In South Shields (Harton) Cemetery is the Commonwealth War Grave of 53887 Private John Septimus King serving with the 2nd Battalion Duke of Wellington’s (West Riding Regiment) who died 24/07/1920.

Colin Boyd has provided the following:

John was born in 1889 in South Shields to Mary Cassidy and Francis King. He was working as a miner when he enlisted in the Durham Light Infantry on 4th August 1915.

He had married Alice Richardson at Gateshead Registry Office on 29th November 1913 and their first child, Joseph William, was born on 3rd December 1913. They ultimately had two further children, Michael, born 16th October 1916 and Catherine Veronica, born 19th March 1919.

John arrived in France on 2nd April 1916 and served with the 7th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. He was admitted to No. 8 Casualty Clearing Station on 30th May 1916 suffering from Pneumonia and then transferred to No. 24 General Hospital at Etaples where he also contracted Enteric Fever.

John returned to the UK on board the Hospital Ship “Dieppe” on 25/07/1916.

Because of continuing poor health John served at various depots around the UK and while at Alnwick he received two punishments. On 19th December 1916 he was sentenced to 7 days confined to barracks for being absent without leave and on 5th January 1917 he received 3 days confined to barracks for a similar offence. He was transferred to Class W (TF) on 22nd January 1917 and in February was sent to Bolckow Vaughan’s Blast Furnaces in South Bank for essential war work.

John re-enlisted at Sunderland on 20th August 1919 and joined the West Yorkshire Regiment. He was described as being 5 feet 5 inches tall, weighing 119 lbs with brown hair and eyes.

John was posted to Ireland on 7th July 1920 and was admitted to the King George V Hospital in Dublin where he died at 9.40 am on 24th July 1920 due to the effects of an abscess on the brain. His body was repatriated and he is buried in Harton Cemetery, South Shields. His widow, Alice was living at 13, Back Wilson Street, South Shields.

His name does not appear on a local memorial.