Name
John Henry Hanna
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
20/09/1917
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Second Lieutenant
London Regiment *1
19th (County of London) Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
YPRES (MENIN GATE) MEMORIAL
Panels 52 to 54.
Belgium
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Watford Grammar School Memorial, Watford, Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance
Pre War
Son of William and Caroline (nee MITCHELL) HANNA.
His parents married 1881 in the Whitehaven, Cumberland, district. Caroline died 12 June 1941 in Morecambe, Lancs, aged 88.
John was born 8 February 1883 in Whitehaven. He was educated at St Bees Grammar School, Whitehaven, and Cambridge University; he was a translator and school master.
On the 1891 Census, a scholar aged 8 he lived in Whitehaven, with his parents and four siblings. On the 1901 Census, aged 18 he was a pupil at St Bees Grammar School. On the 1911 Census, an assistant master at the Grammar School aged 28, he was a lodger in Watford.
Wartime Service
He attested in the Territorial Force for 4 years’ service in the U.K. 30 August 1914 at Somerset House, London: aged 31, 5’8″ tall, having previously served in the Cambridge University Rifle Volunteers. His next-of-kin his father of Manchester, and he was formerly Private 2301 15th (County of London) Battalion, London Regiment (Prince of Wales’ Own Civil Service Rifles).
He served at Home 30 August 1914 to 16 March 1915; with the B.E.F. in France from 17 March 1915 to 2 June 1916, during which time he was appointed Lance-Corporal 1 April 1916. He suffered a gun shot wound to the right knee 23 May 1916, and spent time at the Welsh Metropolitan War Hospital, Cardiff.
He served at Home again from 3 June 1916 to 29 May 1917, when he was Gazetted to the 19th Battalion London Regiment 14 June 1917. He was entitled to the Victory, British War and 1914-15 Star medals, his qualifying date being 17 March 1915, and was killed in action in the Menin Road battle.
Additional Information
The published Watford Grammar School Book of Remembrance entry reads: “HANNA, JOHN HENRY. Member of the Staff, September, 1907, to December, 1912. Second Lieutenant, ,9th London Regiment, attached London Rifle Brigade. Enlisted as a Private in October, 1914; wounded in France, 1916; in July, 1917, gazetted to r9th London Regiment; killed in action in the Menin Road battle, 20th September, 1917.”
There is a Grammar School In Memoriam to John in the West Herts and Watford Observer dated 22 December 1917.
*1 Believed more correctly, (County of London)
Bn. London Regiment (St Pancras).
Acknowledgments
Sue Carter (Research) and Watford Museum (ROH on line via www.ourwatfordhistory.org.uk)
