Pte 34358 John Thomas Henry Sefton

• Age: 24
• From: Gateacre, Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 18th Btn
• D.O.W Wednesday 8th May 1918
• Commemorated at: Boulogne East Cem
  Panel Ref: IX.B.58

John Thomas Henry (Harry) Sefton was born in 1893 in Gateacre, Liverpool and was the son of John Francis Sefton and his wife Elizabeth Ellen (nee Cross) who were married in 1890 at All Saints Church, Childwall.

The 1901 Census shows the family are living at 29 Sandfield Road, Much Woolton, Liverpool. Harry's father, John F., is a 34 year old cowman, his mother Elizabeth E. is aged 30. They have three children in the household, all of whom were born in Gateacre: John T. H. 7, May E. 5, and Mary G. 2. Also John's widowed father Thomas Sefton aged 50 and a gardener born in Tarbock, married sister Mary J. 21 and Peter Harrison 23 and child Rose 1.

His father died in the March quarter of 1909 aged 42.  

The 1911 Census finds the family living at 4 Sandfield Road, Gateacre. His widowed mother Elizabeth Ellen is 40. She advises that she has had 8 children, of whom 6 have survived. All of her chilldren are in the household; Henry aged 17 is a gardeners assistant, May Evalene 15, Mary Gladys 12, Percy Francis 9, Ethel Sarah 6 and James Stanley 4.

Prior to his enlistment Harry had been employed as a gardener at Childwall Hall and for 18 months had been at Arrowe Hall, Cheshire, helping with the wounded soldiers there cared for by the generosity of Miss Dora Schintz. 

He enlisted in Liverpool and was serving in the 18^th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 34358 when he died of wounds on the 08^th May 1918 aged 24 during the German Spring Offensive.

There was a service held at St Stephen’s Church, Gateacre which took the form of a memorial to Private Sefton, a number of members of the Gateacre Oddfellows Lodge, where he’d been a member, attended to pay a last tribute of respect.

In conveying news of his death Captain Redhead M.C. wrote

“The Officers, Non Commissioned officers and men of his company send to you their deepest sympathy in your sad bereavement. He had been my personal runner during the past two month, and I was very sorry indeed to hear of his death. He was most willing and always ready to do his duty when called upon. Being so closely associated with him I feel his loss most keenly. We feel we have lost in him a soldier and lost comrade".

His death was reported in the Liverpool Echo on 13th May 1918:

– DIED FROM WOUNDS – SEFTON – May 8, died of wounds Harry KLR the dearly beloved eldest son of Elizabeth and the late John Sefton of Gateacre

His death was also referred to in an article from the Garston and Woolton Weekly News  on 07th June 1918: 

"Sad news received from a sister in a Military Hospital in Boulogne, of the serious illness of Private Harry Sefton, of Gateacre was followed by the intimation that he, had died on the 8^th May in the 3^rd Canadian General Hospital. Private Sefton was the eldest son and main support of his widowed mother, 4 Sandfield Road, Gateacre. He was 24 years of age, and well respected by all who knew him".  

The nursing sister at Arrowe Hall, Miss Schintz, had written a letter of sympathy to his mother; expressing her own regret and that of all the nurses and servants at Arrowe Hall, where he was very much liked while he was there being so good to the patients and such a help in every way. “It is some consolation an English hospital and not with the Germans.”

Harry now rests at Boulogne East Cemetery, France.

Boulogne, was one of the three base ports most extensively used by the Commonwealth armies on the Western Front throughout the First World War. It was closed and cleared on the 27 August 1914 when the Allies were forced to fall back ahead of the German advance, but was opened again in October and from that month to the end of the war, Boulogne and Wimereux formed one of the chief hospital areas.

Until June 1918, the dead from the hospitals at Boulogne itself were buried in the Cimetiere de L'Est, one of the town cemeteries, the Commonwealth graves forming a long, narrow strip along the right hand edge of the cemetery. In the spring of 1918, it was found that space was running short in the Eastern Cemetery in spite of repeated extensions to the south, and the site of the new cemetery at Terlincthun was chosen.

During the Second World War, hospitals were again posted to Boulogne for a short time in May 1940. The town was taken by the Germans at the end of that month and remained in their hands until recaptured by the Canadians on 22 September 1944.

Boulogne Eastern Cemetery contains 5,577 Commonwealth burials of the First World War and 224 from the Second World War.

The Commonwealth plots were designed by Charles Holden.

Soldiers Effects and Pension to mother Elizabeth

Harry is remembered on the following Memorials:

Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 41 Right

St Stephens’ Church, Gateacre, Liverpool.

His mother died in the March quarter of 1931, aged 60. 

Grateful thanks are extended to Tom Canty from St Stephen's Church, Gateacre for providing much of the biographical details and the photograph of John T H Sefton  

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