Labour Corps, Northern Command Centre, Service no. 521615
Born: 5th May 1895. Died: 2nd April 1964
Story
Timothy was the son of William Shackleton (1857-1932) Augusta Smales (1858-1946), and was baptised on 29th May 1895. He was only 4 ft 11 inches tall, with brown eyes, and dark brown hair. He worked as a miner and was living with his parents at 4 Jubilee Terrace, Kippax, before the War. When he enlisted on 16 January 1918, they were living at 10 High Street. Timothy joined the Labour Corps which was raised in 1915 and disbanded in 1921, becoming the Royal Logistics Corps.
The Labour Corps grew to 389,900 men (more than 10% of the total size of the Army) by the Armistice, and around 175,000 were working in the United Kingdom, including Timothy, with the rest serving in the theatres of war. The Corps was manned by officers and other ranks who had been medically rated below the “A1” condition needed for front line service. Many working within the Labour Corps were soldiers who had returned wounded from the front line.
Timothy was discharged from the Labour Corps on 19th March 1918. His army papers state he would be considered as permanently unfit, for reasons which were not due to military service. Timothy had a cleft palate, and the army considered his speech to be “very defective”. The army also noted Timothy had a “deformity of left leg.”
After the War, Timothy lived at 26 High Street. At the age of 47, Timothy married Nellie Gill, who was born in 1897. Timothy was living at 2 Burntside Road, Leeds when he passed away at the age of 68. Nellie was beneficiary of £320 in his will.
Nellie Gill herself passed away on 7th February 1981, aged 84.
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