| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
John W Miers joined the East Yorkshire Regiment at the age of 18 ½ in 1905 and after initial training and promotion to Lance Corporal, he was transferred to 2nd East Yorkshire Regiment. He embarked for India, with time spent on the troop ships RIMS Hardinge and Dufferin and at Maymyo in Burma.
The Army Service Record's first mention of John Miers in India is not until Apr 1909 when he reverted to Private for unspecified misconduct. By 1912 he was transferred before the expiration of his period of army service back to England as a Reservist. At the outbreak of war he was called back to the colours, this time to 1st East Yorkshire Regiment and arrived in France on 8 Sep 1914. A letter sent to his mother appears in the Beverley Guardian on 2 Jan 1915 and mentions he had a narrow escape from a German bullet whilst repairing and draining water logged trenches but there is no mention of the 7 day Field Punishment No 1 he had received in the middle of December.
In Mar 1915 Private Miers was admitted to hospital in Boulogne with acute rheumatism, transferred to England and then posted to 3rd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, part of the Humber Garrison, a training and retraining Battalion., at which point he deserts. In Oct 1915 he was arrested, awaiting trial and then sentenced to 70 days detention. He deserts again - a further 6 months detention, followed by a posting in Oct 1916 to 2nd East Yorkshire Regiment sailing to Egypt and on to Salonika. He was badly affected by malaria in Salonika and returned to England in Apr 1918, back to A company 3rd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment and Withernsea where he stays until 19 Oct 1918 before deserting again, permanently.
With the war at an end, it's unlikely too much effort was made to find him and with an Irish father who spelt the name Mires, a birth certificate that would show his name as Rispin (his mother's maiden name), the Army's version of Miers and his widowed mother's Myers, John William would probably have found it quite easy to disappear.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |