First World War Centenary. 7: John Taylor

 John Taylor   Royal Marines

Private John Taylor   PLY/17692
Royal Marine Light Infantry 1914-1919

John Taylor was born in Salford, Lancashire, England on 6 April 1898, and christened on 20 Apr 1898.  He was the son of Charles Taylor (1861 - 1935) of Salford  and Louise Stevens (1864 - 1928) of Belper, Derbyshire.[2] They were married on 1 July 1882.[3]

John Taylor with his mother, Louisa

Immediately before the First World War, John lived with his family at 13 Troy Street in Ordsall, and worked as a telephone installer for the General Post Office.  War was declared on the 4th of August 1914, and John enlisted in the Royal Marine Light Infantry (RMLI) at Manchester on 16th November 1914.  He was sixteen years and six months old, but lied about his age in order to appear older than he actually was.[1]  Even so, the RMLI records show that he was still considered 294 days underage.

Source: Stanford University. Hoover Institution

From Manchester, John was sent to the Royal Marines Recruit Depot at Deal, Kent, where he underwent infantry training, sea service gunnery, musketry and field training (including rowing, swimming and signalling).  During his seven months (16 Nov 1914 to 5 May 1915) at Deal he was under the command of Herbert Southey Neville White. On 6 May 1915, John was transferred to the Plymouth Division, Company E, and billeted at Stonehouse Barracks, under the command of Charles Ernest Edward Curtoys. He remained there until 25 October 1915, when he was assigned to the armoured cruiser, HMS Devonshire. 

HMS Devonshire (1904)
Credit: Wikimedia Commons

At the time of his embarkation, HMS Devonshire belonged to the Third Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet, and patrolled the North Sea and Norwegian coast, under the command of Edwin Veale Underhill. In July 1916, she was transferred to the Seventh Cruiser Squadron, and assigned to The Nore Command. 

After 10 months at sea, John returned to Plymouth on the 9th of September 1916, and remained there until the end of the year. On the 1 January 1917, he was redeployed to the super-dreadnought battleship, HMS Thunderer. and remained with the ship until 4 February 1919. HMS Thunderer was under the command of Thomas Drummond Pratt (Gilbert), and was part of the Second Battle Squadron.

HMS Thunderer (1911)

On the 5th of February, John returned to Plymouth and remained there until 10 April 1919, when he was discharged for "mistatement of age", but then the war was over.

From Deal. Christmas 1914
RMLI Recruit John Taylor

John Taylor (seated)
with unknown shipmate

RMLI shipmates on HMS Thunderer

John Taylor married May Cawdery on 30 July 1921. and lived at 23 West Brownbill Street, Salford. They had three children, John, Frank, and May.  During the Second World War, John was a Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.

Written three months after D-Day in 1944 

John Taylor died on 2 Jan 1958. Burial services were held at Stowell Memorial Church, Salford. on 6 January 1958. His remains were cremated at Peel Green Cemetery, Eccles, and his ashes scattered in the Garden of Remembrance.

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World War I Campaign Medals
Pip. Squeak and Wilfred
and Helmet Plate

verso of the 1914 Star

Plate worn on the Wolseley-pattern 

white pith helmet

Upper:
Lower: British Royal Navy Petty Officer's Cap Badge

HMS Thunderer
click on image to enlarge

Notes

[1] He misrepresented his age when he joined the Royal Marines. Military records shows a birthdate of 6 September 1897, making him underage at the time of enlistment. He seems to have chosen the 6th of September, which was the birth date of his late brother (he was christened three days later) and namesake, John[2]. John and his twin, Lily, died within days of each other from scarlet fever. a persistent health threat to children in nineteenth century Salford.

Baptism: 20 Apr 1898 St Clement, Salford, Lancs.
John Taylor - [Child] of Charles Taylor & Louisa
    Born: 6 Apr 1898
    Abode: 13 Troy Street
    Occupation: Clerk
    Baptised by: W. Hudson
    Source: LDS Film 1786422  https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XW1Q-BN3

[2] Their other children:

• Martha Elizabeth (1883) 
• Louisa (1884)  
• Mary Ellen (1886) 
• Charles (1887) 
• Gertrude (1890)  
• Robert (1892) 
• Lily  (1896) [died 1896] 
• John (1896) [died 1896] 
• Thomas (1902) 

[3] Marriages at St Clement in the District of Ordsall, Salford recorded in the Register 1879 - 1886
Marriage: 1 Jul 1882 St Clement, Salford, Lancashire, England
Charles Taylor - 21, Clerk, Bachelor, 39 Hulton Street
Louisa Stevens - 18, Winder, Spinster, 39 Hulton Street
Groom's Father: Charles Taylor, Townsman

Bride's Father: Joseph Stevens, (deceased), Nail-Maker
Witness: James Mills; Elizabeth Kinder
Married by Banns by: Charles V. Merriman
Register: Marriages 1879 - 1886, Page 98, Entry 196
Source: LDS Film 1786423

First World War Centenary. 6: Nicholas Leahy

Nicholas Leahy: Merchant Seaman

Commonwealth War Graves Commission
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Nicholas Leahy was born in Kinsale, County Cork, Ireland in 1892, and named after his father's brother.  He was the son of William Leahy and Catherine Cadogan, who were married [(William) (Catherine)] in Kinsale on 23 July 1881.  


William Leahy was born on 29 April 1860 in World's End, Kinsale. He worked as a fisherman, and, while his name appears in the 1901 census, it is absent from the 1911 census.[1]    In 1901, his conjugal family lived at 23 Friars Street, Kinsale, but, by 1911, it had relocated to 14 Cork Street, Kinsale and, by 1917, to 16 Cork Street. William may have died in the years between the two censuses. However, his name continues to appear in (Guy's) City & County Almanac and Directory for 1910 / 1913 / 1921 / 1925 and 1930, but this may indicate nothing more than that his family, and not necessarily he, still lived in Cork Street. His name does not appear in the directories before 1910, nor in the 1940 directory.

Catherine Cadogan was born on 13 July 1860 in World's End, Kinsale, and appears to have died in Kinsale at the age of 80 in 1941. She bore eleven children, but only six were living in 1911.[2]  

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According to the 1911 census, Nicholas was already a 'sailor' by the age of 19.  Sadly, the Register of Merchant Seamen, 1913-1917, the period crucial in reconstructing the career of Nicholas Leahy, was destroyed by the Board of Trade in 1969.  We do know that in 1917, he was a deck hand on the SS Saint Quentin, which had been commandeered by the Royal Navy and given the prefix HMT (Hired Military Transport). 

HMT Saint Quentin 135567
Photo credit: Clydebuilt Database

The steamship, Saint Quentin, was launched on 24 January 1914, and built on the Clyde by William Hamilton & Co., Port Glasgow.

Salonika Harbour 1916
Photo credit: Stuart Roberts

Nicholas Leahy died on the 11th of September 1917 at Salonika, modern Thessaloniki in Greece. Salonika was the main port of entry and allied supply base for the Macedonian Front in the First World War.  We have no information on the manner of Nicholas' death, but can offer the following likely scenario:

• The Saint Quentin, as a military transport vessel, was sent to Salonika, with four other ships [3], in order to transfer elements of the 10th (Irish) Division from Greece to Alexandria and Palestine [4].   The 10th Division had been ordered to assemble at the port on 18 August 1917 for embarkation, and it is assumed that the ships arrived around that date.

• After the First Battle of Doiran in May 1917, the Macedonian front was relatively quiet, and the HMT Saint Quentin would have remained safe in its anchorage while docked in Salonika Harbour. The ship survived the war intact, and was eventually scrapped in 1932. 

• The Macedonian Front was famously pestilential, and rife with malaria, blackwater fever and dysentery. Sailing into Salonika during the August - September period was the worst possible time, because the anopheles mosquito population was most active then. Consequently, deaths caused by malaria peaked at this time of the year.  While waiting in the port of Salonika, Nicholas probably contracted a malignant form of malaria, and died as a result.

Source: Colonel Dennis Shanks

Nicholas was buried in grave 1186 at the Lembet Road Cemetery in Thessaloniki.  He was 25.

Rudyard Kipling summed up conditions on the Macedonian Front in his poem, Salonikan Grave -

It is fever, and not the fight—

Time, not battle—that slays.

Nicholas Leahy is mentioned in the following:

Remembering World War One in Kinsale (World's End Memorial)

Find a Grave

Men of Kinsale (WW1)
Cross of Sacrifice

Notes

[1] An error in transcription of the 1911 census renders the surname as Leaky. It is possible that William may have died at sea. 

[2] Surviving children"  Margaret (born abt. 1883] married William Fitzpatrick, and was living next door to her mother in 1911 ; Nicholas (born abt. 1892) ; Kathleen [Catherine] (born abt. 1898) ; Joseph (born abt. 1900) ; Mary Cristina (born abt. 1902). The whereabouts of William (born abt. 1889) and Patrick (born abt. 1895) are unknown, but one was certainly deceased.
[3] Woodfin, Edward. Camp and Combat on the Sinai and Palestine Front: The Experience of the British Empire Soldier, 1916-18 (2012) p.69, n.14.  
[4] The Royal Irish Regiment, 5th Service Btn (Pioneers) sailed from Salonika to Alexandria between 10-16 September 1917.  The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers also departed in September 1917 ; Royal Dublin Fusiliers left on  9 September ; 1st Btn. Leinster left on 14 September ;  Royal Irish Rifles left the first week in September.