Name
John Belgrove Sirett
Conflict
First World War
Date of Death / Age
02/11/1918
30
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Air Mechanic 1st Class
22106
Royal Air Force
58th Wing H.Q. (Eastchurch)
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
British War Medal
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
RICKMANSWORTH (CHORLEYWOOD ROAD) CEMETERY
C. 5. 6.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
Not Researched
UK & Other Memorials
Croxley Green Village Memorial, Croxley Green,
All Saints' Church Shrine, Croxley Green,
Rickmansworth Urban District Memorial
Pre War
He was 30 when he died, the son of John Edward and Mary Sirett of 219 New Road. In 1918 he was living at 1 Watford Road.
John married Dorothy Elizabeth Batchelor in 1914 and they had two daughters, Doris and Winifred. In 1923, Dorothy married Francis O'Mahony and they lived at 15, Gonville Avenue, Croxley Green. John is buried in Chorleywood Road Cemetery. The grave inscription uses the phrase ‘who passed away November 2nd 1918’, which suggests death from illness rather than in conflict.
In 1911 John Sirett was a carpenter and joiner living with his parents at 219 New Road. His father was a dairyman and the family had come from Wandsworth. John was born in Upper Holloway, London. His birth was registered in the Islington district in the first quarter of 1888.
Wartime Service
John Sirett joined the Royal Naval Air Service on 18 October 1916 as an Air Mechanic. He gave his civilian occupation as a carpenter and joiner.
He was assigned to Eastchurch on 7 March 1917 and then to the Royal Naval Air Station at Lee-on-Solent, HMS Daedalus, on 1 July 1917.
He was discharged to join the RAF when it was founded on 1 April 1918. He died on 2 November while he was based at Eastchurch airfield in Kent with the 58th Training Wing of the newly formed Royal Air Force. He may well have been a victim of influenza.
The RAF paid his widow Dorothy £22 11s 3d including a war gratuity of £8 5s. John was awarded the British War medal but not the Victory medal.
Additional Information
The grave inscription (not CWGC) uses the phrase ‘who passed away November 2nd, 1918’, which suggests death from illness rather than in conflict.
In 1923, Dorothy married Francis O'Mahony and they lived at 15, Gonville Avenue, Croxley Green.
Acknowledgments
Brian Thomson, Croxley Green in the First World War Rickmansworth Historical Society 2014
