Peter Wise and Brenda McMahon have submitted the following:-
John was born at Hull in 1873 and was a son of Arthur Leyland and his wife Eleanor.
John worked as a Passenger Clerk at Newcastle upon Tyne at some point. Prior to the war John served with the Railway Police and was based at Barnard Castle for three years until March 1916 when he was promoted to sergeant and transferred to Hull. It is probable at this point that he enlisted as from his military records he lived and enlisted at Barnard Castle.
John originally served with 32nd Northumberland Fusiliers, his number being TR/5/40142 before being transferred to the Royal Field Artillery.
He was killed in action on August 18th 1917.
For much of the First World War, the village of Boesinghe (now Boezinge) directly faced the German line across the Yser canal. Bard Cottage was a house a little set back from the line, close to a bridge called Bard's Causeway, and the cemetery was made nearby in a sheltered position under a high bank. Burials were made between June 1915 and October 1918. There was an advance of artillery to the area in the autumn of 1917. There are now 1639 casualties of World War 1 buried or commemorated in this cemetery.
His parents published an obituary notice in the Teesdale Mercury 12/09/1917 which ended with :- “To live in our hearts is not to die”
John Thomas Stewart Leyland is remembered at Barnard Castle on B135.23 and B135.25 and on the Railway Memorial at York
