Photo: Derek Haynes
In Sunderland Southwick Cemetery is a family headstone which reads:
In loving memory of
my dear father & mother
Samuel Kirkham
who passed away
8th July 1932
in his 72nd year
Also Alice Kirkham
who passed away
25th May 1904in her 42nd year
Also John George
son of the above
killed in action
13th May 1917
in his 23rd year.
At rest
. . . . . . ?daughter of the above
who passed away ?11th April ?1967in her ? year.
Derek Haynes has provided the following:
John was born on the 4th May 1895 at 38 Wear Street, Southwick, the son of Samuel and Alice Kirkham (nee Hogg). He was baptised at the family's local church, Holy Trinity in the parish of Southwick, on the 29th May 1895.
Samuel, originally from Yorkshire, and Alice from Gateshead, Co. Durham were married in the December Q 1884 in South Shields.
There were eight other children from the marriage:
Margaret Ann, born December Q 1886 at South Shields
Jane Salisbury, born December Q 1887 at South Shields
Dorothy, born December Q 1889 in Sunderland
Alice, born 22nd November 1891 and baptised 23rd December 1891 (the birth was not registered until the March Q 1892)
Thomas, born 20th March 1893 and baptised 19th April 1893
Samuel, born 4th January 1897 and baptised 3rd February 1897
Daniel, born 12th January 1899 and baptised 19th February 1899
Gilbert, born 12th March 1900 and baptised 8th April 1900.
All the above baptisms took place in Holy Trinity Church, Southwick.
Having lived in the South Shields area for a couple of years, by 1891 the family was residing at 38 Wear Street, Southwick. With Samuel, Alice and their three children was Alice’s younger sister Anna and their widowed mother, also called Alice.
Aged only 6 years, Jane died on the 24th April 1894 and was laid to rest on the 28th April in Southwick Cemetery. Only four years later, on the 3rd October 1898, aged just 21 months, Samuel died. He was laid to rest on the 5th October also in Southwick Cemetery. Tragedy was to strike again for the family when on the 3rd November 1900 Daniel, aged just 2 years, died on the 3rd November 1900, he was laid to rest in the same cemetery as his brother and sister on the 6th November 1900. In the space of six years John had lost a sister and two brothers.
By 1901 the family had moved the short distance to 28 Crown Road and Samuel was employed as a shipyard striker, working alongside a blacksmith. The earlier deaths of three children would have been very hard for the family to cope with, but when John was 9 years old his mother Alice died on the 25th May 1904 aged only 41 years, leaving Samuel with a young family to raise. Alice was laid to rest in Section W Grave no. 12231 of Southwick Cemetery on the 28th May 1904.
The family, consisting of Samuel, Thomas, John George, Gilbert and Alice, had by 1911 returned to Wear Street. Samuel was still employed as a striker, while Thomas and John, now aged 16 years, were employed in the mining industry in one of the local collieries in the area. Thomas was employed as an engineman, while John was a driver underground working with a pit pony as well as being responsible for its welfare during each shift.
John continued his employment as a miner, then on the 30th March 1915, as he approached his twentieth birthday he enlisted into the 7th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment as a Private at Beverley, Yorkshire, and issued with the service number 17593. John was briefly described as being 5ft. 5½ inches, weighing 140 pounds and having no distinguishing marks.
Very little records survive of John’s service with the East Yorks. What records do survive cover the events after his death. It was known that on the 23rd February 1917 John was appointed unpaid Lance Corporal. Less than two months later, on the 13th May, John died of wounds. The following effects were found on John’s body: 2 p----tos (record burnt), purse, 2 cards, note book, metal mirror, comb in case, key and a ring.
At 12.34 pm on the 17th May 1917 a telegram arrived at the War Office from 42 Casualty Clearing Station in France confirming John’s death:Died 13 May of wounds 17593 Pte. J. G. Kirkham 7 East Yorks.
John was laid to rest in the Aubigny Communal Cemetery Extension (111. J. 7.) Par de Calais, France. The inscription reads:
TIME CHANGES MANY THING BUT LOVING MEMORY ALWAYS CLINGS.
It would be three years later that Samuel (as next of kin) received a letter from the Infantry Records York that on completion of the enclosed form the family would be forwarded the Memorial Scroll and Memorial Plaque (Dead Man’s Penny).
John’s father Samuel died on the 8th July 1932 at the family home of 18 Wear Street, Southwick. He was laid to rest on the 12th July 1932 in Section C, Grave no. 429. It was here the family headstone stands on which John is also remembered.
John George Kirkham is remembered in Sunderland on S40.048 part 04 page 65 and S40.048 part 12 page 258 and in Peter Gibson's book
