262270 Pte. John Henry Roberts British Army 2/4th Btn. Duke of Wellingtons (West Riding) Regiment from:Kilnhurst, South Yorkshire (d.29th Sep 1918) John Roberts was born on Tuesday 28th July 1891 at 294, Queen Street, Swinton in the Borough of Rotherham. He was one of 11 children born to Henry Leach Roberts and Jane Roberts. Census records indicate that 9 of these children died and that the only other survivor was a sister, Susannah, who was about 8 years John Henry's junior. John left school to become a miner at Thrybergh Hall Colliery where he worked as a trammer (a trammer loaded rocks or coal into four-wheeled barrows known as trams).
On Thursday 28th of May 1915, at the age of 23 years and 10 months, he signed up for war service with the York and Lancaster Regiment at their depot in Pontefract. He was posted immediately to Sunderland to engage in coastal protection duties. Sunderland was an industrial town noted, among other things, for shipbuilding and was a target for enemy action.
It seems he met his wife, Frances, some time after his arrival in Sunderland, and they married at Hooton Roberts in the parish church of Kilnhurst on Monday 6th of August 1917. Their daughter Mary was born on Friday 12th July 1918.
On Friday 30th of August 1918, John was posted to 1st Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment and embarked with the British Expeditionary Force to France. A day later however, he was transferred to C Company, 2/4th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment, and on Sunday 29th of September 1918, he was killed in action during the Battle for Havrincourt where machine-guns, automatic rifles, and trench mortars were used against British troops.
He is buried in the Grand Ravine British War Cemetery, Havrincourt.
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