John MARTIN

4654, Private. b.1891, Greenwich, Kent d. Fri. 14th July 1916 (aged 25).

Johnny and his brother George and mother Elizabeth and Father George moved to Clayton from their home county of Kent. John and George being born in Greenwich. The 1901 census shows Elizabeth and John living at 14 Smithy, Clayton, with Elizabeth working as a Charwoman and John as a Worsted Spinner. The census does not list Johns father George or his brother George.

The family came to try to find employment, which at the time was in abundance in the mills of Bradford and eventually both boys secured permanent jobs. Johnny was employed by Messrs. J. Benn and Co. as a Worsted Spinner and the pair managed to rent a house on Crestville Terrace.

In the middle of 1915 Johnny decided to quit his job and enlisted into the 1st/6th West Yorkshire Regiment in Halifax. He was posted to France in early 1916 as a re-enforcement and like many he went over the top on July 1st 1916. Unlike so many other soldiers he survived the ordeal and managed to return to his trench by nightfall.

For the next couple of days, most activity at the front ground to a halt while dead and wounded were brought in from no-man’s land, and Johnny would probably have been removed from the front line. The rotation of soldiers at the front effectively meant that men went from a three-day period in the front line to a base camp to get cleaned and washed then effectively had a few days of reduced duties with social activities such as sports tournaments or film showings. After this, the soldiers would return to do a stint in the reserve trenches which, although safer from the front line, were still prone to artillery bombardments or later on in the war, air raids.

The Somme Offensive ‘re-started’ on the 4th July and for the next three weeks sporadic and fierce fighting occurred for every available square foot of ground in front of the British lines. It was two weeks into this action that Johnny was killed in action and like so many of the other soldiers who fell in the Somme Offensive, his body was never recovered.

Johnny is remembered at Thiepval Memorial, Thiepval, Somme, France.