John Burgoyne Johnson c1910
Lanchester Churchyard
Lanchester Churchyard
Ian Murray has submitted the following:-
John Burgoyne Johnson was born in 1868 in Hetton le Hole to parents Joseph and Jane. In 1871 the family lived in 10, Old Elvet, Durham where Joseph was a Timber Merchant and Brewer and John was the sixth of seven children. By 1881 the family had moved to 77 Hallgarth Street. There were now ten children in the family and the father was a Brewer and Wine and Spirit Merchant.
John married Matilda Mangles in Richmond, Yorkshire in 1889. In 1891 John, Matilda and their one-year-old son Luther Vincent Burgoyne, lived at Moor House, Quebec and John was employed as a County Council Cashier.The family still lived at Moor House in 1901. There was a second child, Reginald Percy Burgoyne, aged 5. The 1911 Census records the family living at Greencroft Park. By this time, they had had seven children of whom six had survived and the record also shows six servants including a governess and a nurse. John was Owner and Director of Hamsteels Colliery Company and Durham City Brewery Company. He was a Justice of the Peace for the county of Durham. John was also President of Durham County Rugby Club Union. He was a Captain of the 4th Volunteer Battalion Durham Light Infantry.
During 1914-18 John served in the 8th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry. By 1915 he was a Major, lived in Brockley, Saltburn by the Sea. He eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He died in 1920 aged 51, the death being registered at Guisborough. He is buried in the family plot in Lanchester All Saints Churchyard. He left assets of over £110,000.
Four of his sons served in WW1. Luther Vincent Burgoyne Johnson was killed and is remembered on the Menin Gate Memorial. Francis Wise Burgoyne Johnson was taken Prisoner at Chaudardes, North of Rheims and was held in Stralsund-Danholm POW Camp in Pomerania (near the Baltic Coast). Reginald Percy Burgoyne Johnson and George Harold Burgoyne Johnson survived the war.
A headstone in Lanchester Parish Churchyard reads:-
In Loving Memory of
Captain John Burgoyne Johnson
Durham Light Infantry
Who departed this life on January 9th 1920
Aged 51 years
The Memory of the Just is Blessed
In Loving Memory of
Captain Luther Vincent Burgoyne Johnson
Durham Light Infantry
Who fell on the Battlefield
At the 2nd battle of Ypres April 25th 1915
aged 24 years
John Burgoyne Johnson is remembered at Lanchester on L62.01
