Pte 41506 John Stewart Brown

John Stewart Brown was born on 18th December 1894 in Hulme, Manchester, the son of Thomas Brown and his wife Mary Jane (née Edwards).  Both parents were born in Manchester and married in 1883.  His father was a widower, with a son Thomas, born in 1877.  John had older siblings Harry (died at age 2), Laura, Ada, Mary Ellen, and Fred, and a younger brother Stephen.

 

John was baptised in St. Andrew’s, Manchester on 24th February 1895, his parents’ residence given as 36 Scott Street, and his father’s occupation as painter.

 

In 1901 the family is living at 1 Brampton Street, Ardwick, south Manchester. His father, 47, is a labourer, they have seven children ranging in age from 3 to 23, John is 6.

 

His father died in 1910 and the 1911 census finds his widowed mother, 52, head of household at 18 Belleck Street.  His sister Laura, 26, is a fancy box maker, Mary Ellen, 21, is a bottle wirer for a brewery. Fred, 19, and John, 16, both work for Cheshire Lines (railway); Fred is a carter and John is a cart boy. Stephen is 13, at school.

 

John enlisted as Private 4071 in the 6th Bn, Manchester Regiment.  Unfortunately his service record has not survived so the details are not known, but based on the amount of the War Gratuity, John enlisted in about September or October 1915.  The 6th Manchesters served in Gallipoli and Palestine, and were sent to the Western Front in early 1917, fought at Passchendaele, and during the German Spring Offensive in 1918.  At some point, possibly after recuperating from wounds, John was transferred to the 14th Bn King’s (Liverpool) Regiment as Private 41506. The 14th Bn served in the Balkans from 1915 to June 1918 when they were transferred to the Western Front and absorbed by the 18th Bn (Lancashire Hussars) K.L.R.   It is not known when John was evacuated to England, but he died of influenza at Stockport Infirmary on 15th November 1918, four days after the war ended. He was 23 years old.

 

He now rests at Manchester Southern Cemetery.

During the First World War, Manchester contained between thirty and forty war hospitals, including the 2nd Western General Hospital and the Nell Lane Military Hospital for prisoners of war. Many of those buried in the cemeteries and churchyards of the city died in these hospitals. During the Second World War, there was a Royal Air Force Station at Heaton Park, Manchester. 

Manchester Southern Cemetery contains burials of both wars, the majority of them scattered. There are also separate plots for First and Second World War burials, but in neither case are the graves marked individually; instead, each plot has a Screen Wall bearing the names of those buried there. Each plot has a Cross of Sacrifice. In all, 775 Commonwealth casualties of the First World War, including 1 unidentified, and 475 from the Second World War, including 3 unidentified, are now commemorated in the cemetery; there is also 1 non-war service grave. 

The Screen Wall in the Second World War plot also bears the names of 177 servicemen and women whose remains were cremated. Further memorials in this plot commemorate 17 Polish servicemen buried there, and a number of casualties of both wars buried in other cemeteries and churchyards in the Manchester area whose graves could no longer be maintained. 

Casualties buried in the following cemeteries and churchyards are now alternatively commemorated on Screen Wall Memorials in Manchester Southern Cemetery: 

Ashton-under-Lyne (St Michael) Churchyard Extension

Birch-in-Rusholme (St James) Churchyard

Bury (Brunswick) United Methodist Cemetery

Cheetham Hill (St Luke) Churchyard

Eccles (St Mary) Churchyard

Eccleston (St Thomas) Churchyard Extension

Edgeworth Congregational Chapelyard

Hey (or Lees) (St. John the Baptist) Churchyard Extension

Manchester General Cemetery

Newton Heath (All Saints) Church Cemetery

Openshaw (St Barnabas) Churchyard

Swinton Unitarian Chapelyard.

His death was reported in the Manchester Evening News on the 18th November 1918:

BROWN - On November 15th at Stockport Infirmary, Private J .S Brown (Jack), K.L.R., previously wounded and gassed in his 24th year.

I have lost but heaven hath gained,

One of the best this world contained.

Sadly missed by his sorrowing MOTHER, SISTERS, and BROTHERS (serving). - 18 Belleek Street, Hulme.

Just when his hopes were brightest,

Just when he had done his best,

The Lord thought well and took him

To that long and well earned rest.

Deeply mourned by his sorrowing SISTER and BROTHER-IN-LAW (serving). -  216 Main Road, Moss Side.

His mother Mary Jane, living at 18 Belleck Street, Hulme, Manchester, received John’s Army effects of £26-19-5d and a War Gratuity of £17-10s.  She applied for a pension on 6/6/1919 and the pension card shows she received 12 shillings a week from May to August 1919. 

 

His younger brother Stephen enlisted in June 1916 when he was 18, served in the Balkans, and was repatriated to the U.K. with sickness.  He was knocked unconscious by the explosion of an ammunition wagon in 1917.  He was admitted to hospital on 28/8/1919 with neurological difficulties, and died at Epsom War Hospital on 18/11/1919, one year after his brother.  The official cause of death was bronchitis, but on post-mortem a tumour was found in his cerebellum. His family was not present at his death. He was 21.  His body was returned to Manchester, and Stephen, like his brother, is commemorated on the Screen Wall in Manchester Southern Cemetery, Q.412.

Screen Walls are a type of memorial for Commonwealth War Dead, they are predominantly used to record the names of individuals who have a known grave but where it is not possible to erect a CWGC headstone or the exact location of the grave is no longer known.