L/Cpl 33349 John Derrick

John Derrick was born in Liverpool on the 21st September 1895 to single mother Esther Derrick, who was born in Liverpool in 1870.

His baptism record in St. Joseph’s on 26th September shows “son of Samuel Vaughan”, but this is crossed out and the surname Vaughan replaced with Derrick. His birth was registered as John Charles Vaughan, mother’s maiden name Derrick.

 

Neither John nor his mother have been found on the 1901 census.

 

In 1911 John is living with his mother at 57 Dryden Street. Esther is a general dealer/shopkeeper, John is 16, working as an assistant fishmonger. Living with them are boarders Margaret Ryan, 44, and Patrick, 10.

 

His mother married William McAndrew in the June quarter of 1915.

 

John enlisted at Knowsley on 31st July 1915 as Private 31036, joining The King’s Liverpool Regiment (Depot). He gave his age as 19 years and 10 months, and his occupation as tanner’s labourer. He was described as being 5’ 1” tall, weighing 124 lbs, with a chest measurement of 35 and a half inches. He gives his address as 57 Dryden Street and as next of kin his mother Esther McAndrew.

 

On 18th August 1915 he was posted to the 22nd (Reserve) Bn K.L.R. 

 

He was appointed Lance Corporal a year later, on the 07th August 1916.

 

On 23rd September 1916 he was arrested on Formby station for overstaying his pass.

 

He was posted to the 11th (Lonsdale Battalion) Border Regiment as Lance Corporal 33349 on 29th December 1916 and shipped overseas the same day, seventeen months after enlisting. 

 

Six weeks after arriving in France on 11th February 1917 John was declared Missing. 

 

His death was later presumed, for official purposes, as having occurred on that date.

 

His name appeared in the Weekly Casualty List on 28th August 1917 (the casualty lists were only published at the beginning in August 1917).

John now rests at Ten Tree Alley Cemetery in France.

 

Puisieux village was captured by British troops on the 28th February 1917, lost on the 26th March 1918 and recovered on the following 21st August. Ten Tree Alley was made by the V Corps (as Ten Tree Alley Cemetery No.2, V Corps Cemetery No.24) in 1917 and it stood beside a former German trench, captured by the 32nd Division on the night of the 10th-11th February 1917. There are now nearly 70, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, over 20 are unidentified. The Cemetery covers an area of 250 square metres, without the access path and is enclosed by a rubble wall.

 

His Army effects and a War Gratuity of £6-10s went to his mother.  She was awarded a pension of 12/6d a week from October 1917.

 

In 1919 his mother provided information on John’s living relatives: she was his only blood relative.

 

Esther remained at 57 Dryden Street into the 1930s.  William McAndrew died in 1932 aged 69.

 

In 1939 his mother is found as a patient in the Royal Infirmary.  

 

She died in 1943 in Belmont Road Hospital, aged 73, and was buried in Ford Cemetery.