Born: 17th November 1911.
Story
William was the son of Charles David Smales and Mary Edith Davidson, who had married in Kippax on 27th October 1902, and the family lived on Station Road. Before the war William worked for the Kippax Co-Operative Industrial Society as a grocer. He was also a Labour League of Youth leader, known as a great orator of political and religious matters. William was also a local preacher and public speaker, and was in great demand as such during the War in towns across England and Scotland where he was billeted, addressing many meetings of church-goers. His great grandfather was Paul Firth (1827-1901), agent for the Skyrack Express for fifty years, and William had read the paper since being able to read. His father was also an agent since 1901, as well as being a coal miner. Paul Firth’s wife was Mary Ann Butterfield (1835-1916) who knitted blankets for soldiers in the First World War.
William was based in India during the War, meeting up with fellow Kippax villager John Suart. Whilst in India, William once sought an interview with Mahatma Gandhi, but was told that Gandhi was away from home, and was staying with British Labour politician Sir Stafford Cripps. This was actually an important meeting. Churchill had sent Cripps to India on a mission (“the Cripps Mission”) to negotiate an agreement with Indian nationalist leaders that would keep India loyal to the British war effort in exchange for self-government after the war. Cripps had designed the specific proposals himself, but they were too radical for Churchill, and too conservative for Gandhi (pictured with Cripps at the meeting), who demanded immediate independence. No middle way was found and the mission was a failure.
On 18th August 1944, it was reported that William had written a letter to his friend Samuel Cheesbrough full of optimism, as it visualised the end of the War and the prospects facing the Forces when they returned home.
William had married Connie Bolton in 1937, and they lived at 28 Ramsden Terrace. William’s sister Kathleen married Ernest Bailey in 1942. Ernest had also served in the War. Another of William’s sisters, Isadora Smales (1905-1977) married Albert Parker (1905-1977) in Kippax on 2nd March 1935, and Albert was an ARP Warden during the War. On 5th February 1954, William Smales and Albert Parker ran 30 High Street, Kippax selling wine, spirits and beer, trading as R Gough & Sons, as they were leasing the shop (now demolished) from Hilda Annie Gough, Richard Gough’s daughter. William’s ability to tell a story must have been inherited from his father Charles, who told this story on 18th November 1954:
Another example is the letter William wrote below, shortly before he passed away in 1977, aged 65.
Smales Tribe
Very recently I had a letter published in a Sunday newspaper and as a result I received several letters. One letter was particularly interesting since it came from a Mr. Fred Smales of Hemel Hempstead who sought to establish a relationship with me. The name Smales was most uncommon he thought, but he revealed that he was actually born in Kippax and his family left the village at the turn of the century to live in Leeds.
Whenever he sees the name Smales (correctly spelled) in print his heart leaps for joy, for he believes there are not many of us and “that we are a tribe set apart.” Moreover, his grandfather’s name was William! Could there be any connection? Surely there must be!
Actually I do share Mr. Smales’s enthusiasm for my surname, but even more for the full title – William Smales. I was sorry to have to tell him that I can remember when they were at least six separate families of Smales, all living at one and the same time in Kippax and only very distantly related. Moreover, the six families all produced a William, of which I am one. And anyway, the name Smales is not at all uncommon in the general Wakefield district.
But to continue! I have seen my name on the Roll of Honour in Whitkirk church, on a tombstone in Richmond churchyard, and once I was sitting in the outpatients’ department of a Wakefield Hospital talking amiably to the chap sitting next to me when the sister called for Mr. Smales. We both stood up. Quite unmoved, she added: “Mr. William Smales.” We both strode out together! Then hurriedly consulting her list the sister said, “Mr. Smales’ of Lofthouse,” and I was left stranded but not before my namesake had expressed his surprise that we should have been chatting together for quite a long time and both totally unaware that we shared the same name. My grandfather’s name was also William and indeed it was my grandmother’s express wish that I should be named after him.
To add some spice to all this conjecture, I must tell you that my daughter Margaret, when at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, discovered a book in the Bodleian library (“The history of the West Riding”) which produced the information that there were once two coalpits in Kippax, one of which was owned by William Smales (in the 14th century!) Before anyone stops to think of making a claim on a possible elusive fortune, I should point out that the pit was probably no more than a hole in the ground and that anyway, there are so many William Smales’s knocking around that before we could establish any direct line of descent we should probably all find ourselves very much in debt.
All this brings me to the real point. I believe it is a fact that some Christian names had a tremendous popularity up and to the end of the 19th century. William commanded something like 20 per cent of all baptismal names recorded, as also did names like John, Alice and Mary. How strange it is that these four Christian names should appear on the first two publications in your new “What’s your Name?” competition. There is the tendency for the old names to creep back into circulation as anyone who consults the baptismal register will discover, but nevertheless young parents of today seem to have a much wider choice of names than ever their forebears had or ever thought about. I wonder what are the chances of another William Smales popping up?
William Smales, Kingsway, Garforth, Leeds.
P.S. Don’t say it’s up to you! I am 64 years of age and produced only one child, Margaret.
Kippax Roll of Honour 