Sergeant. 12th Battalion, Machine Gun Corps. Service number 31029.
Previous service with the West Yorkshire Regiment, no. 1359.
Early Life
Joseph was born on 13th May 1890 and his birth was registered that year at Goole, Yorkshire. His parents were Marshall and Annie Pearson. Tragically Marshall died in 1890. Joseph was just ten months old in the 1891 census and living at 66, George Street in Goole with his widowed mother Annie and his brothers Francis, George, William and their sister Jane Ann.
By 1911 Annie had moved the family to 26, Ludford Street in Grimbsby and must have remarried as she was now Annie Andrew. Jane was 13 and Joseph was 11.
In 1911, Joseph was living at Manchester with Maria Benstead who was his common law wife at that time. They were at 19 Chapel Street at Cheetham Hill in Manchester. Joseph was aged 21 and an excavator and Maria was aged 29 and employed as a bobbin winder at a cotton mill.
War service:
Joseph eventually returned to Stanbury and when war broke out he attested at Keighley, on 21st May 1915 aged 25 with the West Yorkshire Regiment, service number 1359. His civilian occupation was engine driver and his ‘common law wife’ was Maria Benstead, with whom he’d been cohabiting for 7 years (since 1908) and his
enlistment sheet states she was dependant on him. His record states he was transferred to the Machine Gun Corps on 8th April
1916 and he arrived in France on 20th May when he was posted to 36 Company MGC, then to the 12th Battalion on 9th May 1917, when he was promoted to Lance Corporal.
Joseph was home on leave on 9th August 1917 for one week. He returned to his unit on 24th August and was wounded with a gun shot wound on 24th November 1917 and admitted to 62 Field Ambulance for treatment, returning to his unit on 2nd December.
The Keighley News. Saturday, April 27, 1918:
WORTH VALLEY.
Corporal Joseph Pearson, Machine Gun Corps, of Stanbury, has been wounded a second time, and is in hospital in France.
The Keighley News. Saturday, May 4, 1918:
WORTH VALLEY.
Corporal Joseph Pearson, of Stanbury, who was reported in last week’s “Keighley News” as wounded in the back, has received from the Brigadier General a parchment certificate – this is the fourth of the kind be has earned – “For his gallant conduct during operations at Cambral, from 20/1/17 to 3/12/17.”
He became acting lance sergeant on 26th February 1918 and was wounded again on 5th April this time with a gun shot wound to the thorax. He was admitted to 13 Australian field Ambulance, then to no. 3 Stationary Hospital and on to no. 22 General Hospital in Carniers. After treatment he convalesced at Etaples, then Trouville and to Base depot on 28th May. Joseph was promoted to full Corporal on 14th June 1918. He joined 12th Battalion MGC on 19th July in the field and was killed in action on 13th August 1918.
12 Battalion Machine Gun Corps war diary entry for 13th August 1918:
At 4.45 am 7th Royal Sussex and 9th Royal Fusiliers (36th Inf. Bde) attacked the trench running through K.5.b.5.3. – E.29.d.3.0 – E.29.d.0.1. – E.29.c.2.5. – to join it to present line on both flanks.
This operation was supported by Artillery, and M.Gs and we expended 30,000 rounds but the operation was only partly successful.
One company of 50th M.G. Battalion (Corps reserve) came up and took over M.G. defence of Old British defences west of MORLANCOURT; the remaining three companies of 50th Battalion taking over the defence of the Right and Centre Divisional Areas West of the N and S Grid Line befween E.25 and E.26. There has been a marked increase in hostile artillery during the past 24 hours. Casualties:- Killed: O.R. 2, Wounded: O.R. 7.
Joseph was one of the two O.R. (other ranks) killed on this date. The other man was Fred Roscorla from Lower Trenant, St Neot, Liskeard, Cornwall, son of John and Ellen Roscorla.
The Keighley News. Saturday, August 31, 1918:
WORTH VALLEY.
Official word has been received by Mrs. Pearson, 6, Stanbury, that her husband, Sergeant Joseph Pearson, Machine Gun Corps, was killed in action on August 13. In civil life Sergeant Pearson was employed at the Sladen Valley water works. He was wounded in April last, and had been awarded the Certificate of Merit or some such distinction, and had risen step by step to the rank of sergeant was very popular among his comrades, one of his chums in a sympathetic letter to Mr. Pearson says: “I always found him a good pal, ever ready to do a good turn, and the men always had a good word for him. He earned more than one decoration during the fighting. His example always gave the men confidence even in the most trying circumstances.”
His photograph also appears in the Keighley News twice in 1918, when he was killed in action. There is no accompanying text for details of his death.
Joseph is buried in grave 7 of row I, plot VI in Beacon Cemetery, Sailly- Laurette in France. His headstone records him as a Sergeant so presumably his acting sergeant status was returned after he went back to his unit in July.
Joseph was posthumously awarded the British War Medal and Victory Medal for his war service but these were returned ‘undisposed of’ so it’s possible these are still classed as unissued. The Great War memorial plaque and scroll were sent to Annie Maria Jennings and she acknowledged receipt of them.
Joseph is remembered on the Stanbury and Oldfield War Memorial in Stanbury Cemetery.
Source information:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915.
1891 England Census.
1901 England Census.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915.
West Yorkshire, England, Tax Valuation, 1910.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Soldiers Died in the Great War, 1914-1919.
Keighley News archives in Keighley Library.
Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929.
British Army WWI Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920.
WWI Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920.
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923.
