Name: John William Callaghan
Rank: Private
Unit/Regiment: 2/4th Battalion, The King’s Own (Yorkshire Light Infantry)
Service Number: 200274 (formerly 2017)
Date of Death: 20 July 1918
Cemetery: Courmas British Cemetery, Marne, France
John William Callaghan was born at the Jeremy Lane end of the Nunroyd area of Heckmondwike on 7 February 1897, and baptised at the town’s St Patrick’s chapel the following month.1 This is now Heckmondwike’s Holy Spirit Catholic parish. He was the third child of Michael and Nora Callaghan (née Gallagher). His parents both came from County Mayo, Nora being born in Cloonlyon Townland and baptised in Kilbeagh parish in March 1869.2 Their respective years of arrival in England are unclear. However, Michael was boarding at Brighton Street, Heckmondwike and working as a woollen spinner in the 1891 census. Nora was at Cobden Street, Batley, living with her parents and siblings, and working as a rag picker in that same census.
The couple married in June 1892. Intriguingly two separate Catholic parish registers record their marriage. One is that of Dewsbury’s St Paulinus on 1 June 1892.3 The other entry is in the Batley St Mary of the Angels parish register on 20 June 1892.4 This records Michael’s abode as Heckmondwike, and Nora’s as Batley.
It was in Heckmondwike the newly-married couple initially made their home. Son Martin was born there on 15 November 1893. Daughter Ada Mildred arrived on 22 December 1896. Like John, they were both baptised in the Heckmondwike Catholic Chapel.5 However Ada only lived for 15 months. Her burial is recorded in Heckmondwike cemetery on 19 March 1897, a little over a month after her brother John’s birth.
By the time they welcomed their fourth child, Michael James, on 10 July 1899 the Callaghan family had moved to Batley. Michael James was baptised at St Mary of the Angels six days after his birth. But later that year, within the space of seven weeks, and with the family now living at what under the circumstances now seems the inappropriately named Providence Street, a double tragedy struck.
The registers of St Mary’s and Batley Cemetery record the burial of Michael Snr, age 30, on 26 September 1899 (he died two days earlier). The cemetery register notes his occupation as a tripe dresser. Tripe was a very popular food in this period, a take-away meal of its day with several outlets selling it locally. A tripe dresser was involved in its preparation, which included scalding, scraping and boiling it to make it fit for consumption.
Then, on 12 November 1899, 4-month-old Michael Jnr. was also interred alongside his father, his death occurring two days earlier.
In the space of a few months Nora had given birth, lost her husband, and then her baby.
Widowed Nora was still at Providence Street in the 1901 census, working as a rag sorter to support her two young sons – Martin aged seven, and four-year-old John. And by now she had begun a relationship with Castlebar-born labourer James Gavan (the spelling is also recorded as Gavin in many records, but for consistency I will stick with the Gavan spelling variant). Less than a month later – on 20 April 1901 – they married at St Mary’s.6
In the first decade of their married life, the family’s Batley addresses included Wards Hill, Woodwell, Peel Street and Clerk Green. James and Nora also had four children in this period, John’s half-siblings. These were James Patrick, born on 2 March 1902; Ann, born on 20 January 1904; Margaret, born on 13 May 1906; and Mary, born on 17 December 1908.7 During this period John was a pupil at St Mary’s school.
By 1911 the family had moved again, the census recording them living at North Street, Cross Bank. Having now left school, 14-year-old John was working as a hurrier below ground in a coal mine. This was his employment at Crawshaw and Warburton’s Shaw Cross Colliery before the outbreak of the war.8 It was a popular pit starter job for boys and young men. It involved conveying empty coal corves/tubs from the bottom pit shaft to the hewers cutting out the coal at the coal face. The hurrier might help the hewer fill the corve with the cut coal. Then he would be responsible for returning the laden corve to the bottom of the shaft, ready to be brought up to the surface.
1914 marked a year of momentous family changes. This year the family are recorded as living at Field Lane, Batley. In contrast to the frequent moves which marked the early years of James and Nora’s marriage, this would remain Nora’s family home for the remainder of her life.
As for the changes, on 17 January 1914 James and Nora welcomed their fifth child, a son named Thomas – although his baptism does not appear in the St Mary’s baptismal register.9 And by September 1914 John and his brother Martin were both serving in the Army. Martin will, at some point, have a biography in the ‘Those who Served and Survived‘ section of this website, along with step-father James Gavan who enlisted in 1915. For now though I will concentrate on John Callaghan.
John was a member of local Territorials, the 4th KOYLI, when war broke out. Although only 17, he went into training with them from their Whitby summer camp. In October 1914, with spirits still high and the local Terriers yet to face the reality of war, John – who was a Private 2017 in the Battalion’s ‘F’ Company,10 which was one of the two Dewsbury Companies – wrote to the Batley News with an account of daily life as a soldier training in England. It was an idealised picture of a soldier’s life.
“I have been receiving the “News” in camp, and having read the letters and articles from friends and comrades it occurred to me to let you have my impressions also, on life at Sandbech [sic]. I hope you are all in good health; personally, I am in the pink and feel as fit as a fiddle. Now for camp chatter.
We have been here for five weeks, and have had better weather than we had at either Whitby or Doncaster. The men are all well and strong and in tip-top condition. Some of our townspeople may like an account of our day’s work: – We get up at 5.30, turn out of the tent our kit-bags, equipment, blankets and oilsheet, shake the blankets and wrap them up neat and tidy, have a wash, and parade at six o’clock. We start at the double to get warm, and then drill, returning to camp at seven o’clock for breakfast. By the time we have cleaned buttons and done other bits of work, parade time at 8 o’clock soon arrives. We go about four miles, and then companies move into different fields for skirmishing, advancing, attacking etc.
This goes on till 12.30, when we all unite again and arrive back in camp at 1.30 for dinner. More cleaning-up has to be done – rifles and bayonets, which are inspected four times a week. We fall-in at 3.30 and have night operations from 7.30 to 8.30. Roll call is at nine o’clock, and every man has to be present. Once a week there is a brigade route march. The men can stick any march up to 20 miles without a single man falling out.
All of us here at Sandbech [sic] have been inoculated against enteric and typhoid fever and vaccinated against smallpox.
This is a beautiful park, with plenty of deer and rabbits, and a big wood. Of two or three accessible villages, the nearest is about a mile and a half away.
Letter-writing can be done in the Y.M.C.A. camp, which also serves the purposes of a concert room, post office (with stamps and postal orders), confectionary and tobacco shop, and even hardware is obtainable. In short, the camp would be Desolation but for the Y.M.C.A. tent.
Most of the men want to go to the Front. Time after time the remark is passed: “I wish they send us to France in the morning”.
The country around is well wooded, and just the right sort for skirmishing. It suits both the officers and men to a “T.”
As for the meals, we are getting good ones now, and no man can grumble. We are all used to the soldier’s life now, and expect to remove from here next week to a place where we shall be billeted out”.11
This type of camp life letter was common in the early days of the war, and – with the emphasis on good food – they were used as a recruitment tool. At this point many were unaware of what this war would really involve, and many were also still under the misapprehension that it would be over quickly.
From the above letter, and the locations John refers to, it is clear in October 1914 he was at this point still with the main 4th KOYLI – the battalion which is better known as the 1/4th KOYLI. They had been on annual camp at Whitby on 4 August 1914 when war was declared. They were immediately recalled to Wakefield, upon the mobilisation order being issued. From there the men were dispersed to their homes to await further orders, which duly came. By the 10 August they had waved family and civilian life goodbye, and were billeted around Doncaster, before occupying tents erected on Doncaster Racecourse. But this was problematical – the St Leger horse race meeting was scheduled for the following month. So, in early September, they decamped and marched to Sandbeck Park near Rotherham (referred to by John in his letter as Sandbech). Here, in the grounds of the stately home of Lord Scarborough, they set up a new camp and continued their training. And it was from here John wrote his account of camp life for the Batley News.
However, whilst John was at Sandbeck Park, the reorganisation of the Army was well underway, in order to meet the need for increased numbers of recruits.
As part of this, at the end of September 1914, the decision had been taken to raise a 4th (Reserve) KOYLI Battalion. Recruiting for it commenced on 1 October 1914, albeit slowly. Until 3 March 1915, these new Reserve Battalion recruits were stationed in the towns where they were enlisted, with the Battalion eventually being re-named the 2/4th KOYLI on 4 February 1915.
Meanwhile, in April 1915, the 1/4th KOYLI finally got their wish and went to France and the Western Front. John though was not with them.
It is not clear when John transferred to the 2/4th KOYLI, but a possible date is 18 December 1914. On this day 111 NCOs and men were transferred to them from the 1/4th Battalion, these transferees either being Home Service or medically unfit men.12 Technically John was too young for overseas service, so this could explain his switch. It is equally possible he was amongst the around 60 men who did not accompany the 1/4th KOYLI on their overseas deployment in April 1915. They are referred to in the 2/4th KOYLI Unit War Diary in July 1915, with the statement that at this point only 16 of these 60 were available for foreign service.13 What is clear though is John was with the 2/4th KOYLI in November 1915, appearing in a photograph of local lads with the battalion, reproduced below.
Until they went overseas in January 1917, the 2/4th KOYLI – who came under the command of the 187th Brigade in 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division – moved around England with their training locations being at Bulwell, Nottinghamshire (March 1915), Strensall, York (April 1915), Beverley (July 1915), Doncaster (October 1915), Gateshead (November 1915), Larkhill, Salisbury Plain (January 1916), Flixton Park Camp, near Bungay in Suffolk (June 1916), and last of all Wellingborough (October 1916).
In mid-January 1917 they left Wellingborough, sailing from Southampton on 15 January and disembarking at Le Havre the following day. Ironically, given the St Leger horse-racing camp site issues the 4th KOYLIs encountered right at the start of the war, within days of arriving in France one of the deployments for the 2/4th KOYLI was St Leger (no connection though between the to the Classic horse race).
Whilst in France, on 27 September 1917, John wrote his informal will. It was only a few words, but he stated in the event of his death he gave the whole his effects to his mother, Mrs. Nora Gavin (note the spelling here is Gavin rather than Gavan).
Newspaper reports following his death stated John had served in France for around two years, being injured once during this time. However, given his overseas service is all recorded with the 2/4th KOYLI, it is more likely he went out there with them in January 1917. At around this time he also received a new service number, 200274, as part of the Territorial Force renumbering.
Private John William Callaghan was killed in action on 20 July 1918 during the opening phase of the 2nd Battle of the Marne. A German offensive to the east and west of Rheims on 15 July 1918 had been held up, and the Allies launched a counter-offensive. John’s Battalion hastily left their camp at Couin, in the Pas de Calais area of Northern France to travel almost 200km (around 125 miles), arriving at Sermiers in the Marne area during the early hours of 19 July. The village today is better known a being part of the Champagne producing vineyard area of France.
The 62nd (2nd West Riding) Division, with which the 2/4th KOYLIs served, were assigned to attack along the northern bank of the River Ardre. The specific line of attack for the 187th Brigade lay along the steep sided valley through the Bois du Petit Champ and the wooded grounds of the Chateau die Commetreuil. At 8.30pm on 19 July the 2/4th they left Sermiers to take up their position, with the attack due to commence the early hours of the following morning. However they arrived in their positions slightly later than anticipated.
The Unit War Diary describes the day’s events, largely in the Bois de Reims location, as follows:
The Battalion arrived at ECUEIL FARM at 12.20am night of 19/20 July, guides were not provided for some time & it was not until 4am 20th that the Battalion reached their point of assembly, the six cross roads. On arrival here they were subjected to an intermittent shell fire for about 1½ hours causing several casualties…Batt[alio]n HQ was later established at advance Brigade HQ owing to telephone facilities. About 7am owing to their being some doubt as to the disposition of the 2/4 Y[ork] & L[ancaster] the Batt[alio]n received orders to be prepared to take their place, arrangements to do this were accordingly made. About 7.40am when it was ascertained that the 2/4 Y[ork] & L[ancaster] were in their correct jumping off place orders were received to follow behind the 2/4 Y[ork] & L[ancaster] at about 500 y[ar]ds distance. At 8.10 am the Batt[alio]ns moved forward to keep in touch with the 2/4 Y[ork] & L[ancaster] as follows. A Co[mpan]y on the right, C Co[mpan]y left, and B Co[mpan]y following in rear. At this time the enemy put down a heavy barrage about 100 y[ar]ds inside the edge of the wood through which the companies had to be moved up. This was done with scarcely a casualty…
A Co[mpan]y advanced in artillery formation from wood and extended on ridge S. E. of COURMAS on coming under M[achine] G[un] fire from left flank (Bois and REIMS). An enemy M[achine] G[un] was captured & crew dispersed in COURMAS-ONREZY road. The Co[mpan]y was now in line with 2/4 Y[ork] & L[ancaster] who were held up by enfilade fire. An enemy M[achine] G[un] was captured on the same road, crew killed & captain in command captured.
The Company then moved in the direction of BOUILLY but M[achine] G[un] fire caused many casualties and the Co[mpan]y was held up. C Co[mpan]y advanced 800 y[ar]ds in artillery formation through wood on left side of road from BOIS de REIMS to COURMAS. M[achine] G[un] fire then caused extension. Co[mpan]y reached small copse & cornfield W of COURMAS where intense M[achine] G[un] fire held up the Co[mpan]y for a time. Advance was continued by sectional rushes & the 1st wave of the 5th KOYLI passed. Four officers were wounded in the cornfield leaving 2nd Lt SWABY, who had been cut off, alone with the remainder of the Company. B Co[mpan]y were in Support but filled up a gap shortly after zero. They captured a machine gun nest of 4 guns.
On the night of the 20/21 July the majority of the survivors of A, B, C Companies were lined up along the COURMAS-BOUILLY road from COURMAS to the cross roads at the N corner of CHATEAU Wood facing the Chateau. With them were details of the other two Battalions. That evening orders were received to reorganise the three Companies together with D Company which had arrived from SERMIER, take up a position in the Brigade frontage in a line running from the COURMAS-BOUILLY road extensive southwards to the BOIS de PETIT CHAMPS, 2/4 Y[ork] & L[ancaster] on right, and 5th KOYLI on left.
The dispositions of the 2/4 Y[ork] & L[ancaster] were easily ascertained but information as to the situation on the left was uncertain as also whether any troops were still holding the ground E of CHATEAU WOOD between COURMAS & S edge of the BOIS de PETIT CHAMPS. From reconnaissance made there appeared to be a gap between the BOIS de PETIT CHAMPS & the COURMAS-BOUILLY ROAD & as the position of the 5th KOYLI could not be accurately ascertained D Company with the remainder of A, B, C Co[mpan]ys took up a position west of the sunken road running SE from COURMAS & dug in as well as holding the old French posts, with orders to be prepared to move forward as soon as possible after reconnaissance had been made, & occupy a more forward position at the same time to be prepared for a counter-attack as there had already been on the left….14
This then was the position early on the morning of the 21 July 1918.
The diary entry gives a flavour of the situation the 2/4th KOYLI faced on the 20 July 1918, subjected first to bombardment, and then fierce machine-gun fire in guerrilla warfare through impenetrable woods in which the enemy still lurked. John was one of 51 men from the Battalion who died that day.15 However, the advance, was considered a 62nd Division success.
Back home in Batley his mother received the official notification that he was missing, and then that he was dead. In addition to the official notification of his death, Nora also received a letter from a Lieutenant saying:
Your son was reported missing on July 20th, and is now reported killed in action. I must say he was a good soldier and very attentive to duty, and his absence is greatly felt among the men of his company.16
John is now buried in Courmas British Cemetery, which is about 11km south west of Reims. The cemetery was built after the Armistice. Bodies found on the neighbouring battlefields were interred there. It also contains the bodies of those originally buried in a couple of small cemeteries – Courmas Village and Courmas Chateau British Cemeteries. These two cemeteries were created by the 62nd (West Riding) Division after the fighting of the 20 July 1918. Prior to his re-burial at Courmas British Cemetery in late 1919, John was originally buried south of Courmas in the vicinity of Bois du Petit Champ, a location mentioned in the Battalion’s Unit War Diary as a place where the 2/4th KOYLI fought on 20 July 1918. His original burial site was marked with a cross indicating his details. His identity discs were also present, all of which enabled his formal identification for his re-burial at Courmas British Cemetery, with a headstone recording his name.
John was awarded the Victory Medal and British War Medal. He was also awarded the Territorial Force War Medal. Because of the strict eligibility criteria only 34,000 of these were issued. He was a recipient because he was a member of the Territorial Force on 4 August 1914, he had volunteered prior to 30 September 1914 for overseas service, and he had served outside the United Kingdom, but was not eligible for either the 1914 Star or 1914/15 Star.
In addition to St Mary’s, John is also remembered on the Batley War Memorial, and the Crawshaw and Warburton workplace memorial – which also contains the names of some other St Mary’s War Memorial men.
James Gavan, John’s step-father, served during the war, initially with the Connaught Rangers and then with the Royal Irish Fusiliers. In Mandalay when John died, he survived the war being discharged in 1919. John’s brother Martin served with the 9th KOYLI. He was severely wounded in the face and neck on 26 September 1915 during the Battle of Loos, injuries which ultimately resulted in his medical discharge in November 1917. He too survived the war.
John’s financial effects were settled on his mother after the war. These amounted to £34 2s. 6d. and included a war gratuity, based on his length of service, of £23.17 Nora was also awarded a pension of 5s. a week.18 This ceased with her death on 2 October 1923. She is buried with her parents and sister in Batley cemetery, and a marker now indicates the plot.
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Footnotes:
1. Hird, Nicholas. Valiant Hearts, Biographical sketches of some members of the Catholic communities of Heckmondwike & Cleckheaton who were casualties in the Great War. 2021. This is a go-to book for anyone with links to the catholic parishes of Heckmondwike and Cleckheaton in this period.
2. Kilbeagh Parish Register, National Library of Ireland, Microfilm 04224/17.
3. Valiant Hearts, Ibid.
4. Batley St Mary of the Angels Parish Register – Marriages.
5. Valiant Hearts, Ibid.
6. Batley St Mary of the Angels Parish Register – Marriages.
7. There is a discrepancy with the birth date of Mary Gavan. The St Mary of the Angels Baptismal Register states 17 December 1908. However her father James Gavan’s service records gives her date of birth as 19 December 1908. I have not ordered her birth certificate to see what is recorded there, but her 1939 Register entry concurs with her baptism entry, 17 December 1908.
8. Batley News, 31 August 1918.
9. Thomas’ birth date is taken from his father’s service records.
10. Batley News, 17 October 1914.
11. Ibid.
12. Unit War Diary, 2/4th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, The National Archives (TNA), Ref: WO95/3091/1.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Commonwealth War Graves Commission database, records extracted 14 March 2024.
16. Batley News, 31 August 1918.
17. Soldiers’ Effects Register, National Army Museum.
18. Pension Record Cards and Ledgers, Western Front Association.
Other Sources:
• 1939 Register, England & Wales.
• A Dictionary of Occupational Terms: Ministry of Labour. Based on the Classification of Occupations Used in the Census of POPULATION, 1921. His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1927.
• Archives Départmentales De La Marne, Cartes Militaires, Groupe de canevas de tir au 1/20 000, Jonchery-sur-Vesle. Service géographique de l’Armée], 1918.
• Batley Borough Court Records, West Yorkshire Archive Service.
• Batley Cemetery Burial Registers.
• Bond, Reginald C. History of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in the Great War, 1914-1918. London: P. Lund, Humphries, 1929.
• Censuses, England and Wales, 1891- 1921.
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission website.
• GRO Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes.
• Heckmondwike Cemetery Burial Register.
• Imperial War Museum website.
• Johnson, Malcolm K. Saturday soldiers: The Territorial Batallions of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 1908-1919. Doncaster Museum Service, 2004.
• The Long, Long Trail website, https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/.
• Medal Award Rolls.
• Medal Index Card.
• Newspapers – various.
• Parish Registers – various.
Service Records for James Gavan (surname recorded as Gavin) and Martin Callaghan, TNA, WO363 series.
• Soldiers’ Wills.
• Unit War Diary, 1/4th King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, TNA, Ref: WO 95/2806/1.
• Wyrall, Everard. The West Yorkshire Regiment in the War, 1914-1918: A History of the 14th, the Prince of Wales’ Own, West Yorkshire Regt. and of its Special Reserve, Territorial and Service Battns, in the Great War of 1914-1918. Vol II. London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1924.
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