Carole Fife has provided the following:
When John's military record showed that he was born in Sydney I thought that he was someone with Bedlington connections who had come to fight for the Old Country, but it was actually the story of a family that had emigrated and returned. John's father William was born in Dinnington and his mother Esther was born in Delaval, and their first two children, Charles and Elizabeth were born in Longhirst. About 1885 William and Esther decided to emigrate to Australia, and John was born in Lambton near Sydney in 1887, with his sister Ethel also born in Australia three years later. The family then returned to England and in 1911 they were living at 6, North View, Walbottle, with William working as a hewer and John as a pony driver. Another son, Sydney, was born in Walbottle in 1903, and sometime after that they moved to Netherton Colliery where in 1911 both John and his father were hewers. At the time of his enlistment John was living at 20, Third Street. He enlisted in Bedlington and his legatee was his father, which suggests that John had not married. He died in 45th Casualty Clearing Station which was served by Dernancourt Cemetery.
He is remembered in Bedlington on B15.07, in B15.26 page 114 and in the Regimental History
