BORN STANFORD, YORKSHIRE, 1892. ONLY SON OF MATHEW JAMES KIRKMAN (1864-1925) & LOUISE HELEN HABBERSHAW (1866-1952), AT 62 SOMERSCALES STREET, BEVERLEY ROAD (1911 CENSUS) AND 46 , FOLKESTONE STREET, HULL (CWGC ADDRESS). SON OF A BUILDER. AND BROTHER TO THREE SISTERS, ELIZABETH, EVERLYN AND LAVINIA. PRIOR TO ENLISTING HE WORKED FOR MESSRS BARKER SONS & CO, SEED CRUSHERS, 44 HIGH STREET, HULL.
HE ENLISTED IN THE 10TH HULL PALS.SERVED IN EGYPT, FRANCE AND BELGIUM. KILLED BY SNIPER AT OPPY WOOD WHILST RESCUING A WOUNDED CAPTAIN. HE WAS RECOMMENDED BY THE CAPTAIN FOR A DISTINCTION. UNMARRIED. HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS FATHER, WILLIAM.
HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH ON 17TH MAY 1917. HIS NAME IS COMMEMORATED AT ST MARYS CHURCH, SCULCOATES LANE, HULL.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE HORACE KIRKMAN 10/118. Born 1892, the third of four children and the only son of Matthew and Louisa Kirkman of 46 Folkestone Street, Hull. Horace was working as a Clerk before the war but was among the first to enlist for the new battalion on 1st September 1914. He was a member of ‘D’Company and fought in Egypt and on the Somme before being killed in action on 3rd May 1917 during the fighting for Oppy Wood. His body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial. He was 24 years old. The remnants of the 10th were taken out of the front line after the attack and marched away to rest in huts near Ecurie. They reached there at dawn on May 4th : “Exhausted and depressed and even more so when we heard the total casualties….later in the week we heard that flags in Hull were flown at half mast when eventually news of the disaster reached the city.” The Battalion had been decimated. 68 killed. 46 missing. And an unknown number who died of wounds sustained that day. Prior to Oppy Wood there had been four companies A,B,C & D. After, there were only enough men for three.
