Peter Wise and Brenda McMahon have submitted the following:-
John Blake Kipling was the son of William and Margaret Hooper nee Nesbitt, who had married in 1895. He was born in 1898 at Cotherstone, Yorkshire.
The 1901 census shows John living with his family at Teesdale Supply Stores, Cotherston. His father worked on his own account as a grocer/provision merchant. His siblings were two older brothers Tom Edward and William. There was also a servant named Ada Jane Peacock.
By 1911 John’s mother, Margaret, had died so there was only father William and brother William living 11 Marshall Street Barnard Castle. His father was a commercial traveller in groceries and spirits.
The following article was published about John in the Teesdale Mercury 03/09/1919:-
John enlisted at Barnard Castle into the army “at only 17 years old”. He trained at Oxford until he was 19 in December 1916 when he was sent to France with the 9th Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment. In 1917 he was wounded in the head and leg with a shell and brought to a London hospital. In June, the same year he was sent back to France and in March 1918 in the big retreat he was reported as missing and is now officially presumed killed. Previous to joining he was in the service of the North Eastern Railway Company. He commenced at Evenwood and after being there for 6 months was sent as relief booking clerk at Newcastle and Tynemouth branches.”
John Blake Kipling is remembered at Barnard Castle on B135.02 (T.B. Kipling), B135.10,(J. Kipling), B135.12 (John Kipling), B135.23 and B135.25 (T.B. Kipling)
