A member of the 7^th Green Howards (the local territorial battalion) John was one of four Filey casualties who belonged to this particular unit; the other three were Sgt. Carlton Edwards, Pte. Joseph Jefferson and Pte. Eric Major.

          The 7^th Green Howards had fought at Dunkirk and had been evacuated before spending the next twelve months in Britain.  At this point they were re-assigned to fight against Rommel’s Afrika Korps.  The campaign was to be an eventual hard won victory, but at the time of John’s death fierce fighting was still on going to take the Allies first tentative steps back into Europe. 

          John however, died in Italy more than nine months before any Allied Armed forces set foot onto Italian soil; as puzzling as this may seem it can be given a simple explanation.  During late May and June 1942 the Allies were engaged in heavy and sustained fighting around the region of Tobruk and at this point their campaign was not going well.  Rommel’s troops were attacking the region and overwhelming the Allied forces stationed there, a force that at the time included the 7^th Green Howards.  After several days of fighting it was estimated that nearly 28,000 Allied troops had been captured and made prisoners of war, whilst the German Army continued its advance unabated.  The majority of these captured troops were marched and eventually shipped to the nearest Axis country, Italy, and it was in one of these camps near the town of Caserta that John died in mid December 1942.

          It is unknown if he succumbed to wounds received during the battle for Tobruk or whether he died of one of the many diseases that travelled around the camps due to their poor hygiene, but he was laid to rest in the camp’s cemetery on the day of his death.