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Tpr. John James Mansfield Lock
British Army Crewkerne Sqn 1st/1st West Somerset Yeomanry
from:Rushiewood Farm, Hazelberry Punknet, Crewkerne
698 Private John James Mansfield Lock was a Trooper with the 1st/1st West Somerset Yeomanry and Sapper 229th Brigade Signals Section, Divisional Signals Company Royal Engineers, 74th (Yeomanry) Division
Jack Lock joined the West Somerset Yeomanry on the 3rd March 1913 at Crewkerne, Somerset. He attended two summer camps, with his own horse on Salisbury Plain in May 1913 and at Porlock in May 1914. The Regiment was embodied on the 5th August 1914 and was soon deployed to Essex on anti-invasion duties. The WSY finally deployed overseas in the infantry role, landing at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on 9th October 1915.
They were evacuated from Gallipoli with the rest of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force the WSY landed at Alexandria, Egypt on 31st of December 1915.
The WSY served in Eygpt against a native rebellion and it was in January 1917 that the WSY became the 12th Battalion, The Somerset Light Infantry. On the 21st February 1917 Jack was transferred to the Royal Engineers as a member of the Brigade Signals Section. The 74th (Yeomanry) Division served with distinction in General Allenby’s Palestine campaign against the Turks and was still engaged in operations there when the German March 1918 offensive was launched on the Western Front. The Division was moved to France and part of the desperately needed reinforcements from Palestine. The Division was fully engaged in the final 100 days.
Jack was discharged from the Army in July 1919 and returned to Somerset to become a farmer as many generations of his family had done before him. He passed away peacefully in his sleep in Sept 1979 when I was 12 years old. He talked briefly to me about his experiences, showing me a few photos from his time in Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine. He never spoke of his service to my father his son and gave me his three campaign medals, still in their boxes having never been worn. He lost many of his good friends and was clearly deeply effected by his experiences, my Grandmother said he often experienced dreadful nightmares. As a Linesman in the Signals Troop it would have been his job to have repaired severed telephone lines, cut by artillery fire, often whilst still under fire.
