Royal Artillery, Reg. no. 14522085
Born: 26th August 1924.
Story
Stanley Glencoe McKone was known as Glen, and his parents were William McKone (1885-1961) and Ethel Pickard (1890-1974) who married in 1920. William was in the Royal Army Medical Corp during the First World War, and was an ARP Warden in Garforth during the Second World War. He was also vice-president of the British Legion, and in October 1939 at the Annual General Meeting, held in the Commercial Hotel, William made an address deploring the apathy of ex-Servicemen in Kippax, and accused them of only remembering the British Legion when they were in need of it. He also lodged a complaint with the Air Raid Protection Authorities about their behaviour towards First World War Veteran, Charles Ridsdale, who was the Kippax Poppy Day organiser. Glen’s mother, Ethel had married Oswald Parker (1888-1918) on 26th March 1910, and re-married William McKone two years after the death of her first husband. Ethel was one of three illegitimate children of Emily Pickard (1856-1919). Her first child, Louis Pickard was killed on 30th April 1896 in the Peckfield Colliery Disaster, and she tried to conceal the birth of her second child, and was arrested on suspicion of its murder in June 1878, after confessing to her sister Ann, who testified in court that Emily had given birth to a son in a field, and thrown the baby into a pond on the farm of Christopher Hudson, believing the child was dead. She was convicted of concealment of birth, and imprisoned for one month without hard labour. After her sister Ann died in 1897, Emily married Ann’s widower, Smith Backhouse (1853-1902). They had one daughter, Edith in 1899, before Smith passed away, leaving Emily to raise her daughter and three nephews, one of whom was Frank Backhouse (1891-1952), who served in the First World War, and whose son Charles Eric Backhouse served in the Second World War.
Before the War, Glen was a Butcher’s Assistant working in Halton, and then joined the Duke of Wellington Regiment, before moving into the Royal Artillery, and was with the Queen’s Royal West Surrey regiment. He met fellow villager Arthur Kilburn in India, who was later killed in action. Glen served in Burma with the Chindit Force. On one occasion, his unit were in a tight spot, but 5 copies of the Skyrack Express had just been flown in, and Glen was determined to read the home news before he made another move. His Commanding Officer however did not share Glen’s enthusiasm for the Kippax local news, and promptly fined him seven days’ pay. As a consequence, Glen was given the nickname “Skyrack” for the rest of the War.
After leaving the Army, Glen returned to live with his parents William and Ethel at Glenhurst, Kippax Common, until he married Dorothy Grimmett in 1948. They moved to Hawthorne Farm Cottage, Coal Road, Whinmoor. Glen passed away in 1979.
Kippax Roll of Honour 