John and Mary Ann Bray Highley (Part 3 - John Henry)

John Henry was born in 1877, the second of John and Mary's children. By the age of 14 he was working as a Cotton Weaver in a mill in Walsden.

John Henry married Grace Speak in April 1900. A son Jesse was born later that year but died of measles at only 8 months old. They had 2 more sons, Herbert in 1909 and Jack in 1913.

It appears that John Henry and Grace had a stormy relationship, at least early on in their marriage. In December 1900, under a heading of ‘An Ill Matched Walsden Couple’, The Todmorden District News reported on a case where John Henry was summoned for assaulting his wife. Grace had gone to the Conservative Club where John Henry was playing billiards in order to fetch him home. She claimed that her husband had hit her outside the club and then again when they got home, all of which John Henry denied. He claimed that Grace had got her mother, brother and sisters to come and take all their wedding presents away to her mother’s house. The case was dismissed and the Mayor said that they must go home and live together again.

John Henry also appeared in the local paper in connection with cricket. He played for Knowlwood in the Calder Valley League, opening the bowling and batting at no. 3.

John Henry was already a reservist in Walsden with the 1st Battalion East Lancashire Regiment so when war was declared in 1914 he was ready to serve straightaway. The regiment was part of the 11th Brigade in the 4th Division. They sailed to France on 22nd August. His battalion was involved in the Battle of the Aisne and the Battle of the Marne and then moved north to Flanders in the sector on the French/Belgian border north-east of Armentières. The Battalion was heavily involved in the Battle of Armentieres at the end of October. This action was part of the fighting called ‘The Race to the Sea’ where the Allies fought to prevent the Germans breaking through to the Channel ports.

John Henry died at the 10th Field Ambulance at Le Romarin on 1st November 1914 of wounds received in action. He had been in France for only 2 months.

He was initially buried in a little cemetery at Fortrie Farm in Neuve-Eglise and then reburied after the war at the Trois Arbres Cemetery at Steenwerck.

John Henry's gravestone

Trosi Arbres Cemetery, Steenwerck