There are two commemorative stained glass windows from WWI at St Aidan’s.

We wondered if we could find out why Charles Kirby and Walter Baldwin are remembered here in this small church at Carlton, but didn’t know where to start until we followed a suggestion to look on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.

This meant we could find their regiments and the memorial where they are commemorated. It also shows who their parents were.

Charles Edwin Kirby was in the Northumberland Fusiliers, 1st/7th Battalion. He died in France age 20 on the 26th October 1917 and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing.

Tyne Cot memorial includes the battle of Passchendaele, which began on 26th October. From the date it seems likely that Charles was one of 96 men who were killed or missing from the battalion by the end of the day on the 26th, as described in the war diary of 1st/7th Battalion.

F. Walter Baldwin was one of 8 siblings born in Carlton. He joined the Yorkshire Regiment 5th Battalion. He is commemorated at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme, which bears the names of more than 72,000 who died in the Somme sector before 20 March 1918 and have no known grave.

I found a description of the experience of the 5th Battalion in the battles of the Somme. The battle of Flers/Courcelette was fought from the 15th-22nd September 1916. As Walter died on 16th September it was likely during this battle that he was killed, aged 28.

From census data Charles Kirby and Walter Baldwin both lived in Carlton, and both were from farming families. They would have known each other’s families, although they don’t seem to be related.

There is another window commemorating Martha Kirby, grandmother of Charles, who lived at Easingwold. Perhaps a member of the Kirby family commissioned the windows?