Pte 48499 John Lyon

• Age: 37
• From: Liverpool
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 19th Btn
• Died Wednesday 4th September 1918
• Commemorated at: Berlin South West Cem
  Panel Ref: VII.H.3

John Lyon was born on 27th January 1881 and was baptised on 06th February 1881 at St Peter's Church, Liverpool. He was the son of Robert Lyon and his wife Clara Elizabeth (nee Webb) who were married on 06th November 1871 at St Peter's Church, Liverpool.

John married Minnie Beacher on 30th June 1907 at St Anne's Church, Stanley, Liverpool. 

The 1911 Census shows John and his family living at 17 Douro Place, Old Swan, Liverpool - John and his wife Minnie with children Robert, George and Ernest. John was a hearse driver. 

John and Minnie had six children; John Robert Henry born 1908, George Alfred born 1909, Charles Ernest  born 1911, Edith Gertrude born 1912 and Cyril born 1916 and Annie died 1917.

John's sister Mary died in the March quarter of 1912. 

John was serving with the 19th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Private 48499 when he was taken as a Prisoner of War, during the German Spring Offensive on 22nd March 1918. 

ICRC records for John Lyon, 48499, B Coy, KLR, confirm he was taken prisoner 22nd March 1918 at St Quentin, date of birth 27th January 1881, his address was 17 Duoro Place, Edge Hill.

His death is recorded as an accidental death following an incident at the Marie Anne Grube, an open cast mine in Muckenberg on 04th September 1918, aged 37. The accident also killed three other men, Joseph McAleer of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, Robert Thornton of the Somerset Light Infantry and J Ware of the Royal Berkshire Regiment. 

John was buried close to where he died but after the war his body was exhumed and reburied at Berlin South Western Cemetery where his headstone bears the epitaph:

"GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN".

In 1922-23 it was decided that the graves of Commonwealth servicemen who had died all over Germany should be brought together into four permanent cemeteries. Berlin South-Western was one of those chosen and in 1924-25, graves were brought into the cemetery from 146 burial grounds in eastern Germany. There are now 1,176 First World War servicemen buried or commemorated in the Commonwealth plot at Berlin South-Western Cemetery. The total includes special memorials to a number of casualties buried in other cemeteries in Germany whose graves could not be found. The following cemeteries are among those from which graves were brought to Berlin South-Western Cemetery:- ALTDAMM PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, 8 kilometres East of Stettin, in the Province of Pommern (Pomerania), contained the graves of 46 soldiers from the United Kingdom, three from Newfoundland and two from Canada, who died in 1915-1918. BUDEROSE PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, near Guben, in the Province of Brandenburg, contained the graves of 18 soldiers from the United Kingdom, one from Canada and one from Australia, all of whom died in 1918. CROSSEN PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, 3 kilometres East of Crossen, on the river Oder, in the Province of Brandenburg, contained the graves of 66 sailors and soldiers from the United Kingdom, one from Australia and one from South Africa all of whom died in 1918. DOBERITZ PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, about 19 kilometres West of Berlin, in the Province of Brandenburg, contained the graves of 38 sailors and soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1914-1918. HASENHEIDE GARRISON CEMETERY, on the South side of the city of Berlin, contained the graves of 369 Russian, 125 French, and 58 Belgian, American, Italian, Rumanian, Portuguese or Serbian soldiers; 63 sailors, soldiers and Marines from the United Kingdom; and one Indian soldier. HEILSBERG PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, in Ostpreussen (East Prussia), contained the graves of 50 soldiers and one Marine from the United Kingdom, who died in 1917 and 1918. Only twelve of which were found when the graves were being recovered; the remainder are still buried at Heilsberg. KLEIN WITTENBERG OLD CEMETERY, 3 kilometres West of Wittenberg, in the Prussian province of Saxony, contained the graves of 23 soldiers, one Marine and eight civilians from the United Kingdom and one soldier from India, all of whom died in 1915; the NEW (or PRISONERS OF WAR) CEMETERY, those of 71 soldiers and three civilians from the United Kingdom, two soldiers from Canada and one from Australia, who died in 1915, 1917 and 1918; and WITTENBERG OLD SMALL CEMETERY those of two soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1914 and 1915. The first and third of these cemeteries are associated with the outbreak of typhus at the Wittenberg camp in December 1914. LAMSDORF PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, in Schlesien (Silesia), contained the graves of 81 soldiers from the United Kingdom, one from Australia and one from New Zealand, who died in 1917-1919 (it was used for French burials in 1870-71). MAGDEBURG MILITARY CEMETERY, in Prussian Saxony, contained the graves of 24 soldiers and one Marine from the United Kingdom who died in 1915-1918. MERSEBURG TOWN CEMETERY, in Prussian Saxony, contained the graves of 12 soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1914-1917, and the PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY those of 33 soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1917-1918. OPPELN TOWN CEMETERY, in Upper Silesia, contained the graves of 41 soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1921-22. They belonged to the British force stationed in Upper Silesia during the Plebiscite. Thirty of them, who died after the legal termination of the war, were left buried at Oppeln. SCHNEIDEMUHL PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, in Posen, West Prussia, on the borders of Poland, contained the graves of 76 soldiers from the United Kingdom, five from Australia, three of the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry, and one from Canada, who died in 1915-1918. Eighteen of the graves could not be recovered. STARGARD PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, in Pomerania, contained the graves of 37 soldiers and one Marine from the United Kingdom, two soldiers from New Zealand and one of the Royal Guernsey Light Infantry, who died in 1917-1918. STENDAL PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY, in Prussian Saxony, contained the graves of 140 soldiers from the United Kingdom, two from Canada and one from Newfoundland, who died in 1917-1918. ZERBST (HEIDETOR) CEMETERY, in Anhalt, contained the graves of two soldiers from the United Kingdom who died in 1914-1915, and the PRISONERS OF WAR CEMETERY those of 45, who died in 1917-1918.

Reported died as POW in the Weekly Casualty List 18th February 1919.

Soldiers Effects to his widow Minnie and pension to Minnie and children John Robert, George Alfred, Charles Ernest and Edith Gertrude. 

John is commemorated in the Hall of Remembrance, Liverpool Town Hall, Panel 24 Right.

His widow, Minnie, was born 13th March 1881 and died on 29th September 1973.

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