Pauline Priano has submitted the following:-
John Lamb was born 1895 at Murton, County Durham, one of 12 children of whom only 10 survived, 5 sons and 5 daughters born to Robert Lamb 1870 of South Hetton and Elizabeth Mary Escott 1874 of Shotton, County Durham. Robert and Elizabeth were married in the district of Easington in 1895, they were living at Hesledon Moor on a farm in 1901 along with four of their children. John Lamb aged 6 and his younger brother Thomas aged 1, who died in infancy, are listed as living with his father Robert’s parents, also on a farm at Hesledon Moor. By 1911 the family was reunited and living at East Farm, Dalton le Dale, County Durham, now 16, John worked with the horses.
John’s full military record was one of the 70 per cent destroyed during the blitz of WW2, it is therefore impossible to follow his career in the military. He did enlist and was assigned as Private M2/ 052190 to the Royal Army Service Corp. The men of the R.A.S.C. were the unsung heroes of WW1, responsible for the movement of food, equipment, and ammunition using horse drawn and mechanised means of transport, railways and waterways. Private Lamb was transferred to mechanical transport, part of the lines of communication and although it did not come under the orders of any Division, he was later sent to the M. T. Reserve attached to the 3rd (Army) General Head Quarters.
Private M2/052190 John Lamb R.A.S.C. died at the 8th Canadian Stationary Hospital, Dunkirk, France on the 22nd February 1919. The cause of his death is unknown due to lack of documentation, however, the hospital in question served as a place of convalescence and also a point of evacuation for more serious case back to the United Kingdom. At the hospital in February 1919 there was also a flu epidemic with a large amount of deaths due to broncho-pneumonia.
Private Lamb is interred at Dunkirk Town Cemetery, Department Nord, France, grave IV. F. 23. He was 25 years old and single.
His father Robert received all monies due to him. Private Lamb, depending on the date of his entry to a theatre of war, if prior to January 1915, would have received the 1915 Star but would have definitely in any event have been awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal.
In God’s safe Keeping. Rest in Peace.
John Lamb is remembered at at Dalton le Dale on D39.01 and at Murton on M47.01 M47.06 and as having served on M47.05
