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Pte. John Willie Gothard
British Army 2nd Btn. Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry
from:5 New Street, Eythorne, Kent
(d.26 Aug 1914)
John Willie Gothard was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire on 13 March 1879, the son of a colliery lamp keeper, Wilfred Gothard. At age 14 he followed his father into the pit as a coal miner hewer. On 2nd March 1903, at the age of 24, he left the pit and enlisted in the 2nd Battalion, Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry (KOYLI) stationed at Pontefract. He became Private No 7323 in the band. It is understood that he played the Euphonium.
Whilst stationed at Pontefract, he married Martha Fritchley Trout in St Giles Church on 26 December 1906. It was here that their first child, Wilfred, was born on 29 August 1908. John left the Army on 22 September 1909 and returned to coal mining at Hoyland near Barnsley however he retained his Army connections by transferring to the Army Reserve. Two further children were born at Hoyland.
In 1913 John moved the family to Eythorne in Kent where he worked in the newly opened Tilmanstone Colliery. He wasn’t in Eythorne for long because, when war was declared in early August 1914, Private 7323 was mobilised and called back to his Regiment which was then stationed in Dublin.
The Regiment arrived in France on 18 August and immediately headed north-east to meet the advancing German Army at Mons, Belgium. Upon retreating from Mons a stand was made at the small French town of Le Cateau on 26 August. The KOYLI were in the front line and suffered significant losses. John was listed as Missing, Presumed Dead. His remains were never found. He was aged 35 and left behind Martha and three children aged under 6.
He is one of the many who are commemorated in the memorial at Le Ferte-Sous-Jouarre, a small town to the east of Paris.
Martha received John Willie’s medals being the 1914 Star, the British War Medal, the 1914-1919 Victory Medal and The Memorial Plaque. Martha stayed on in Eythorne until 1921 when she packed up her three children and migrated to Australia. She died there on 24 October 1929, aged 45.
Just as an aside, all of John Willie’s brothers went to war and they all survived. The eldest, James, was in the 27th Durham Light Infantry until his discharge on medical grounds on 23rd November 1917. He was described in his discharge as honest and hard working. Like his older brother, the youngest, Wilfred, was in the KOYLI.
John Willie Gothard was my grandfather. Having spent considerable time researching his life, I miss this fine man whom I never knew.
