John William Perry, the son of a carter, came to Chelmsford as a boy from Roxwell. He served in the army and died from wounds in the final two weeks of the war near Ypres. His home was in Baddow Road.
John was born at Roxwell in 1899, the son of William John Perry and Emily Mary Perry (nee Coe). John’s father had been born in 1877 in Roxwell; his mother in 1879 in Great Waltham. The couple had married in 1898.
John’s five siblings were Dorothy Violet Perry (born in 1900 in Stock, died in 1956); Cecil Charles Perry (born on 24th December 1902 in Chelmsford, died in 1980); George Perry (born in 1904 in Chelmsford); Charles Perry (born in 1906 in Chelmsford); and Arnell Walter Perry (born in 1908 in Chelmsford, died in 1977).
In 1901 the census recorded one year-old John living with his parents and younger sister at 9 Hope Square, Primrose Hill, Chelmsford. His father was a carter. A decade later the 1911 census found 11 year-old John living with his parents and five siblings at 25 Baddow Road, Chelmsford (later renumbered as 60). His father was a freeman carter (general).
PERRY, JOHN WILLIAM,
Private, 18th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers
John lived in Chelmsford and enlisted at Witham. He died from wounds on 20th October 1918 while serving as Private 56577 in the 18th Battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers. He was aged 19. He is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery, Poperinge, a dozen kilometres west of Ypres, West-Vlaanderen in Belgium (grave: XXXV. A. 21). The cemetery, which contains over ten thousand identified casualties, was used by Allied casualty clearing stations between April and August 1918.
The Essex Weekly News of 1st November 1918 reported:
“Pte. J. W. Perry, son of Mr. and Mrs. Perry, Baddow-rd., Chelmsford, died of wounds at a clearing station in France, aged 19.”
John is commemorated on the Civic Centre Memorial, Chelmsford, and the Moulsham Parish Memorial, St John’s Church, Moulsham. He was entitled to the British War Medal and Victory Medal.
The 1918 register of electors listed John’s parents at 25 Baddow Road, Chelmsford (later renumbered as 62 and demolished).
His mother died in 1925, aged 47; his father died in 1948, aged 71.
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