Name
John Pearce (2)*1
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Biography
Although Parish and census records suggest two men called John Pearce could have served, evidence to support the fact that both did came to light after the first edition of the book was published and thanks to the efforts of John T Smith. As detailed above one of the men appears on the School War Memorial so certainly one of the Johns attended the school and in fact school entrants records suggest both did.
This man was the born in Pirton on May 26th 1885 and the son of the John and Jane Odell (née Jarvis). Once identified census records reveal other children: Lucy (b c1870), George (bapt 1873), Arthur William (bapt-1875), Emma (bapt 1878), Elizabeth (b 1881), John (b 1885), Annie (b 1888) and Alice (b 1889).
Before the war he worked as a lathe hand. He was quite tall at 5’ 11” with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He joined the Royal Navy on January 17th 1916 signing for the duration of the war. He served on the H.M.S Pembroke 1 (possibly a training vessel) and H.M.S. Lancaster. The latter was a Monmouth class, armoured cruiser, built in 1902. She started the war as part of the 4th Cruiser Squadron in the West Indies, later serving with the Grand Fleet based at Scapa Flow and later still, as better ships were introduced, she was transferred to less dangerous areas such as the Pacific where she saw out the war. John was demobilised in March 1919.
*1 This is a different person to Francis John Pearce (known as Jack) as he is recorded separately on the School War Memorial.
Acknowledgments
Text from the book ‘The Pride of Pirton’ by Jonty Wild, Tony French & Chris Ryan used with author's permission
