Mary Ingham, 55, was housekeeper to husband Joseph, 60, sons aged 19, 17 and 12 and five lodgers – men from Kendal, Ireland and Hull – and the two Hungarians.

Both unmarried, the soldiers are named and described in the 1851 census as Michel Kochanowski, 30, captain and Karol Gouzewiki, 23, officer.

The details of how they came to make their way to Birstall are something of a mystery. As to why they came to a place known well beyond its borders as a centre of radicalism can be more easily explained and here there is a link with the Chartist movement.

This was a movement of Britain's working classes for greater political power than the little conceded by the Reform Bill of 1832.

Locally Chartist activities had included an abortive uprising in the Heavy Woollen district with a reported 500 armed men waiting at Birstall to play their part in a bid to take over Dewsbury in 1840, and in 1842 what were known as the Plug Riots when mobs visited local mills to tap the boilers and prevent employees working.

This latter event saw the arrest of five Birstall men followed by legal proceedings.

With the pro-physical force members having quietened down, 1848 was the last important year for Chartism and it was also a dramatic year in Europe, being called Springtime of Nations.

Revolt precipitated by movements including middle-class radicalism, liberalism and nationalism broke out in Germany, Italy, France and Hungary.

The Society of Fraternal Democrats in London had organised refugees from France, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German states since 1845 and as the year of European revolutions coincided with the year of the last Chartist petition to Parliament seeking greater democracy, there was a heightened interest in both.

In Hungary the patriot Louise Kossuth demanded autonomy for Hungary and set himself in 1848 to drive out the Hapsburgs and establish a republic. He raised an army, but Russia came to Austria's help and the revolt was lost. Kossuth escaped and came to England late in 1851.

The two soldiers, already arrived and directed to Birstall, must have been among Kossuth's supporters. They were sympathetically received.
At a special meeting in May at the Hall of Freedom in Huddersfield Road (later the Lecture Hall, then Mount Tabor Sunday School), a resolution was passed that the Hungarian refugees who had lately come deserved the friendly reception and support of the local inhabitants.

It was proposed by 28-year-old Frederick William Sucksmith, who had been the leading light of Birstall's Chartist group. Sucksmith was the man who gave a daughter five forenames and each of his other four children four forenames, many of which were taken from political reformers of the past.

The meeting also decided to solicit the aid of Birstall's tradesmen in finding jobs for the soldiers. By December one of the two was supporting himself, but the other was unable to do so through illness and a collection was made for him.

In April 1852, a public ball was held in the Hall of Freedom for the sick soldier's benefit, with the local (Rifle Corps) brass band and a quadrille band in attendance.

But then nothing further was reported. No clues surfaced as to how long the refugees stayed or as to what happened to them. It would be interesting to know if any descendants were told family tales of the sympathetic English village that for at least a year gave them succour at a time of need.