Photo from family archives
Somerset Regiment badge
Derek Johnstone has supplied the following:
There are no photograph(s) currently available of John William Nordstrom in military uniform.
He was born near Bellingham, Northumberland in 1886. His parents were Elias Nordstrom, a coal miner, born in Denmark 1856, and Mary Burrell born 1867. John William Nordstrom was living at Bells Place, Bedlington in 1891 and Sunnyside Cottages, Bedlington in 1891.
He married Sarah Jane Middleton, aged 22, when he was 24 years old in 1909. They had five children:
Elias Nordstrom, born 1909
Hannah Nordstrom, born 1910
John Thomas Nordstrom born 1911
May Nordstrom born 1913
Mary Nordstrom born 1914
In 1911, he was working as a coal miner in Bedlington and lived at Foggans Yard, Bedlington.
Along with his two brothers Joseph Burrell and Robert James, John William enlisted in the army. He joined the Prince Albert's (8th Somerset Light Infantry) and it was while serving with this regiment he became a Lance Corporal. He was killed in action on the 26th September 1915. He was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal.
The military records show his personal effects of £1 18s 6d were claimed by his widow Sarah Jane Nordstrom.
It should be noted that the military records record his name as NORDSTRON and not NORDSTROM. The regiment that John William Nordstrom joined was formed at Taunton in October 1914 and on 10th September 1915 this regiment landed at Le Havre: John William was killed in action 16 days later at the Battle of Loos.
Note: The CWGC Certificate in Memory of Lance Corporal John William Nordstrom shows his parents i.e. Mr and Mrs E. Nordstrom of Sunnyside, Choppington, Northumberland. However, it says; ‘husband of E. Emery (formally Nordstrom) of 2 Wood Cottage, Bedlington, Northumberland’. The later information shows his wife was married again to Edward Emery in 1922.
He is remembered in Bedlington on B15.02, B15.06, B15.20 and B15.26
