As the Friends of St Matthew's Churchyard have restored the area, they have compiled a searchable database which is published on their website. www.lightcliffechurchyard.org.uk
As part of a Heritage Lottery Fund project headstones which commemorated those who died in WW1 have been restored and this led to Dorothy Barker (the Secretary) researching the soldiers and their families. This led naturally to further family researches, all of which are published on the website, under About the churchyard => People of Interest.
https://www.lightcliffechurchyard.org.uk/about-churchyard/people-of-interest
The Friends have had a good number of contacts following these publications from family members which has allowed the stories to be shared and expanded.
If you follow up on any of these and have additional information to add, please let us or the Friends know.
The families covered so far include:
Corporal Fred Booth Private Edgar Sharpe Private Roland Walker
Gunner Joe Lumb Brook Private Robert Brownrigg Sgt Christopher Kershaw
Privates Aaron, Walter & Leonard Sucksmith Pte Edward Schofield
Pte Arthur Rushworth Pte G. Percy S Brown Pte James Smallwood
Francis William Bradley Fanny Sharp little Sharp Shooter
Sgt Major Fred Mitchell Corporal Kenneth & Gunner John Berry
Bombardier Charles & Pte Frank Newsome Pte Milton Aspinall
Corporal Joe Willie Shaw Lance Corp Joe Holt May Hartley
Pte Walter & Lance Corp Herbert Pybus Pte Samual Sharp (Crimea)
Dragoon Guard Joseph Naylor (Crimea) General Joshua Guest (Jacobite Rising)
Major Reginald Sowerby the Berry Family the Lee family
Mark Dawson (Mayor of Bradford) Midshipman Alfred Ripley RN Ann Walker, her family, friends & connections with the church.
The incumbents - Rev Rich Sutcliffe, Rev Robert Wilkinson & Rev William Gurney
The Watkinson family & the Charteris family.
Samuel Washington Samuel Sowden James Hinscliff
The Hatton and Swaines The Howarth Family of Pump Private Arthur Naylor John Smith - land agent to E C Sutherland Walker
The Appleyards and Kendalls George and Joseph Armytage of Holme House The Manns The Robinsons Middleton Scales
Howorths of Pump The Cordingleys & Parkinsons The Wood family Sidney Ellis
Sapper S A A Roff Samuel Pickles, the Greaves & Greenwood families William Rushworth The Pearson family of Shibden Valley
an article on Johnston Jonas Foster and Sir H W Ripley when they moved to Shropshire
The Gibsons, Firths and Macaulays and Slead Hall Elizabeth (Betty) Kershaw - a tragic story
The related Sherwood, Empsall and Marsden families The families of James, Thomas and Benjamin Smith
Hannah Denison formerly Marsden nee Sinclair Frances Hird nee Hale, (Mrs Lamplugh Wickham Hird)
Some related Ellises, Sugdens, Hudsons and Broadleys The Day family and their Lightcliffe Cottage
The Hanson family of Norwood Green Miscellaneous stories: Rev Edward Elton, How people earned their living (up to 1911 Census), walks round Lightcliffe and a Spring poem.
The Foster family Walter Wolfenden and Private Benjamin Crossley Some Hemingways Sucksmiths of Underhill Farm and Hill End Farm A Charnock (or Charnick) family
Roydlands Farm and its occupants And some of those whose memorials are no longer in the churchyard - the Tates, the Jowetts, the Naylors and the Taylor Sucksmiths