Jean Longstaff has submitted the following:-
John James, born on Christmas Eve 1884, was the first child of tugboat engineer John Templeman and his wife Elizabeth Hannah Bell, who went on to have another six children, Elizabeth, Thomas, Mary Jane, George, Albert and Frederick. Brought up in the same house in Hope Street, by 1901 his maternal grandparents were also living there. On his eighteenth birthday John James enlisted in the Royal Navy for a twelve year term, just two and a half years later he jumped ship and ran away. It is not known if he was apprehended or completed his service.
The 1911 census shows him working as a pit labourer and living with his widowed father in Studley Road, and in February 1914 he left for Canada. Nine months later when he enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force he was working as a rancher in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. This man of “robust stature” mentioned his years in the Royal Navy and time in the Prince Rupert Light Infantry, and became Private 77897 in the 30th Battalion.
Arriving back in England on 23rd February 1915 the unit was redesignated as the 30th Reserve Battalion to provide reinforcements to the troops in the field, and on 8th May this happened when John was posted to the 7th Battalion and joined them at Bailleul, 2 miles from the Belgian border. At the end of August Lance Corporal Templeman was found to be drunk, creating a disturbance and out of bounds and was deprived of his stripe.
In May 1916 the Battalion was in action at the Ypres Salient and having left Poperinghe were severely shelled for the next five days and nights. It was during this time that Private Templeman was reported missing presumed killed in action on 5th May 1916.
John Templeman is remembered in Hartlepool in H115.30 page 44 and at West Hartlepool on W111.09, W111.54 and W111.86page 37, and also in the 1914-18 list of casualties published in the Northern Daily Mail
In Canada he is remembered on their Virtual War Memorial and in their Book of Remembrance.
Canadian Book of Remembrance
Canadian Virtual War Memorial
The CWGC entry for Private Templeman
