| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
John was born at Hotham 1888, the eldest child of John Henry Leighton (1863-1934) and his wife Margaret Ann (1867-1929) who married in Beverley in 1886. His father was a colour-sergeant in the 1st Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment in the regular Army. The family was in South Africa in 1891 where John’s sister, Annie, was born. In 1893 the 1st moved to Egypt and in 1895 to India but it is not known whether the family went with John senior.
In 1901 the family were back at Victoria Barracks, Beverley. On leaving the army John’s father opened a fruit shop at 2 Wednesday Market, Beverley. John junior set up his own grocery business at 102 Keldgate, he married Lillie Harrison on 1 Sep 1910 and the family lived on the premises. Lillie was born in Hull in 1899, the daughter of a boot and shoemaker who had lived on Keldgate. John and Lillie had a daughter, Dorothy born the 26 Aug 1913; their first child, John, died in infancy in 1912.
John joined the army on 27 Nov 1915, he served in the East Yorkshire Regiment but shortly after arriving in France on 19 Aug 1917 he was posted to the 1/6th Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry. John was killed in action during the Battle of Hazebrouck which took place on 12 to 15 Apr 1918. A German offensive had been launched and the 1/6th, part of 151st Brigade, held positions north of Merville. John was initially posted as missing and the date of his death is given as 14 Apr 1918, but by then a withdrawal had been made so his death may have been days earlier.
He was awarded the War and Victory Medals and is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial in Belgium. He is also remembered on the Hengate Memorial, on the East Riding Memorial in Beverley Minster and on the Keldgate Street Shrine.
John’s younger brother Henry Atkin Leighton (WL/12/16), a private in the 4th Battalion of the East Yorkshires, was killed in action in France on 17 Jun 1916. John’s father rejoined the army as a lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion of the East Yorkshires. |