John Thomas Stinchcombe

Memorial: Thornbury - St Mary's Church

Regiment: Royal Field Artillery

Medals: British War Medal, Next of Kin Memorial Plaque 1914 - 1921, Victory Medal

Rank and number: Gunner 149905

Parents: John P and Eliza Stinchcombe

Marital status: Married

Home address: Siblands, Thornbury, Bristol

Pre-war occupation: Manager of a pigeon fancier’s establishment

Date of birth: 1890

Place of birth: Thornbury, Bristol

Date of death: 15/08/1917

Buried/Commemorated at: Gwalia Cemetery (Ref I. F. 15.): Borough of Luton War Memorial

Age: 27

Further information:

Bronze Tablet and Wooden Memorial Board.

John Thomas Stinchcombe was born in Thornbury in 1890 and baptised on 2nd February at St Mary’s Church, Thornbury, the son of John Packer Stinchcombe and his wife Rosa. His father ran a business supplying gravel. John Thomas had a younger brother and sister. John Thomas Stinchcombe worked for Councell & Sons, the grocers in Thornbury.

John joined the Army on 31st December 1906, he enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers for six years and for a further six in the Reserves. John left the Army and at the time of the 1911 census he was living in Luton, employed as a manager and dealer at a pigeon fancier’s establishment. He was appointed a judge at Luton Pigeon Show and gained several cups at Crystal Palace for his own birds.

In 1915 John Thomas married Ethel A. Wilding in Luton. They had a daughter called Ethel Rose born later that year.

Having been recalled to the Army, John was placed in 6th Reserves London Royal Field Artillery, stationed at Luton, where he served five months with the Garrison Military Police. On 25th May 1917 he was sent to France and Flanders, initially as an officer’s servant at a base camp, but was transferred, becoming a Gunner in ‘D’ Battery, 256th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery.

John was sent to the front to take part in the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as the Battle of Passchendaele. He was Killed in Action ‘at his gun’ when a shell hit his Battery on 15th August 1917.
John is remembered with honour at the Gwalia Cemetery.

The Gwalia Cemetery was opened at the beginning of July 1917, in the period between the Battle of Messines and the Third Battle of Ypres. It lay among the camps in flat, wet country and was used by infantry units, artillery and field ambulances until September 1918.

By kind permission, this information is based on the following source(s):

Thornbury Roots Website. Thornbury and District Museum Research Group. Forces War Records and the CWGC