The Great War: N–Z · Story 4

John William Pearson (1895-1944)

The Pearson name was well known in Ringstead and became nationally famous when John William “Crutchy” Pearson was part of the Raunds March to London in 1905. The March was to press Parliament for better piece-work rates for the military boots and shoes that were the staple product of the Raunds and Ringstead “handsewn men”. John walked all the way on crutches because he was lame in one leg and he became an obvious target for the newspaper photographers and reporters. He is not our man, however, for he was born in 1869. He married and by 1911 had a cobbling business in March in Cambridgeshire although he had retired back to Ringstead by 1939

Our John William Pearson was born on 16th February 1895, the son of Tom George and Martha Jane. He was baptised on 11th August 1896 in Ringstead Church. His father was a local man but his mother, Martha Leigh was originally from Polebrook. Tom was a handsewn man and, in the 1911 Census, we see that he was working at home and, at a time of much unemployment among the shoemakers, he was still in work. John William, now 16 years old was also shown as a “handsewn shoemaker”. He was very young to have earned this description.

The Great War began and John would have seen the local men going to France and the heartbroken families when they did not return. Others would have returned with terrible stories to tell. The reality of the war set in and the early optimism of a quick victory disintegrated. The Regulars, Territorials and Volunteers were not enough to stem the German onslaught and Conscription was brought in in early 1916.

John was conscripted on 16th February 1916 and became part of Machine Gun Corps and was given Service Number 65638. Once again, few of his records survived the German air raid in the Second World War. This is complicated by the Ringstead Roll of Honour which states that he was in the 50th Battery of the MGC. There was no such unit, but there was a 50th Machine Gun Company as well as, from 1st March 1918, a 50th Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps. As a result, the following account is my best attempt but may not be reliable outside the basic facts.

It seems most likely that the Roll of Honour refers to the 50th Battalion of the MGC which was formed from the Machine Gun Companies of the 50th (Northumberland) Division. This Division had several Machine Gun Companies which were the 149th, 150th and 151st. Looking at the list of men who were transferred into the Machine Gun Corps, which was produced by Steve (hmsk212) on the Great War Forum, it seems likely that he went to France in late 1916 or early 1917. This list was based on transfers from other regiments and the numbers do not give a strict chronological order but do give some broad indication.

If we assume (and it is far from a certainty) that, in 1917, he was with the 50th Division Machine Gun Companies, which, moved into the 50th Battalion, he would have fought in the First Battle of the Scarpe, the Capture of Wancourt Ridge and the Second Battle of the Scarpe, which were phases of the offensive usually known as the Battle of Arras. The 50th then moved to the mud of Flanders and took part in the Third Battle of Ypres in a phase called the Second Battle of Passchendaele.

In 1918 there was a reorganisation and, on the 1st March 1918, the three Machine Gun Companies, the 149th, 150th and 151st were amalgamated into the 50th Battalion of the Machine Gun Corps but remained part of the 50th Division. The new Battalion was at the Battle of St Quentin, the Actions of the Somme Crossings and the Battle of Rosieres, part of the Battle of the Somme 1918.

Perhaps the Division’s hardest battles were in response to the last Great German offensive, at the Battle of Estaires, Battle of Hazebrouck (Battle of the Lys) and the Battle of the Aisne.

This would have seen the Division at its lowest ebb. It had suffered heavy casualties and was exhausted. It was taken out of the front line and the infantry units were replaced. It did not go into action again until October 1918. By then the German Offensive had been fought to a standstill and the pendulum had swung, with increasing speed, in favour of the Allies.

The 50th Battalion, as part of the 50th Division fought in the Battles of the Hindenburg Line and the Final Advance into Picardy. It was resting at Soire le Chateau when news of the Armistice came through on 11th November 1918.

The demobilisation began in December 1918 and John William Pearson was finally discharged on the 12th February 1919.

We know that John had been appointed Lance Corporal and also that he had been wounded twice. We do not have any dates for these events but we do know that he suffered a gunshot wound to his right thigh and received an Army Disability Pension. It may be that he had been wounded near the end of the war and was in hospital recuperating until his discharge

He returned to his family in London End in Ringstead and later, in 1919, he married Florence Manning. A John W. Pearson joined the National Union of Railwaymen in February or March 1919 and is shown in the records to have been working as a labourer based at Thrapston. It seems likely that this was our man. I think that the couple only had one child, Gertrude, who was born on 16th November 1919.

At some point he changed his work and became a foreman in a local Ironstone Quarry. This was his job in 1939 when the Register of England and Wales was taken, identifying the home population, as the Second World War began. Florence had become an Assistant Mistress in a local school. Their daughter, Gertrude, aged nearly twenty, was a student. The family were now living in Spencer Street on the Tilcroft Estate.

John died in Kettering Hospital on 10th July 1968, aged 73. At the time of his death his address was still 11 Spencer Street and he was a “Retired Steelworks Staff Foreman”. Florence lived to be 88 and died in 1982.