Capt Arthur de Bells Adam (MC)
1885 - 1916
CPL David Wallace Crawford
1887 - 1916
Lce-Corpl John Joseph Nickle
1894 - 1916
Pte 17911 Morton Neill
1897 - 1916
Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft
1883 - 1918
1885 - 1916
CPL David Wallace Crawford
1887 - 1916
Lce-Corpl John Joseph Nickle
1894 - 1916
Pte 17911 Morton Neill
1897 - 1916
Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft
1883 - 1918
Pte 35133 John Pilkington
- Age: 28
- From: Scarisbrick, Lancs
- Regiment: 1st Kings
- Died on Wednesday 26th December 1917
- Commemorated at: Hermies Hill Bc
Panel Ref: I.E.35
John Edward was born in late 1889 in Scarisbrick, the son of Edward Pilkington and his wife Mary (née Farrington). Edward was born in Rufford, and Mary in Scarisbrick; they married in 1886 and had three children. Their first child, John, was born in late 1887, but died at ten weeks old in January 1888.
John Edward was baptised in St. Mark’s, Scarisbrick, on 23rd March 1890, his father’s occupation basket maker.
In 1891 the family is living “off Southport Road”, Scarisbrick. His parents are both 28, his father is a basket maker, John is one year old. Other Pilkingtons live nearby.
Their daughter, Ann, was born in the summer of 1893. His father died on 03rd November 1897, at the age of 35, when John was 7 years old.
In 1901 his widowed mother Mary, 38, is a (shirt) seamstress, working on her own account at home, in Saddlers Row, Scarisbrick. John is 11, and Ann 7.
In 1911 they are still in Saddlers Row. His mother is 48, no occupation listed, John is 21, a shoemaker, and Ann, 17, is a dressmaker.
John enlisted in Southport as Private 35133 in the 18th (Pals) Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment. Unfortunately his service record has not survived but based on the amount of the War Gratuity, he enlisted (or was conscripted) in about May 1916.
At some point he was transferred to the 1st Bn K.L.R. John was killed in action on 26th December 1917, aged 28. CWGC shows he was attached to the 6th Trench Mortar Battery.
He now rests in Hermies Hill British Cemetery, between Bapaume and Cambrai.
Hermies was seized on the morning of the 9th April 1917, by a surprise attack of the 2nd and 3rd Australian Infantry Battalions. It was held against the advancing Germans on the 22nd March 1918, by the 17th Division, but evacuated on the following day; and it was retaken in September 1918. It was later "adopted", with Havrincourt, by the County Borough of Huddersfield. The cemetery was begun in November 1917, and carried on by fighting units until March 1918, and further graves were added in the following September. These original burials comprise nearly the whole of Plot I; the remaining three Plots were added after the Armistice by the concentration of graves from a wide area round Hermies.
There are now over 1,000, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, nearly 300 are unidentified and special memorials are erected to 28 soldiers from the United Kingdom and 3 from Australia, known or believed to be buried among them. Other special memorials record the names of 6 soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in two German Cemeteries, whose graves were destroyed by shell fire. The cemetery covers an area of 3,629 square metres and is enclosed by a brick wall.
His mother Mary (who had remarried in 1919 and was now Mrs.Anderton, address “near Morris Dancers [pub] Scarisbrick, Ormskirk”,) received John’s Army effects, including a War Gratuity of £8-10s and a pension of 12/6d a week. In 1939 Mary, with husband David, is living at 92 Chapel Street, St. Helens. She died in 1940.
John is commemorated on the family gravestone in St. Mark’s Churchyard, Scarisbrick.
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
IN LOVING MEMORY OF
JOHN, INFANT SON OF
EDWARD & MARY PILKINGTON
WHO DIED JANY 31ST 1888
AGED 10 WEEKS
ALSO OF THE ABOVE
EDWARD PILKINGTON
WHO DIED NOVEMBER 3RD 1897
AGED 35 YEARS
ALSO OF JOHN EDWARD
SON OF THE ABOVE
PTE. 1ST K.L.R.
WHO WAS KILLED IN ACTION IN FRANCE
DECR 26TH 1917, AGED 28 YEARS
FOR EVER WITH THE LORD
We currently have no further information on John Pilkington, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.
89th Brigade On This Day.
110 Years Ago.The Battle of the Transloy Ridges begins. more....
Killed On This Day.
(110 Years this day)Monday 16th October 1916.
Pte 22929 Edward Bird
19 years old
(110 Years this day)
Monday 16th October 1916.
Pte 16795 William Frederick Collister
23 years old
(109 Years this day)
Tuesday 16th October 1917.
L/Cpl 49038 Ernest Yardley
31 years old
(108 Years this day)
Wednesday 16th October 1918.
Pte 85187 James Hoy
31 years old
(107 Years this day)
Thursday 16th October 1919.
Pte 36438 Hugh Morris
23 years old