John James Ward, Lance Corporal 15/938, 15th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment, later Lieutenant West Yorkshire Regiment

My interest in John James Ward grew when, 100 years after the Leeds Pals were based in the French village of Bus-le-Artois (known to the soldiers as ‘Bus’), I found his and another Leeds Pals name etched on the external wall of ‘Bus’ church.  The inscription read: ’15 Bat, R G Potts, J J Ward, West Yorks’.  Were they on guard duty, bored or just wanting to leave their mark?  The remarkable connection between the two men is that they both commissioned as officers and both survived the Battle of the Somme, and the war.  A profile of Robert Gowland Potts was posted on 23/04/2021; this is the story of John James Ward.

Bus church, showing Potts and Ward inscriptions

John was born in Berlin, Germany, on 4th December 1892 to British parents Hartley Ward, a Textile Engineer who was born in Birstal, Yorkshire in 1850 to parents Joshua and Elizabeth Ward and died in 1928, and Jane Lister who in 1851 was born in Birstall to parents George and Elizabeth Lister and died in 1926.  His eldest sibling was Herbert who was also born in same place in 1878, worked as a Foreign Correspondent and died on his way to hospital in Hamburg, Germany in 1908.  John had two other brothers who were born in Berlin, Germany, Louis Lister, born on Christmas Eve 1881 and Wilfred Otto who was born in 1885 and died in Gloucestershire 1958.  Little is known about the family between 1882 and 1910 as they lived for a number of years in Germany, where presumably Hartley worked.  However, in 1901 Herbert and Louis were living and working in Yorkshire and in 1911 Louis and Wilfred were boarders living at 37 Roseville Road, Leeds and working as shoe salesmen.  The difficulty in accurately tracing John James Ward has been, in part, the number of men (at least ten) sharing the same name as him at that time.  Fortunately his military service record and other documents have survived that provide a record of his wartime service.

John enlisted in Leeds in the 15th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment on 13th September 1914 and joined 6 Section, 2 Platoon, A Company under the command of 2nd Lieutenant Robert Huntriss Tolson.  Like all early enlisted Leeds Pals soldiers John trained at Colsterdale and Ripon in Yorkshire, and Fovant on Salisbury Plain, before sailing on HMT Empress of Britain from Liverpool to Alexandria on 7th December 1915, arriving on the 19th.  Two days later he disembarked at Port Said; the Battalion had been sent to Egypt to defend the Suez Canal from a perceived attack by the Turks.  On the 28th December Lieutenant Tolson and 72 men travelled about 25 miles down the line on the Suez Canal Bank to take over Kantara which became the main base for the Battalion.  The attack did not materialise and the 15th Battalion, which was part of 93rd Brigade, 31st Infantry Division, relocated to France to prepare for the forthcoming Battle of the Somme.

They sailed from Port Said on HMT Ascania on 1st March 1916 arriving in Marseilles on the 8th.  They then had a two-day train ride to Pont Remy where they left the train and marched 9 miles to the villages of Neuville-au-Bois and Forceville; A Company was billeted in the former.  During April 1916 the Battalion acclimatised to the weather on the Western Front and trained for life in the trenches.  Although there had been a few deaths through natural causes and accidents, such as the accidental shooting of Private Wintle on 8th February in Egypt, reality hit home when at the end of April the Battalion suffered a number of serious casualties while manning the trenches.

Throughout May and June training and preparations for the Somme offensive continued, with casualties mounting.  John, who had trained as a Platoon Bomber, was promoted to Lance Corporal on 28th June 1916 and was wounded three days later, on the first day of the battle of the Somme, the same day his Platoon Commander died.  The 15th Battalion led the 93rd Brigade attack on Serre on 1st July, with devastating consequences; of the 750 men who ‘went over the top’ 209 were killed, and a further 24 died later of their wounds.  Of the 24 officers who took part in the attack, 13 were killed and the remainder were wounded; two later died of their wounds.  Someone stated that ‘it took two years to train the Battalion and two minutes to destroy it’.  

John returned to the UK via the medical evacuation route on 7th July and was placed on the posted strength of the Depot.  His injuries were shrapnel/bullet wounds to his arms, head and knee.  He was initially treated for his wounds at No.2 General Hospital Le Havre, France and back in the UK at the 3rd Western General Hospital.  In September 1916 he moved to the 2nd General Hospital in Leeds where it took some weeks for John to recover from his injuries.  He later transferred to the 3rd Battalion in April 1917

During 1917 he was identified as a potential officer and after successfully completing his officer training at No.17 Officer Cadet Battalion at Kimmel Park, Rhyl from 7th September 1917, he was commissioned into the West Yorkshire Regiment on 29th January 1918.  At the time he was 5’ 8” tall, weighed 9 stone 6 lbs, and had a fresh complexion, hazel eyes and light brown hair.  He was posted to the Base Depot in February 1918 before joining the 63rd Battalion in the ‘Field’.  On 13th August 1918 he was admitted to the Central Hospital Lichfield, suffering from syphilis, which he caught in Leeds in July.  On release he returned to his new unit, the 5th Reserve Battalion, Machine Gun Corps (MGC) based at Belton Park, Grantham, although he had to return to Lichfield several times for treatment until he was finally cleared on 10th October that year.  

His final posting before leaving the Army was to the 32nd Battalion MGC in March 1919.  He was discharged from service on 26th July 1919 and relinquished his commission on 1st September 1921, retaining the rank of Lieutenant.  His home address was 130 Harehills Lane, Leeds; he gave his occupation as Student Mining Engineering.  John was awarded the 1914/15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal which he received in 1921.  I have found no evidence that any of his brothers served in the Forces during the war.

At the time of the census in June 1921 John was working as an Accountant with Thomas Wilkemm Ltd Electric Manufacturing Engineers at Arnside and living as a boarder at Station Cottages, Arnside, Westmorland with Hannah Lewis and her daughter Alice.  The following year he married Elsie Hurd at the Parish Church Leeds on 15th April 1922, she was born in 1891.  His father’s profession was listed as a Spinner and Elsie’s father Arthur, who was deceased, had been a Plumber.  John was still an Accountant at Arnside.  His brother Louis Lister Ward, who was now a Shoe Store Manager, married Canadian Edith Letetia Dicks in Toronto, Canada on 1st April 1918; he had previously sailed to Canada on 27th March 1914.   In 1927 John, a Merchant at the time, visited Germany and returned to England sailing from Hamburg on 31st May.

In 1936 he sailed for Boston, Massachusetts in the USA leaving from Glasgow on the Cameronia, arriving 13th September for his six-week’s visit.  His description was the same as when he joined the Army, although he had grown an extra 1½”.  An interesting remark on the passenger list was reference to ‘Shrapnel wound marks right upper arm’.  His residence in the UK was listed as Haverhill, Nr Stroud.

When the pre-war national register was compiled in mid-1939 John and Elsie were living at 41 Nab Lane, Shipley.  Strangely Elsie was shown as being single although she and John were married in 1922.  John was listed as Director Textiles Firm & Export Hospital Supplies and Elsie worked for the Women’s Voluntary Service.  On 20th July 1940 John applied for enrolment in the Officers’ Emergency Reserve, although was not accepted (no reason given).

John is believed, by the family, to have died in Staffordshire in 1966 age 74 although I have my doubts as another John James Ward, who was born in Cannock at about the same time as John lived in Stafford.

Sources:

The National Archives – Service Record and War Diary

Ancestry – British Domestic Records, German Domestic Records, Medal Rolls

Findmypast – 1921 Census, 1939 Register

John Allan (relative) – Additional Information

Researcher: David J Owen

Please Note:

  • All opinions and inferences are the researcher’s own.
  • Please refer to our Glossary of Terms for further information on the terms and phrases used in this post.