Pte 235230 John Hulme

• Age: 24
• From: Stockport, Cheshire
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• D.O.W Tuesday 31st July 1917
• Commemorated at: Menin Gate Memorial
  Panel Ref: Panel 4 & 6

John Hulme was born in the June quarter of 1893 in Stockport to William Hulme and his wife Annie Elizabeth (nee Bann) who married in Stockport in the March quarter of 1876, St Mark, Bredbury.

On the 1901 census the family are living at 9 Pitt St, Hyde.

The father William aged 46 a pavior labourer, and his wife Lizzie aged 45, children Josiah 18 a cotton ring spinner, Phoebe 15 a cotton ring spinner, Sophia 13, William 11 and John 8(everybody born in Hyde). They have a boarder John Nicholls 62.

The mother Annie Elizabeth died aged 53 in 1909.

On the 1911 census the family have moved to 46 Lyall St, Hyde.

Widowed father William 55, a road repairer, children Josiah 28 a ring jobber at cotton mill, William 21 a cotton piecer, and John 18 a cotton spinner.

He married Annie Keating Fairclough in 1914 in Stockport, and they had a son, William, on the 01st July 1916.

John enlisted in Stockport and serving as Private 9878 of the Yorkshire Regiment. Following a transfer he was serving in the 19th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 235230 when he died of wounds on the 31st July 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres aged 24 years.

The 19th Battalion started the day in Divisional Reserve but were called forward in the early morning of 31st July and reached Maple Copse in late afternoon. It was originally detailed to continue with the morning’s attack but this was cancelled and they eventually relieved a Battalion of the 53rd Brigade in the newly captured line, sustaining casualties from shell fire.

The Battalion was relieved on the night of 03rd/4th August.

Although not actively engaged in the assault the Battalion lost 26 men killed or died of wounds with four officers and 101 men wounded.

He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate Memorial, Belgium.

The site of the Menin Gate was chosen because of the hundreds of thousands of men who passed through it on their way to the battlefields. It commemorates casualties from the forces of Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and United Kingdom who died in the Salient. In the case of United Kingdom casualties, only those prior 16 August 1917 (with some exceptions). United Kingdom and New Zealand servicemen who died after that date are named on the memorial at Tyne Cot, a site which marks the furthest point reached by Commonwealth forces in Belgium until nearly the end of the war. New Zealand casualties that died prior to 16 August 1917 are commemorated on memorials at Buttes New British Cemetery and Messines Ridge British Cemetery.

The YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL now bears the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. The memorial, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield with sculpture by Sir William Reid-Dick, was unveiled by Lord Plumer on 24 July 1927.

His widow Annie was notified officially of his death on October 23rd 1917. She and her son were given a pension of 18s and 9d a week starting in April 1918. They were living at 30 Grimshaw Street Stockport at the time.

Reported died of wounds in the Weekly Casualty List on the 20th Nov 1917

King's(Liverpool Regiment) - Hulme 235230 J. (Stockport);

On the 1921 census Annie, a widow is living with her parents Thomas and Susanna at 24 Holly Street.

She remarried in 1932 to George Henry Bennett in the Tabernacle Baptist Chapel (Middle Hillgate), Stockport. 

She died aged 69 in 1958.

We currently have no further information on John Hulme, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.