A CENTURY ago the uncle of a Walney man was bringing smiles to faces as he entertained the troops in France as part of a concert party but three years later was dead as a victim of the IRA.

The group was called “the Sparks” and must have provided a welcome break from the hardship and danger of trench life in 1917.

William Spalding Watts features in a group of items preserved by his nephew Arthur Watts, of Saunders Close, Walney, including a concert programme, pictures, and receipts from buying his new uniform 1918 when he was promoted to be a lieutenant.

His military career continued in Ireland after the First World War and he was killed by the IRA in 1920 - his mummified body was believed to have been found 42 years later.

Mr Watts writes: “On Friday it was 100 years to the day when my father’s brother - and my uncle - William S. Watts was in France and took part in a concert given by The Sparks to entertain the troupes.

Sapper Watts sung solo the song Two Eyes of Grey, written and composed by Daisy Mc Geogh in 1903, and was one of the trio who sang Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula, by E. R. Goetz, J. Young and P. Wendling in 1916.

“He also played the part of office boy in the play Vestibule of the Hotel De Quick.

“The following year William was promoted to second lieutenant and bought his uniform from Warren and Company, tailors and costumiers, of 45 Kings Street, South Shields, paying a grand total of £43 11 shillings eight pence.

“He went on to survive the war and was posted to Ireland where on November 15 in 1920 he was on a train at Waterfall, County Cork when the IRA boarded and took him and two captains off the train.”

An official report noted that the officers were in plain clothes and were travelling from Cork on the Blandon and South Coast Railway.

At Waterfall Station three men armed with revolvers boarded the train and kidnapped the officers.

The duties of Lt Watts, of the Royal Engineers, was said to be confined to electric lighting.

A translated copy of an anti-British letter – dated November 26 - was produced which said the three officers from the train and three others had been “court martialled” and sent “to a better land” or “ to heaven”.

The inquiry reached the conclusion that the three officers from the train “were murdered by rebels between the dates of the 15th and 26th November, 1920.”

In a statement to the House of Commons on November 18, Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill, said Lt Watts might have been kidnapped as he was thought to have been the witness to the murder of a police sergeant.

It took until November 29 in 1921 for the British Authorities to be convinced that Lt Watts was dead and he was commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial at Southamptonfor those with no known grave.

The father of Lt Watts was also called William Spalding Watts and he was born at Great Yarmouth in 1864.

He became an apprentice cooper and fish curer at the age of 14 and his son was born at South Shield in 1895.

The son married Mabel M. Holt, at Medway, Kent, in 1919 and they had a daughter called Joan.

Mr Watts said: “In 1962 a body was found mummified in a bog in Ireland which my father’s sister Ethel claimed was William because he had fair hair and was dressed in khaki shirt and pants.

“I have my doubts about this because the men when taken were in plain clothes - but he may have had the army shirt and pants on under a coat.”

The South Shields Gazette, on August 3 in 1962, said the body had been found by workers in Mountown Bog, Geevagh, County Sligo.

Ethel Nichols told the paper: “The last time anyone saw my brother was at Waterford where he was holding his hands above his head surrounded by Sinn Feiners,”