|
|
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this site you agree to accept cookies.
If you enjoy this site please consider making a donation.
Site Home
Help & FAQs
Features
Submissions
Information
Advertisements
World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. John Thomas Plant
British Army 8th Btn. South Lancashire Regiment
from:40, Anchor Road, Longton, Staffordshire
(d.3rd Jul 1916)
John Plant in abt. 1909.
My half sister and I have just returned from a long planned pilgrimage to the grave of our paternal great uncle. It was a wonderful experience to see the now tranquil place in which he lies and very difficult to imagine the horrors of the battlefield that it once was.Private John Thomas Plant was a coal miner before he enlisted during the first war. John was the son of Job and Sarah Ann Plant(nee Salt) and was born in Cheadle Staffordshire. His older sister was our paternal grandmother. John came from a poor family and, in those days, TB was very common amongst the poorer folk. The irony of John`s early death at just 24 is that, from the very start of his life he was doomed to an early death. His sister, my grandmother, died at just 21 leaving behind her only child, my dad who was only 18 months old at that time. In later years, my Dad often told the tale of how his grandfather talked about his only surviving daughter, Harriet being on her death bed and saying "Our John is hurt, he is on the ground and won`t get up" soon after this Job had the telegram to say that John had been killed in action near Thiepval. My point is, that being a miner John could easily now lie at the bottom of a coal mine or have fallen victim of TB instead of now resting within view of the Thiepval Memorial and the Ulster tower from his grave in the Connaught Cemetery. John, being from a poor family, would never have had a headstone to his grave or lie in such peaceful surroundings and, having no wife or children to carry on his memory, he would now have been forgotten. Thanks to the CWGC his grave will always be tended and now bears a poppy wreath telling all who care to pause there that even though we, his great nieces, never actually knew him his memory will be loved and honoured down through the family. All we had is one single photo of a handsome young man, not in Army uniform but clad in his Sunday best. Now, we have memories of a beautiful sunny day and the photos we took of his family paying their respects, not just for themselves, but on behalf of our own father as well as those of his own father and mother who would never have been able to make that pilgrimage themselves.
Related Content:
Can you help us to add to our records?
The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them
Did your relative live through the Great War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial?
If so please let us know.
Do you know the location of a Great War "Roll of Honour?"We are very keen to track down these often forgotten documents and obtain photographs and transcriptions of the names recorded so that they will be available for all to remember.
Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice.
Celebrate your own Family History
Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Great War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc.
Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.
The free section of The Wartime Memories Project is run by volunteers.
This website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions.
If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running.
Hosted by:
The Wartime Memories Project Website
is archived for preservation by the British Library
Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV
- All Rights Reserved -We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.
