Ypres Town Cemetery Extension
Ypres Town Cemetery Extension
Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
Joseph Marchbanks Jnr, one of 7 known children, was the youngest of 4 brothers and had 1 elder and 2 younger sisters. His parents Joseph Marchbanks Snr and Margaret Mitchell, born 1857 and 1866 respectively, were natives of Sunderland, County Durham, where they were married during the 4th quarter (Oct/Nov/Dec) 1880, setting up home at 8, Lombard Street. Joseph Snr was employed 2 doors away at the Bamburgh Castle public house as a servant/barman. Ten years later he was working as a dock labourer to support his wife and 3 children, Hector born January 8th 1883, Mary 1886 and Thomas Henry November 15th 1890. They lived in a tenement building at 19, Sans Street which they shared with 2 other families, in all 7 adults and 13 children. Their son John Edward was born April 2nd 1892, Joseph Jnr 1897 and Henrietta 1898. They had remained at number 19, Sans Street, where in 1901 their youngest child Margaret Ann was born and while Joseph Snr continued to work at the docks, Hector now 18 was employed as a heater at the shipyards and Mary (15) worked at a tobacco shop. Margaret Marchbanks nee Mitchell died aged 37 years during the 2nd quarter 1904, Margaret Ann in 1906, only 5 years old. The loss of his wife brought great changes for Joseph Snr, Hector enlisted in the Army serving with the Yorkshire Regiment in Egypt, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Sudan, Mary Ann married in 1906, Thomas Henry found employment as a brickyard labourer living as a boarder at 5, Morton Crescent, Fence Houses in the family home of coal miner Richard Armstrong, Joseph Jnr (16) was a boarder in the home of widow Elizabeth Ann Wright and her 5 children at 21, Morton Crescent, Fence Houses, employed below ground at the colliery as a pony driver, the whereabouts of John Edward, Henrietta and Joseph Snr is unknown.
Britain declared a state of war existed with Germany, August 4th 1914, Joseph was only 17 years of age, not only too young to enlist but also below the legal age of 19 years for service overseas. Despite this he was determined to serve his county and lied about his age when he presented himself at the recruitment office in Durham. He was attested and assigned as Private 12393 to the Durham Light Infantry joining his regiment in training at a tented camp at Aldershot, where the recruits still awaited khaki uniforms and equipment. By November 1914 they had moved to Whitley for the winter returning to Aldershot in February 1915 for final training. The 10th Battalion attached to the 43rd Brigade, 14th (Light) Division departed with the British Expeditionary Force to France, May 20th 1915 under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Hubert Morant and other experienced officers, landing the following day at Boulogne. Three weeks later they had moved to the Ypres salient in Belgium and fought in the front line during the Action of Hooge at the end of July 1915, the first division to be attacked by flamethrowers and although they successfully defended the smashed trenches south of Hooge, still filled with the dead from previous days of action, they lost over 170 men killed or wounded. The division remained on the Ypres salient until June 1916, returning to France just prior to the commencement of the Battles of the Somme in July 1916.
Private 12393 Joseph Marchbanks was killed in action September 25th 1915 and buried on the battlefield by his comrades in what is described as, “a small cemetery”, map reference I. 9. c. 6. 3. his grave marked with a cross bearing his name and military details. Post war during the clearing of the battlefields it was decided that those buried in these small concentrations be brought into larger cemeteries. February 19th 1919 his remains were identified by means of a partial damaged cross which marked his grave and he was brought into Ypres Town Cemetery Extension, Ypres, Belgium, for reburial during February 1920. He is at rest grave III. F. 14. flanked by 2 comrades, Private Joseph Lodge and Private Jacob Conroy, also in the same row is Private J. Gibson, all 3 of the 10th Battalion Durham Light Infantry, killed between September 25th-29th 1915 and resident in the north east. At the time of his demise in 1915 Private Marchbanks was 18 years of age and single.
Joseph’s brothers also served during WW1, Hectorwith the Yorkshire Regiment, Thomas Henry and John Edward with the Durham Light Infantry, they survived the conflict.
Joseph Marchbanks Snr died during the 1st quarter of 1919, aged 62 years, registered in the district of Sunderland, County Durham. As the eldest surviving member of the family Hector Marchbanks of 23, Back High Street East, Sunderland, County Durham, would have completed the statement of living relatives in 1919 and either received in its entirety or would have been responsible for the distribution of monies owed by the Army to his late brother, also receiving Joseph’s awards of the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
In God’s safe keeping. Rest In peace.
The Newcastle Journal 08/10/1915 reports:-
Mr Marchbanks of 28 George Street Sunderland has been informed that his son Private J. Marchbanks of the 10th D.L.I. was killed in action on September 25 by a shell.
Joseph Marchbanks is remembered at Sunderland in S140.048 Part 2
He is also remembered in The DLI Book of Remembrance page 262
