John Jury (1894-1917)

Post date: Jan 03, 2017 10:50:3 PM

John's birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1894 at Malling. In 1901 his family were living at The Street in Mereworth and John, the second living son of Walter (a farm labourer) and Jane Jury, is at school. Whether this was Wateringbury school we do not know but by 1906 he was at Wateringbury school where he (and his brothers) were often known as Ladams rather than Jury. He won a K.E.C. medal in 1906 presented by General Sir George B. Wolseley of the Thatched House (see Empire Day 1906)

By 1911 the parents have moved to 91 Canon Heath. John Thomas is now 16 years old, the eldest of 5 children living at home in a 5 room cottage. His mother had then been married for 20 years and had given birth to 12 children of whom only 6 were still alive.

John never rose above being a private. His service record is not available but we know from the vicar's lists that he was in the army in October 1914 and in 1915 he is listed as serving in the Hugh Rose Barracks, Jubbulpore, East India in the 4th Foreign Service Territorials, along with others from Wateringbury ( Pte. Jack Barnden;

Sergt. Richard Cleaver and Pte. Herbert Pearson). John was in the 4th Transport Section.

We do not know when he went to France into the 1st Battalion of the R.W.K. The Battalion had been at the Somme in 1916 and involved in the heavy fighting round Longueval and Bazentin the Grand. After leaving the Somme the battalion had been sent to billets at Essars before going into line near Givenchy-les-la-Bassee, (60 km South East from St. Omer). Casualties were light in October and November but a dozen were incurred from a German bombardment on 19th December. However it is more likely that John was wounded in what is known as the Givenchy raid on 10th February, when a successful attack was launched by the battalion on German positions (See Captain C.T. Atkinson's "The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment 1914-1919" pp. 228-9)

John is buried at Longuenesse (St.Omer) Souvenir Cemetery along with 3,176 others. St. Omer is a large town 45 kilometres south-east of Calais and during WW1 was a hospital and casualty clearing centre and, as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, records that he died of wounds on 12th February 1917, it is not an indication of where he was fighting. Longuenesse is a commune on the southern outskirts of St. Omer. The Cemetery is approximately 3 kilometres from St Omer, beside the Wizernes (Abbeville) road (the D928), at its junction with the Rue des Bruyeres and John's grave is at reference IV.B.22.

He is on the school memorial as Jack Ladams but under his proper name John Jury on the village memorial.