Parkwood area
Private. 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment. Service number 8431.
Early life:
John was born on 1st April 1886 to James Willitt Wilkinson and Ellen Wilkinson née Gaskell. His birth was registered in Keighley in the second quarter of the year.
His parents had married at Keighley Parish Church on 12th October 1880 when James was 25 and a labourer living on Leylands Lane and Ellen was 27 and living on Hanover Street. When John was born in 1886 they already had two daughters, Edith born 3rd September 1881 and Sarah born 11th April 1884.
Tragically their mother Ellen died a short time after John’s birth and her death was registered in Keighley in the second quarter of the year. There is a burial record which gives a date of burial of 22nd April 1886, just three weeks after John’s birth, suggesting that her death may have been connected with the birth.
All three children were baptised at Keighley Parish Church on 24th October 1886.
Ellen’s death left James with three children to bring up and he would have needed help from his family to do it.
This is suggested by the 1891 census, which shows which they were living at 18, Brigg Street in Keighley with their paternal grandmother, Hannah Wilkinson a widow aged 70, and although we can’t be certain this was a permanent arrangement, it would have enabled James to work full time as a worsted yarn finisher to support his family.
Father’s second marriage:
Life moves on, and over five years later on 9th November 1891, 34 year old James remarried, to 22 year old Alice Carr, at St. Andrew’s Parish Church in Keighley. James was still a yarn finisher and living at 18, Brigg Street and Alice was a worsted weaver from Main Street in Bingley.
Fast forward to the 1901 census and we find James and Alice had been married for nine years and were living at 6, Brow Street. James was now 44 and a fish merchant, Alice was 32. They had three children from James’s first marriage who were Edith aged 19, a worsted twister; Sarah aged 16, a tube maker; John aged 14, a worsted doffer; plus James now had three more children with Alice their mother, they were Ellen aged eight, Margaret aged seven and William aged four.
John’s eldest sister Edith married 23 year old James Kilbey at St. Mary’s Church, Eastwood on 1st August 1904. At the time of her marriage, Edith was 22 and living at 6, Brow Street, whilst her husband to be James was a moulder living at 42, Pitt Street, which is just a couple of minutes walk away from Brow Street.
Two more children were born to James and Alice. They were Harry who was born in 1903 and Lily, born in 1908.
John’s stepmother Alice died early in 1909 aged just 40. John would have been aged 22 at the time. His 54 year old father James was widowed again and although John and his 23 year old sister Sarah would have been able to support him for a while, Sarah married John Tuley of Barn Street at St. Mary’s Church on 11th September 1909 and would almost certainly have left home, although she may already have done this as her address for the marriage was 9, Bronte Street. The youngest children were Ellen aged 16, Margaret aged 15, William aged 12, Harry aged 6 and Lily aged just one.
Their father James died aged 57 on 6th February 1913. He left the sum of £456 13s. 3d. to Sarah Ann Carr and Harry Carr. The three eldest children were Edith, Sarah and John who had all left home some years before. The remaining children left at home were Nellie (Ellen) aged 20, Margaret aged 19, William aged 16, Harry aged 10, Lily aged 5. It’s possible they were living with Sarah and Harry because they were beneficiaries from their father’s probate settlement. It’s also possible that some or all of them lived with Edith and James Kilbey but we found no evidence to support these two theories.
Army service:
John attested with the Royal Irish Regiment at Leeds on 6th December 1904 and joined on 9th December, for 9 years service with 3 years in Reserve Service. Stated age 19 years and 7 months, giving date of birth 6th May 1885 at Keighley, Yorkshire. (This is false as he was actually born a year later on 1st April 1886, he was probably under age for overseas service and on the date he enlisted he was actually aged 18 years and eight months old)
Next of Kin: Father, Mr. James Wilkinson, 6, Brown Street, Keighley.
Royal Irish Regiment. Service number 2/8431.
Stated that he had previously served with the 3rd West Riding Regiment (Volunteer Battalion.)
Details. Height: 5 feet 3, 1/2 inches; Weight: 115 lbs; Chest 35, 1/2 inches. Complexion: Fresh; Eyes: Brown; Hair: Light brown. Physical development: Good. Religion: Church of England.
3rd Class Certificate of education awarded on 5th December 1906.
John was posted to India with the 1st Battalion on 26th November 1905 and served there until 12th December 1912, a total of 7 years and 17 days.
Several items are in his service record for that time period. In particular he had a problem with drinking and fell foul of Army regulations on a large number of occasions.
9/12/04: 2nd Training Regiment: Depot. (Clonmel, County Tipperary) Posted Private.
8/4/05: 2nd Battalion Posted.
12/6/05: 2nd Battalion. Granted missing? also to ???
25/10/05: 1st Battalion. Posted Private.
4/10/05 to 7/11/05: 3rd Battalion. Awaiting trial. Tried and convicted for fraudulent enlistment. 28 days imprisonment with hard labour. Stoppages £1 11s. 7d.
Forfeits all service prior to date of conviction.
25/11/05: 1st Battalion. Posted . Released for embarkation, the unexpired portion of his imprisonent having been remitted.
1/7/06: Elects to receive Service Pay? under Army Order 203? of 1905. Ineligible for ####### ####### ######## ######## ######## Granted Class SP 6?
19/11/06: Forfeits service pay.
24th August 1910: First Typhoid inoculation at Kailana (Northern India)
5th September 1910: Second Typhoid inoculation at Kailana (Northern India)
Regimental Defaulter Sheets:
8/1/05: At Clonmel. Attempting to bring one pair of boots out of barracks about 7.30 pm.
Deficient of Regimental necessaries
9/1/05: Punishment: (Entry missing or too faded to read.)
8/9/05: I/ Drunk returning to barracks about 7.50 pm. II/ Bringing liquor into barracks.
11/9/05: 8 days confined to barracks.
4/12/04: At Leeds. Fraudulent enlistment. (This is when he lied about his age on enlistment, but he wasn’t found out and punished for almost a full year.)
7/11/05: District Court Martial. 28 days imprisonment with Hard Labour and stoppages of pay amounting to £1 11s. 7d.
4/4/06: At R.Pindi (Rawalpindi) – Company Entry.
1/5/06: At R.Pindi (Rawalpindi) Drunk and fighting in barracks about 9.45 pm.
3/5/06: Fined 7/6. 4 days Confined to barracks.
12/8/06: At R.Pindi (Rawalpindi) Drunk in barracks about 3 pm.
14/8/06: Fined 5 shillings. 5 days confined to barracks.
16/11/06: At R.Pindi (Rawalpindi) Drunk and refusing to leave the canteen about 9.30 pm.
18/11/06: Fined 5 shillings. 3 days confined to barracks.
16/6/07: At Upper Topa. Absent from his tent when orderly man until found drunk in company lines about 9.30.
18/6/07: Fined 5 shillings and 8 days Confined to barracks and 2 extra tent orderly duties.
18/7/09: At Agra Fort. Drunk and creating a disturbance in barracks about 10.40 pm. Deficient of clothing, Regimental necessaries and bedding.
21/7/09: Fined 5 shillings. 10 days confined to barracks and made to pay for the equipment deficiencies.
10/5/10: At Kailana Camp. Gambling in camp about 2 pm.
11/5/10: 10 days confined to barracks.
16/5/10: At Kailana Camp. Drunk when a defaulter about 9.30 pm.
18/5/10: 168 hours duty. Fined 5 shillings.
3/3/11: Drunk when parading for marking in the butts at 2 pm.
6/3/11: Fined 5 shillings. 10 days confined to barracks.
(Marking in the butts is at the target end of the rifle range when the men stationed in a trench in the butts, would use long pointed sticks to indicate where a bullet had left it’s hole and this could be seen from the firing points so they could make sight adjustments for their next shot. It was a really responsible post and being drunk at this time would merit a serious punishment.
In the 1911 census John is likely to be the John Wilkinson serving with the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment at Agra United Province, India. Although it stated he was born in Middlesborough, he is the only Wilkinson listed with them and we do know he was serving there at the time of the census.
7/4/11: Drunk and creating a disturbance in Barracks about 11.30 pm. Deficient of equipment clothing and Regimental necessaries.
10/4/11: Fined 10 shillings. 10 days confined to barracks. Made to pay for deficiencies.
24/4/11: Urinating on the Company Veranda.
25/4/11: 10 days confined to barracks.
26/10/12: At Nasirabad. Absent from answering his name when a defaulter at 9 pm until found drinking in the canteen about 9.10 pm.
28/10/12: 10 days confined to barracks.
6/6/12: ‘I agree to be transferred to the Army Reserve at any time after my arrival in the United Kingdom in accordance with the terms of #### ##### letter No. 115/#/#/###### of 6th June 1912.’
10/9/12: ######## J.W. Wilkinson. Private. Certified.
14/12/12: Transferred as stamped. Authority WO letter 1c 115.A.R..General no./676, (A.G.2.b.) dated 6/6/12.
Total service forfeited 54 days.
2/7/13: Whilst on Section B of the Army Reserve he was a Private and on 2/7/13 he was arrested for being drunk and disorderly. He was sentenced by Keighley Police Court to 14 days with Hard Labour or a fine of 17 shillings and 6 pence. He must not have taken the option of paying the fine, as he was released on 16/7/13.
3/4/14: I/ Drunk and Disorderly. II/ Assaulted Police Constable. Sentenced to one month and two months Hard Labour. Civil power.
18/6/14: Released.
Keighley News 4th April 1914, page 4:
Friday. (Before Alderman H. C. Longsdon and Mr. R. N. Smith.)
ATTACK ON A CONSTABLE.
John William Wilkinson, labourer, Keighley, was charged with drunkenness and disorderly conduct and with assaulting a constable.
Constable Whaley said that at 4.30 pm on ###day afternoon he found prisoner behaving in a disorderly manner in Hard Ings Lane. He asked prisoner for his name and address and the prisoner ran at him and kicked him in the ### and on his legs. He threw himself ### and again commenced kicking. He also kicked Constable Harrison on the legs. Prisoner was in a drunken condition. Constable Harrison #########.
Prisoner admitted to being drunk, but remembered nothing of the assault.
For drunkenness and disorderly conduct Wilkinson was sent to prison for one month with hard labour and for assault he was also committed for two months. ##### with the case Priscilla Kenny, spinner #### was sent to prison for one month for ##### conduct in Hard Ings Lane.
War Service:
As an Army reservist, John was mobilised 7th August 1914 to Clonmel, Ireland with the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment, which embarked at Southampton on 13th August 1914. They left at 5.15 am and travelled across the channel on SS Herschell, with a an escort of Royal Navy Cruisers for part of the journey, they arrived in France on 14th August 1914.
On the 22nd August they were ordered to hold the line: NOUVELLES – HARVENG, then to FAUBORG BARTHELEMY (just East of Mons.) They engaged the German Army on 23rd August 1914.
The 2nd battalion was involved in the retreat after the Battle of Mons and with the Gordon Highlanders, on 3rd and 4th September were detailed to man outposts from LE. Pt. St. LOUP to BEAUBRY. During this time they engaged a German aeroplane which passed over, but without success. It was shot down afterwards by artillery. They remained on outpost duty until 6 pm on 6th September.
On 6th September 1914 John was tried by Field General Court Martial for being drunk on outpost duty. He was sentenced to 3 months of Field Punishment Number 1. How much of this he served is not known. The 2nd Battalion RIR was moving swiftly as they were in the period of the retreat from Mons and subsequent battles, so it might not have been convenient for them to apply FP Number 1 punishment on a man at that time. There is no mention of a deferment or alternative punishment in his records. For an offence of being drunk whilst the battalion was in the process of engaging the enemy, John was lucky to be given such a light sentence, particularly as his record shows he had a large number of convictions for being drunk.
30th October 1914: Awarded 14 days Field Punishment no 1 for being drunk in barracks.
Posted to Depot on 1st December 1914. Posted to 3rd Battalion on 29th December 1914.
Posted to 2nd Battalion on 1st January 1915 and he was killed in action on 9th May 1915 during a shell bombardment.
John was buried in a battlefield grave site and his grave was exhumed in September 1919 and moved about a mile to the New Irish Farm Cemetery which is to the North East of Ypres. He is buried in grave 15 of row F, in plot VII.
WO95/1497/2. 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade war diary for May 1915:
1st May: Comparatively quiet day. Capt. J. I. Morrogh and 2nd Lieutenant W. P. Hinton wounded, and 16 other casualties.
2nd May: Quiet day. 7 casualties. Reinforcement of 37 NCO’s and men joined.
3rd May. 4.30 pm: Enemy employed gas. Support trenches heavily shelled. Some of our men were gassed, but not badly. 6 Casualties.
4th May. 11.30 am: A report received that appeared to be massing on our front, with object of attacking line held by South Lancashire Regiment, immediately in front of D Company support trenches, and we were to give support.
Attack did not develop. 4 Casualties,
5th May: Quiet day. 2nd Lieutenant Stopford wounded. 3 other Casualties.
6th May: B Company and a working party heavily shelled. 17 Casualties,
7th May: Quiet day except for shelling. 2nd Lieutenant M. L. Anderson wounded, and 12 other casualties.
8th May. 9 am: Heavy bombardment of our positions. Fresh dispositions made to meet possible attack from direction of Moated Farm (Later re-named ‘Shell trap Farm’) Side stepped A & C Companies to their right, B. Company moved to line Wieltje and to north of it, D Company to support in prolongation. Sent 3 Machine Guns also. Heavy shelling until the evening. Captain M H Wickham, Connaught Rangers, attached, reported missing, believed killed, Captain C. A. French. and 2nd Lieutenant Sir C. P. Huntington, Baronet., wounded. 74 other casualties.
9th May. Relieved Monmouth Regiment in line N.E. of Shell Trap Farm, before dawn. 6.15 am: Very heavy shelling, which was continued until the evening. Had a very trying time. Lieutenant E. L. Guinness wounded and Lieutenant H. W. Gooden, RAMC, Killed. 2nd Lieutenant A. L. Ramsey also wounded, 56 other casualties.
10th May. 2 am: Battalion relieved by Rifle Brigade. 4 am: Marched to Rest Billets, about 1,1⁄2 miles NE of Poperinghe.
11th May: Resting.
12th May: Resting.
13th May. 8.30 am: Received orders to move at once to Yser Canal, where we stayed in dug-outs on bank until evening.
CWGC data:
With regard to the attacks on 8th and 9th May 1915, their records show the following numbers of war dead for the 2nd Battalion Royal Irish Regiment:
8th May 1915: 16 men died on this date. Of these, one man was buried in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension Nord and the other fifteen men are named on the Menin Gate war memorial.
9th May 1915. 23 men died on this date. Five are buried in New Irish Farm Cemetery including John Wilkinson. One man was buried in Hop Store Cemetery, one man in Bailleul Communal Cemetery Extension Nord and the other sixteen men are named on the Menin Gate war memorial.
His Army service record lists the following locations and dates of service:
India: 26/11/05 to 12/12/12. Served for 7 years and 17 days.
Home: 13/12/12 to 12/08/14. 1 year 243 days.
BEF France: 13/12/14 to 30/11/14. 110 days.
Home (British): 1/12/14 to 10/01/15. 41 days.
BEF France: 11/1/15 to 9/5/15. 119 days.
Total service forfeited 148 days.
Total service towards engagement on 9th May 1915 (date of death) 9 years 184 days.
Post war:
As his father (his next of kin) had died in 1913, his elder sister Edith Kilbey was now his next of kin and she was the sole legatee in his will. She received notification of John’s death in action on 1st June 1915.
His personal effects were received by his sister Edith Kilbey of 26, High Spring Road in Keighley on 25th January 1916 and consisted of:
1 pocket book(pierced by shrapnel.)
2 letters
Lord Kitchener pamphlet.
1 sprig of shamrock.
2 foreign stamps.
1 small dictionary.
1 small photo.
John was posthumously awarded the 1914 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service and these would have been sent to Edith. She would also have received a memorial scroll and Bronze war memorial plaque inscribed with John’s name.
She received his remaining Army pay of £11 2s 4d on 19th January 1916, and a war gratuity payment of £5 on 11th June 1919.
There is no record of a Dependant’s Pension being applied for.
Edith was living at 9, Calton Road at Long Lee in Keighley with her husband James, son James Junior and Ellen Fowler, with two other names redacted from the record.
Edith died aged 78 on 18th March 1960, registered in the Worth Valley.
Remembrance:
John is remembered at his grave at New Irish Farm Cemetery to the North East of Ypres and locally he is remembered in the Borough of Keighley Roll of Honour book in Keighley Library, He is also named on the St. Paul’s Church war memorial which is on the wall inside the Keighley Parish Church of St. Andrew’s and was moved there after St. Paul’s church was demolished in the early 1970s. John is also named in Ireland’s memorial Records: ‘Ireland Casualties of World War One.’
Information sources:
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915.
UK, Burial and Cremation Index, 1576-2014.
West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1910.
1891 England Census.
1901 England Census.
West Yorkshire, England, Tax Valuation, 1910.
1911 England Census.
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995.
British Army WWI Service Records, 1914-1920 about John William Wilkinson.
WO-95/1497/2 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment war diary.
Western Front Association. Body Density maps.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
Ireland, Casualties of World War I, 1914-1918.
British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.
World War I Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
1939 England and Wales Register.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
