| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
John Robert Haith, known as Jack, was born at Warter in 1882. He was the second son of William Haith, a farm labourer, and his wife Mary.
John Robert Haith, aged 18, enlisted in the Coldstream Guards in 1900. In 1901, he was stationed at the Guards' Depot in Caterham, Surrey. He served with the Regiment in the Boer War and was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal, 1899-1902, with two clasps, 'South Africa 1902 ' and 'Cape Colony'. After his military discharge and return home to Yorkshire Jack was employed as an asylum nurse at Broadgate Hospital, Walkington. He married, Gertrude Mary Brown on 9 May 1916, Gertrude was the daughter of Robert Brown, a GPO telegraphist and his wife Mary Frances Dean. Jack and Gertie spent their brief married life together at 6 Butt Lane, Beverley.
John's Coldstream Guards regimental number in the Great War was 18499 indicating that he would have been recalled to the colours in Jun-Jul 1916. Unfortunately, his Medal Rolls Card which shows him serving with the 3rd Battalion Coldstream Guards does not bear the date of his arrival in France. Jack Haith was killed there at Gueudecourt on the 13 Nov 1916. His body was never found and his name is on the Memorial to the Missing, Thiepval, Somme
Jack and Gertie's only child, Dorothy Mary Haith, was born on 21 Oct1916 and christened in Beverley Minster on 22 Nov 1916. Jack never saw his daughter.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |