John Edward Shadforth
Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
The oldest son of Hartlepool born John Dryden Shadforth and his second wife Margaret Proctor John was born in Quay Corner, Jarrow in November 1890, and baptised at Holy Trinity Church, Gateshead the following February. In October 1910 John, his mother and three younger siblings, George, Martha and Mary, arrived in Quebec on board the SS Corsican and settled in Ontario; his father appears to have remained in England.
Having spent eighteen months as a volunteer naval reserve whilst still in England, on 11th June 1915, John enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Camp Niagara and became Private 408926 assigned to “B” Company 37th (Northern Ontario) Battalion, which embarked for England on 27th November on the SS Lapland, arriving two weeks later. On 16th March 1916 Private Shadforth was one of 405 men of the 37th transferred to the 12th Reserve Battalion based at Shorncliife Camp, Kent.
August 1916 saw John as part of reinforcement draft for the 2nd Battalion in France, joining them in divisional reserve near Reninghelst, and then moving on to Albert and the front line trenches in the Bapaume sector. Splitting their time between the trenches and divisional reserve on 15th December John asked to be transferred to the 1st Battalion in order to be in their band. This was agreed and a week later he joined his new unit on the front line in the Carency section.
Apart from two weeks leave in England in November 1917 Private 408926 stayed with the 1st Battalion until he was admitted to 23 Casualty Clearing Station on 1st November 1918 with influenza. Most soldiers died in battle, but John Shadforth was one of the 900 or so Canadian soldiers who died of the Spanish flu. He died on 2nd November 1918 and is buried in Brebieres British Cemetery, south west of Douai.
His name does not appear on any local war memorial.
In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance, and on a memorial in Greenwood Cemetery, Sault Ste.Marie, Ontario.
Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Shadforth
