Louis William and Charles Henry Hirst were the sons of Willie and Miriam Hirst. Their parents were Leeds people, Willie having been born in Guisley and Miriam in Yeadon. WIllie and Miriam were married in 1890 in the Leeds area.

Beatrice was born in November 1893 in Nottingham folllowed by Louis William in December 1895 in Cleckheaton. Willie who was a dyer by trade and Miriam moved between Cleckheaton and Nottingham at this time: although born in the former, by the time came for Louis to be baptised in July of 1896, they were living in the latter place and it was in Nottingham that Charles Henry was born as were three more daughters.

When the census of 1911 was taken, the family was back in Cleckheaton yet when Willie died in the spring of 1914, his death was recorded in Nottingham. During the First World War the family moved to Sheffield although it is not clear why this happened.

Louis joined the Army Service Corps and was fortunate to survive the war but Charles was not so lucky. He was serving with the 2/6 Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regiment) when he was killed on 24th September 1918. The webiste Derbyshire Territorials in the Great War provides some information, including the vital piece of evidence that Charles was ‘from Sheffield’ though no evidence is offered for this.

Charles is buried at Roisel Cemetery 

Louis, along with his mother and sisters, remained in Sheffield. His name is included on the tryptic in Fulwood Church that lists the men of the parish who served in the First World War so his address was in the Fulwood area. By 1939 he was living on Graham Road along with his wife, Gladys, and his daughter Adrianne.

The register records that Louis was a ‘Motor Engineer’ an occupation he had had since at least 1925, the year when he took a customer to court for failing to settle a debt. The report in the Daily Telegraph said he was ‘of Sandygate Road’ which may have been his business address (there was motor dealer on Sandygate Road where St Francis Close was built until at least the 1980s.)

Louis was also in partnership with Thomas Arthur Watson and Basil Ashby Saunders, who had witnessed Louis’ marriage in 1925,  as the Sandygate Haulage Company which the partners dissolved in 1930, leaving Watson to continue the business from his home on Snaithing Lane.

Louis died in 1955 in Sheffield about 12 years after Gladys