John was born on 29th July 1880 at St Helen's, Ipswich, Suffolk to parents Moses and Harriet, the eldest of nine children.
He was first recorded on the 1881 census, living at 7 Regent Street in the St Helen’s parish area of Ipswich. His father, although called Moses, was recorded as George and he worked as a bricklayer.
The family can’t be found in the following census, and by 1896 John had left home to begin his life in the Royal Navy. He began his naval training on 23rd July 1896 as a Boy 2nd Class at HMS IMPREGNABLE, recorded as 5’8” tall with black hair and brown eyes.
His service follows:
HMS LION - 28/06/1896 - 01/02/1898, rising to Boy 1st Class on 01/04/1897
HMS AUSTRALIA - 02/02/1898 - 14/06/1898
HMS RUPERT - 15/06/1898 - 04/12/1901, rising to Ordinary Seaman on 29/07/1898 and Able Seaman on 24/08/1899. A month after John was rated to Able Seaman, his youngest brother William was born, back in Ipswich. On the night of the 1901 census John was recorded on the RUPERT, which was stationed at Port Said, in the Mediterranean.
HMS PEMBROKE I - 05/12/1901 - 05/03/1902
HMS WILDFIRE - 06/03/1902 - 06/05/1903
HMS PEMBROKE - 07/05/1903 - 15/05/1903
HMS NORTHAMPTON - 16/05/1903 - 14/11/1904
HMS HAWKE - 15/11/1904 - 06/08/1906, rising to Leading Seaman on 01/07/1905 and Petty Officer 2nd Class on 24/10/1905
HMS WILDFIRE - 07/08/1906 - 08/01/1907
HMS MAGNIFICENT - 09/01/1907 - 15/02/1909, rising to Petty Officer 1st Class on 09/09/1907
HMS AFRICA - 16/02/1909 - 24/04/1911. John was aboard the Battleship on the night of the 1911 census, anchored at Chatham, Kent.
HMS PEMBROKE - 25/04/1911 - 01/12/1911
HMS HOGUE - 02/12/1911 - 16/02/1912
HMS KING EDWARD VII - 17/02/1912 - 07/05/1912
HMS GANGES II - 08/05/1912 - 19/05/1912
HMS QUEEN - 20/05/1912 - 25/11/1913 - John married widow Louisa Barbeary on 10th August 1913 in Richmond Surrey, aged 32. By this date, he had lost both of his parents.
HMS PEMBROKE - 26/11/1913 - 10/11/1913
HMS VANGUARD 11/11/1913 - 09/07/1917, rising to Petty Officer on 03/03/1914. His baby brother William joined John in serving on the dreadnought on 8th August 1916, where they were both killed a year later.
John left a widow, step daughter and two younger children, John and Ernest.
(#28 - 788/843)
Sources:
1881, 1901 & 1911 England Census - Ancestry.com
Royal Navy Registers of Seamen's Services, 1848-1939 National Archives Royal Navy Registers of Seamen's Services; Class: ADM 188; Piece: 323
Church of England Marriages, 1754-1937 Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: 2762/1/4
Royal Navy Registers of Seamen's Services, 1848-1939 National Archives Royal Navy Registers of Seamen's Services; Class: ADM 188; Piece: 323
CWGC Register
British Army and Navy Birth, Marriage and Death Records, 1730-1960 National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; Admiralty: Naval Casualties, Indexes, War Grave Rolls and Statistics Book, First World War.; Class: ADM 242; Piece: Piece 010; Piece Description: Piece 010 (1914 - 1919)
National Archives Admiralty and predecessors: Office of the Director General of the Medical Department of the Navy and predecessors: Service Registers and Registers of Deaths and Injuries. Registers of Reports of Deaths
WWI Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923 Western Front Association; London, England; Pension Record Cards; Reference: 185/0973/WAR-WAR