Pte 50174 John Wilkinson

• Age: 39
• From: Washington, Co Durham
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
• D.O.W Sunday 5th August 1917
• Commemorated at: Lijssenthoek M C Poperinghe
  Panel Ref: XVII.B.2A

John Wilkinson was born in the June quarter of 1878 in Washington, County Durham, the son of John Wilkinson and Sarah Ann (nee Harkes), who married in Newcastle in 1877.  His father was born in Durham, and his mother in Wallsend.  They had five surviving children:  Thomas born 1877, John 1878, Isabella 1881,  Sarah Jane 1884, and Frederick 1891.

In 1881 John and Sarah Ann, with three children, are living at 53 Pattinson Town, Barmston.  His father is a labourer in a chemical works.  Thomas is 3, John 2, and Isabella 1 month old. 

John appears to have lived all his life in Pattinson Town.  (From a history of Washington:  Pattinson Town (named after the founder of Washington Chemical Works, Hugh Lee Pattinson, a major employer in the area) comprised of originally one row of terraced houses, each with a long garden. These houses were workers cottages consisting of 3 rooms each, with a pantry, coal house, piggery and attached garden. There 28 cottages in all, 2 cottages occupied by cartmen. A footpath lead from the cottages to the works. By 1896 there was an additional row of cottages with allotments on the north side of the road for the residents.)

In 1891 John, 40, and Sarah Ann, 38, are at 65 Pattinson Town. His father John is a foreman at the  chemical works. Older brother Thomas is 13, a grocer’s assistant.  John, 12, Isabella, 10, and Sarah Jane, 6, are at school.

In 1901 at 32 Pattinson Town.  His father is a foreman in the magnesia (chemical) works;  John is 22, single, also working in the magnesia works. Isabella, 20, and Sarah Jane, 16, and Frederick, 9 are in the home.  Most of their neighbours are also employed in the magnesia works.

His mother died in 1905, aged 51.

In 1911 John is still living at home in Pattinson Town. His father, 61, is widowed, still a foreman in the chemical works;  John, 33, is a general labourer in a coal mine. Sisters Isabella, 30, and Sarah Jane, 26, are at home.

He enlisted in Washington and was serving in the 17th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 50174 when he died of wounds in No.3 Canadian Casualty Clearing Station on the 5th August, 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres.

He now rests at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinghe,Belgium, where his headstone bears the epitaph:

“MAY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD REST UPON HIM”

During the First World War, the village of Lijssenthoek was situated on the main communication line between the Allied military bases in the rear and the Ypres battlefields. Close to the Front, but out of the extreme range of most German field artillery, it became a natural place to establish casualty clearing stations. The cemetery was first used by the French 15th Hopital D'Evacuation and in June 1915, it began to be used by casualty clearing stations of the Commonwealth forces.

From April to August 1918, the casualty clearing stations fell back before the German advance and field ambulances (including a French ambulance) took their places.

The cemetery contains 9,901 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 24 being unidentified. There are 883 war graves of other nationalities, mostly French and German, 11 of these are unidentified. There is 1 Non World War burial here.

The only concentration burials were 24 added to Plot XXXI in 1920 from isolated positions near Poperinghe and 17 added to Plot XXXII from St. Denijs Churchyard in 1981.

Eight of the headstones are Special Memorials to men known to be buried in this cemetery, these are located together alongside Plot 32 near the Stone of Remembrance.

The cemetery, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, is the second largest Commonwealth cemetery in Belgium.

The War Gratuity went to his sister, Miss Isabella Wilkinson, 63 Pattison Town, Washington Station, County Durham, his father having died in 1916.

John is commemorated on the Washington Cross Memorial, Tyne & Wear.

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