Pte 57416 John Alexander Hanton

On the 1901 Census his siblings are boarding with John and Annie Milne at 331 Great Northern Road, Woodside, Aberdeen. George is 4, David is 2, and Jeannie is 4 months. (all born Woodside).

 

John enlisted in Glasgow as Private 15257, Army Cyclist Corps.  The amount of the War Gratuity suggests that he served for 32 months, enlisting in mid-1915. Given that he earned two medals, he did not serve overseas until sometime in 1916.  At some point he was transferred to the 20th Bn, King’s Liverpool Regiment and given the regimental number 57416.  He was most likely transferred to 17th Bn K.L.R. when the 20th was disbanded in February 1918.

 

He was declared Missing on 28th March 1918 during the opening phase of the German Spring Offensive. No card has been found for him in the International Red Cross POW records. His death was later presumed to have occurred on that date. He was 22 years of age.

The Battalion diary gives an insight into the events of the day:

28^th March 1918

FOLIES – MEZIERES – ROUVREL

10.00am Enemy attacked our immediate front but was driven off – Half an hour later enemy was seen in large numbers through ROUVROY to WARVILLERS. About 11 am orders were received that the Battalion would be relieved by 133^rd French Division. The relief was carried out shortly after noon, after a message had been received by telephone that the French were satisfied with the position and that we were to withdraw at once.  

4pm The enemy were then in BEAUFORT. The Battalion assembled at MEZIERES and marched to ROUVREL to billets arriving about 6.30pm. 

John was reported missing in the Weekly Casualty List on the 28th May 1918:

- King's (Liverpool Regiment) Hanton 57416 J.A. (Glasgow);

He was found and buried by the Germans in Beaufort German Cemetery, which the CWGC describes as “in an orchard near Beaufort Church, from which the graves of three soldiers from the United Kingdom, who fell in April 1918, were removed”.   After the armistice John’s body was identified by the cross on his grave, J.A. Hanton R.I.R. [sic]. His ID disc identified him as Pte 57416, 20th Bn, K.L.R.  His body was exhumed and reburied in Caix British Cemetery, where he now rests.

Caix was occupied by Commonwealth troops in March 1917, lost during the German advance in March 1918, and recaptured on 8 August 1918 by the Canadian Corps.

Caix British Cemetery (called at first Caix New British Cemetery) was made after the Armistice when graves (mainly of March and August 1918) were brought in from the battlefields

Tragically, John was the second son to be lost. His brother David, born 15 February 1898, Private. 23612 Highland Light Infantry, was killed in action on 31st January 1918 just two months before John. He now rests in St. Julian Dressing Station Cemetery, Langemarck, Flanders at I.E.4.

 

His father, George, received John’s Army effects including a War Gratuity of £15.

 

The pension card in the name of his mother, Mrs. Jane Hanton, at 6 Suffolk Street, Glasgow, does not show an amount.  After her death George Hanton, at 127 London Street, Glasgow, received the pension.  The card also shows his address as 30 Charlotte Street, Gallowgate, which is then crossed out.

 

Sadly, his Victory Medal and British War Medal were returned (although his brother’s medal roll shows no such notation), possibly when his father changed his address.

 

David is commemorated on Glasgow’s Roll of Honour. The website has been contacted to correct the omission of John’s name. 

We currently have no further information on John Alexander Hanton , If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.