Pte 26101 John Daniel Quinn

In 1891 the family is living at 10 Holden Street, West Derby.  His father, Daniel is 49 years old and is a tailor, his mother is 41 years old. They live with their five children; Margaret A. is 13 years old, Mary E. is 11 years old, John is 9 years old, Rosetta is 7 and Theresa is 5. All of the children are at school.

 

His mother appears to have died in the March quarter of 1901, at the age of 50.

 

The 1901 Census finds his widowed father, 59, at 6 Spekeland Street, Edge Hill, Liverpool with four children at home. His father is a tailor, assistant master. Mary is aged 21 and a lady's maid (domestic), John Daniel is aged 19, and a lead light maker, Rosetta is 17 and Theresa is 15.

 

John, of 64 Ling Street, married Agnes Sim, of 24 St Anne Street, father George, in St. Francis Xavier on 15th November 1908.    

The 1911 Census shows John and Agnes living at 13 Frost Street, Liverpool. John is aged 29, born in Liverpool in 1882 and is a leadlighter maker in the stained glass industry, his wife Agnes aged 27, born 1884 also in Liverpool has no occupation and they have a daughter Margaret aged 1, born 1910 (widow pension card shows Margaret has a date of birth as 2nd September, 1909.) They also had a further child who had died.

 

They later had a son John Ronald born on the 05th July 1914. 

 

John enlisted in early 1915 in Liverpool and was serving in the 18th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 26101 when he was killed in action on the 20th August, 1916 during the Somme offensive. He was 35 years of age.

The Battalion Diary for 20th August 1916 records the following:  

 

7.50 pm. Enemy sprung a mine (A.9 b. 23) in front of our line. This involved I sap & shook our parapets in places. Our artillery barrage excellent & also our Stokes and Trench mortars, rifle and Lewis Gun fire. Consolidation and occupation of the new crater was at once proceeded with and good observation post secured. Enemy opposition feeble. 

 

Casualties 3 Killed.

Reconnoitring patrols went out and found nothing special.

 

Casualties on 20th August.

16646 Corporal A.J.Campbell died of wounds (shell)

 

16799 L/Cpl J.Currie killed (rifle bullet)

 

23385 Pte G.Hyland killed (mine explosion)

 

26101 Pte J.Quinn

 

32618 Pte S.M.Roe

 

11621 Pte A.Rockcliffe

His body was not recovered from the battlefield or was subsequently lost as he is commemorated on the Loos Memorial, France.

The Loos Memorial commemorates over 20,000 officers and men who have no known grave, who fell in the area from the River Lys to the old southern boundary of the First Army, east and west of Grenay, from the first day of the Battle of Loos to the end of the war. On either side of the cemetery is a wall 15 feet high, to which are fixed tablets on which are carved the names of those commemorated. At the back are four small circular courts, open to the sky, in which the lines of tablets are continued, and between these courts are three semicircular walls or apses, two of which carry tablets, while on the centre apse is erected the Cross of Sacrifice.

The memorial was designed by Sir Herbert Baker with sculpture by Charles Wheeler. It was unveiled by Sir Nevil Macready on 4 August 1930.

His name appeared in the list of K.L.R. killed in action published in the Liverpool Daily Post on 21st September 1916.

 

On the first anniversary of his death his loved ones placed In Memoriam notices in the Liverpool Echo:

 

 

 

 

 

His children were 6 and 2 years old when John was killed. Agnes, living at 1 Fell Street, Holt Road, Liverpool, received his Army effects, Army pay £3 1s 1d, War Gratuity of £6-10s, and received a pension of 18s 6d from 12th March, 1917. She never remarried. 

 

John received his two medals. 

 

In 1939 Agnes, 55, is still at 1 Fell Street with son John, 25, a hosiery knitter. Agnes and John later lived at 169 Broad Green Road, Liverpool.  

Agnes died in 1971, aged 88.

His son John died in 1998 in Colwyn Bay, aged 83.  It is not known what became of his daughter Margaret.

 

Sadly, John has not been identified on any memorial.