Capt Arthur de Bells Adam (MC)
1885 - 1916

CPL David Wallace Crawford
1887 - 1916

Lce-Corpl John Joseph Nickle
1894 - 1916

Pte 17911 Morton Neill
1897 - 1916

Lieut Edward Stanley Ashcroft
1883 - 1918

Pte 52830 John Thomas Peacock

Age: 23
From: Ormskirk, Lancs
Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 17th Btn
K.I.A Tuesday 24th April 1917
Commemorated at: Arras Memorial
Panel Ref: Bay 3

John Thomas Peacock was born in Ormskirk in the last quarter of 1893 the son of Robert Peacock and his wife Margaret (nee Reilly) who were married in 1883 in Preston. His father was born in Liverpool, and his mother was from Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland. They had four children. Their first child, Rose Ann, was born in 1884 in Bamber Bridge, near Preston. By 1887 the family had moved further south to the Ormskirk area, where Elizabeth was born in 1887, John 1893, and Robert Henry in 1895-6.

His sister,Rose Ann, was baptised Roman Catholic but no baptism records have been found for the other children. His parents were married in a civil ceremony, possibly indicating they were from different religions. (Rose Ann married a Belgian, Charles Ludwig Joseph van Holsbeke, in December 1918 in St. Theresa, Birkdale, a Catholic Church. It is not known whether the rest of the family were associated with the church.)

The family are found in Lathom, near Ormskirk, in the 1891 census; his father was a corn mill labourer.

The 1901 Census finds the family living at Railway Bridge, Burscough, Lancs. His parents are both 43, his father is a saw mill labourer. Elizabeth is 13, John is 7, Robert is 5. His eldest sister Rose Ann, 17, is found in Barnoldswick, Yorkshire, 30 miles from Bamber Bridge, working as a domestic servant.

His father appears to have died in 1906, age given as 51 (he would have been about 48).

By the time of the 1911 Census the family are living at 46 Stamford Road, Birkdale. John is a parcel porter for a Drapers, he lives with his widowed mother who is 50, and his siblings; Rose Ann, 27, is a domestic, Elizabeth, 23, a laundry maid, and Robert, 15, a billiard marker.

It appears that John later worked for the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. (John is the only J. Peacock from the Liverpool-Southport area, according to CWGC records.)

He enlisted in Bootle in about August 1915 and served as Private 52830 in the 17th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment.

He married Catherine Norah Gannon in the June quarter of 1916 in Ormskirk Register Office, likely before he left for France. John was 22. (Her birthdate of 01st March 1898 from the pension card is not supported by other records. The 1939 register shows 01st March 1897, and the birth registration for Catherine Honora Gannon was registered in Ormskirk in 1896.)

John was killed in action on 24th April 1917, aged 23.

His body was not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as his name is recorded on the Arras Memorial in France.

The ARRAS MEMORIAL commemorates almost 35,000 servicemen from the United Kingdom, South Africa and New Zealand who died in the Arras sector between the spring of 1916 and 7 August 1918, the eve of the Advance to Victory, and have no known grave. The most conspicuous events of this period were the Arras offensive of April-May 1917, and the German attack in the spring of 1918. Canadian and Australian servicemen killed in these operations are commemorated by memorials at Vimy and Villers-Bretonneux. A separate memorial remembers those killed in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. Both cemetery and memorial were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with sculpture by Sir William Reid Dick. The memorial was unveiled by Lord Trenchard, Marshal of the Royal Air Force on the 31 July 1932 (originally it had been scheduled for 15 May, but due to the sudden death of French President Doumer, as a mark of respect, the ceremony was postponed until July).

An online site (Southport’s Fallen) states he was on active duty for 12 months before being killed.

He was the father of a young son John Robert, born in Blackburn on 02nd August 1916, he was only eight months old when John was killed.

John is commemorated on the following Memorials:

Southport Civic Memorial

Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (J. Peacock)

His medals were returned for amendment.

Catherine, living at 6 Throstle Street, Blackburn, received his Army effects and a War Gratuity of £7, and was awarded a pension of 18/9d a week from November 1917. A later address is shown as c/o Mrs. Porter, (…?) Brow Cottage, Scarisbrick.

In 1939 his mother, 77, is still in Stamford Road, at no.23E, with married daughter Elizabeth Ward, 51. His mother did not see the end of World War Two, but died in early 1945, at the age of 81.

Catherine, 42, still a widow, working as a cap minder in a cotton mill, is living alone in a second floor room at 1 Bridge Street, Blackburn. (Her brother Patrick lives on the ground floor.). She never remarried, and died in 1977.

His son John Robert married and had a family. In 1939 he is living with wife Annie and daughter Joyce at 124 Derwent Street, Blackburn, working as a general labourer. He died in Blackburn in 1984.

We currently have no further information on John Thomas Peacock, If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.

Killed On This Day.

(110 Years this day)
Monday 24th April 1916.
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Monday 24th April 1916.
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(109 Years this day)
Tuesday 24th April 1917.
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(109 Years this day)
Tuesday 24th April 1917.
L/Sgt 16250 William Ryley Lally
34 years old

(109 Years this day)
Tuesday 24th April 1917.
Pte 52830 John Thomas Peacock
23 years old

(108 Years this day)
Wednesday 24th April 1918.
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(108 Years this day)
Wednesday 24th April 1918.
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