Violet Smith and moved to Preston. Their daughter Rebecca married Harold Graham Hartness, a Labourer from Shepherd’s Hill Penrith on the 16th February 1935. They had two children, Jean (born 1935) and Christine (born 1942) and lived in Tirril. Rebecca died in September 1982 in Carlisle. By the time of Glen and Jane’s Golden Wedding in 1957 there were already seven grandchildren and four great-
Glen’s father Abraham had died in 1920 aged 83 and his mother Rebecca died in 1935 aged 90. When Glen and Jane retired they lived opposite The Travellers Rest in a house originally called “The Whitehouse” but which Glen renamed Glendene. Jane died on 8th February 1958 aged 71 and Glen himself died on the 5th January 1973 aged 85. They are buried together in Patterdale Churchyard.
As far as Glen’s siblings are concerned his eldest sister Mary Jane married Leander Burnett (from Patterdale Hall) on 3rd Aug 1898. By 1911 she was living at Grassthwaite How with her parents and her children Norah, Percy, Leander (junior) and Alexander. At the time there was no mention of her husband although we know from his Service Papers that by 1917 he was living with Mary Jane and the family at Grisedale Bridge in Patterdale. Mary Jane died in 1973, still living in Grisedale Bridge, as the ripe old age of 99. He daughter Norah never married and also died at Grisedale Bridge in 1986 at the age of 86.
Glen’s sister Jessie married John Flint -
Glen’s elder brother Harrison’s life is described in more detail below. We are unsure at the moment what happened to Glen’s sister Eliza and brother Abram. If you have any information then please let us know.
Glen and Jane’s grave in Patterdale Church to the left and, on the right, their photo as it appeared in the Herald at the time of their Golden Wedding in 1957
And below a family photo on the same occasion -
