Tom MacDougall News, Yorkshire
A blue plaque dedicated to a gay couple who “defied convention” during the 1950s and 60s has been unveiled at the site of the shop they ran.
Maurice Dobson and Fred Halliday met during World War Two. In 1956, they opened a well-known convenience store in Darfield, Barnsley.
After their deaths, this was transformed into the volunteer-run Maurice Dobson Museum and Heritage Centre, where the plaque – organised by the Barnsley Civic Trust – has been installed.
Steven Skelly, heritage curator for Barnsley Museums, said the couple’s story was an example of “lots of contradictions and complexities” in the history of homosexuality in the UK.
Mr Dobson was born in Wombwell in 1912, and Mr Halliday was born in Pudsey, near Leeds, in 1914.
Museum volunteer Ken Brookes, who knew the couple, explained that they were both soldiers in the Durham Light Infantry and met in Cairo, Egypt.
“It was love at first sight for Maurice, he found Fred to be a kind and gentle man – but in the forces, he could be tough as well.”
Until 1967, homosexuality was still criminalised in England, and was punishable by imprisonment or chemical castration.
However, Mr Brookes said the couple were mostly welcomed by locals in Darfield, and Mr Dobson – a boxer in the Army – would “clout” those who tried to abuse them.
“Maurice could fall out with himself. If you touched something, he’d tell you that if you weren’t going to buy it, put it down!” said Mr Brookes.
However, he said the pair complemented each other, because “when Maurice got het up about anything, Fred would calm him down”.
In 1988, Mr Halliday died, which “devastated” Mr Dobson – who died two years later in 1990.
The Georgian yeoman’s house now houses a number of artefacts, including some donated by Mr Dobson, which tell the social history of Darfield.
Mr Skelly said: “Especially in working-class northern towns, there is some evidence being found by social scientists that some small communities in the 50s and 60s were slightly more tolerant.
“It might have been that those people were just getting by and surviving – they didn’t have the energy.
“If you were alright with them, I’m not saying you were accepted, but you were still part of the community.”
He called the blue plaque “special” and said although Mr Dobson and Mr Halliday were only locally known, similar stories should be “highlighted more”.
“I personally think it’s great – we should have a TV drama mapping their love story,” he concluded.
