Name
John Edwin Baldwin
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
24/10/1914
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Private
7270
Prince of Wales’ Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment)
2nd Bn.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
1914 (Mons) Star, British War and Victory Medals
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
LE TOURET MEMORIAL
Panel 23
France
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Rickmansworth UDC Memorial, St Mary’s Church Roll of Honour, Rickmansworth, Not on the Mill End memorials
Pre War
John Baldwin, son of William and Harriet Baldwin was born and baptised in Mill End, Rickmansworth in 1887. In 1891 and 1901 the family were living at London Road, Batchworth Hill.
In 1903 he enlisted with the militia in the 4th Bedfordshire Regiment. He was described as being 5ft 4in tall, with blue eyes and light brown hair. In 1909 he married Mary Louise Lewis, from Westborne Park, and from the 1911 census it can be seen that they were living in London Road, near his parents. He worked as a platelayer on the railway and records show him joining the Amalgamated Society of Railway Workers Union. A son, Jack, was born in 1912.
Wartime Service
Having been in the Militia with the 4th Bedfordshire Regiment, John would have been called up at the outbreak of war.
His letters show that he was training at Warrington and at Tidworth before embarking for France with the Expeditionary Force, early in August.
He saw action at the Battle of Mons and is thought to have been killed at the Battle of Aisne where he was reported missing. A letter from Corporal Malone to John’s wife gives some information. “We were both in action at Mons. Our Battalion lost heavily there and there were not many left. Then we came to the Battle of the Aisne and he was in the opposite trench from me and when we came out of action I hear from other chaps he had been wounded." The Battle of the Aisne saw the beginning of trench warfare which would last for the next 4 years.
Additional Information
His effects of £5 4s 3d and a War gratuity were left to his widow, Mary Louisa.
Acknowledgments
Pat Hamilton
Malcolm Lennox, P. Hamilton
