Sgt. John Francis Stapleton
British Army 73rd Anti Tank Regiment Royal Artillery
from:Tarorley
(d.7th Dec 1941)
John Stapleton was the eldest of two sons born to Charles and Jessie Mary Stapleton. He was educated in Guernsey where he learned to speak fluent French. He was an army cadet. After school he returned home and became a clerk. He married Anne Butler, the sister of his very good school friend, in 1934.
John was a member of the TA before the war and so was called up very early for service. He initially was stationed at Bowmere Camp in Tarporley where he trained new recruits. His wife and children remained in his native Liverpool but with the prospect of heavy bombing there he arranged for them to be billeted in Tarporley as evacuees. The family never returned to Liverpool and John's son, also John, resides in Tarporley still.
A few months after the family arrived in the village John was sent to North Africa and he was killed in action on 7th of December 1941. One of his men wrote to the family to say that he had run into enemy fire to bring back another man who had fallen. He is remembered on the El Alamein Monument at Matruh, Egypt.
