Selected Biographies

Johnson, Charles – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk on 21.2.1896.[1]  Parents: Charles Johnson (Agricultural Labourer) and Emma [née Flack].  Family Connections: Brother to Harry Johnson [b1889] and James Johnson [b1894]; also, brother-in-law of Herbert James Reynolds [b1899].  Home: Bulney Moors Farm Cottage, Heaven Lane, Long Melford (1901 to 1911), New Road, Glemsford, Suffolk (1921), 48 Hunts Hill, Glemsford (1939) to [1956]. Occupation: Agricultural Labourer (1911), Scutcher for Flax Cultivation Ltd., of Glemsford (1921), Agricultural Labourer (1939).  Married: Mary Elizabeth Fumish in 1920.  Service Record: Charles enlisted on 1.7.1915 as Pte.9617 with 3^rd [Reserve] Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, transferring on 8.2.1916 as Pte.3679 to 51^st Brigade Machine Gun Company and posted to France as part of 17^th [Northern] Division.  He was wounded by shrapnel to his left leg on 26.6.1916 and repatriated to England.  He was reposted to France with 214^th MG Company from 16.3.1917 as part of 173^rd Brigade, 58^th [2/1^st London] Division, being injured again on 20.9.1917, by a gunshot wound to the left side of his face, while encamped at Poperinghe, near Ypres.[2]  He was taken to N^o. 46 Casualty Clearing Station at Mendinghem, before being sent to England for months of treatment.  Charles never returned to active service and on 2.7.1918 was issued with a Silver War Badge and discharged as ‘surplus to military requirements’.[3]  Died: Sudbury, Suffolk on 13.2.1956.[4]

Johnson, Harry – Born: Hartest, Suffolk on 28.9.1889.[5] Parents: Charles Johnson (Agricultural Labourer) and Emma [née Flack]. Family Connections: Brother to James Johnson [b1894] and Charles Johnson [b1896]; also, brother-in-law of Herbert James Reynolds [b1899]. Home: Ballingdon Yard, Hartest, Suffolk (1891), Bulney Moors Farm Cottage, Heaven Lane, Long Melford (1901), Military Barracks, Egypt (1911), Bulney Moors Farm, Long Melford [1918], Clay Pits Cottages, Foxearth, Essex (1939).  Occupation: Labourer [1907], Soldier [1907 to 1919], Agricultural Labourer (1939).  Married: Elizabeth M. Mott in 1928.  Service Record: Harry enlisted in July 1907 as Pte.7589 with ‘C’ Company, 1^st Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, serving in Malta and Egypt.  At the start of the First World War, he was stationed at Khartoum in the Sudan.  He was posted to France from 16.1.1915, as part of 84^th Brigade, 28^th Division, the Battalion taking over trenches in the Verbrandenmolen sector to the south of Ypres.  On 15.2.1915 German troops broke through the British front line, overwhelming trenches held by ‘C’ Company; it was during this action that Harry Johnson received a gunshot wound to the head and together with the other survivors in his company was taken prisoner.[6]  Private Johnson was transported first to a German field hospital at Lille, then on to Prisoner of War camps at Friedrichsfeld and Wahn near Cologne, being repatriated to England on 29.12.1918.[7]  On 6.2.1919 he was transferred to 11^th Battalion, Bedfordshire Regiment, finally being discharged in July 1919.[8]  Died: Sudbury, Suffolk in 1940.

Johnson, Henry – Born: Long Melford, Suffolk in 1881.[9] Home: Military Barracks, Sturry Road, Canterbury, Kent (1901).  Occupation: Soldier (1901).  Service Record: Serving as a Private with 18^th [Royal] Hussars [Queen Mary’s Own] in 1901.  It is not known if Henry saw service during the First World War as no definitive record has been found.

Johnson, James – Born: Hartest, Suffolk in 1894.  Parents: Charles Johnson (Agricultural Labourer) and Emma [née Flack]. Family Connections: Brother to Harry Johnson [b1889] and Charles Johnson [b1896]; also, brother-in-law of Herbert James Reynolds [b1899]. Home: Bulney Moors Farm Cottage, Heaven Lane, Long Melford (1901 and 1911).  Occupation: Cowman on Farm (1911).  Service Record: James was conscripted on 8.3.1916 as Pte.25229 with 10^th [Service] Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, posted to France from 13.9.1917 with 3/10^th Battalion, The Duke of Cambridge’s Own [Middlesex] Regiment and transferring as Pte. G/21327 to ‘B’ Company, 3/4^th Battalion, The Queen’s Own [Royal West Kent] Regiment, then part of 52^nd Brigade, 17^th [Northern] Division.  He was wounded on 15.12.1917 near Ypres and evacuated to N^o. 59 Northern General Hospital at St. Omer in France.  Upon recovery he was transferred to ‘C’ Company, 6^th [Service] Battalion, Royal West Kents as part of 37^th Brigade, 12^th [Eastern] Division, receiving shrapnel wounds to the face and right eye on 22.3.1918, while stationed near the town of Albert.[10]  Died: James died of his wounds on 27.3.1918 at N^o. 51 Casualty Clearing Station at Merville and is buried in Merville Communal Cemetery Extension [grave ref: III.C.12], Nord, France and commemorated on the Long Melford War Memorial.[11]

Related Biography

Reynolds, Herbert James – Born: Ipswich, Suffolk on 20.11.1899.[12]  Parents: Enoch George Reynolds (Groom and Gardener) and Emma [née Goodwin].  Family Connections: Brother-in-law of Harry Johnson [b1889], James Johnson [b1894] and Charles Johnson [b1896]. Home: 31 Emlen Street, Ipswich, Suffolk (1901), Denham Abbots, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk (1911), Liston Lane, Long Melford [1925], 2 Martins Rise, Long Melford (1939). Occupation: Agricultural Labourer [1917], Sailor [1917 to 1933]. Married: Florence May Johnson of Long Melford in 1924. Service Record: Herbert was conscripted on 20.11.1917 as Boy Sailor N^o. J79205 with the Royal Navy, serving on the protected cruiser HMS Powerful in 1917 and the battle cruiser HMS Renown in 1918.  He was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in 1933.[13]  Died: Sudbury, Suffolk in 1982.  

Notes – [1] Date of birth from the 1939 Register for Melford Rural District in Suffolk and his Soldiers’ Documents, First World War ‘Burnt Documents’ [WO 363].  [2] For details of 51^st Machine Gun Company’s movements see War Diary [WO 95/2008/3], and for 214^th MG Company’s see War Diary see [WO 95/3001/11].  [3] Service Medal and Award Rolls, First World War, Silver War Badge [WO 329] record [ref: 485317], Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  [4] National Probate Calendar.  [5] Date of birth from his Prisoner of War record held by the International Committee of the Red Cross.  The 1939 Register for Halstead Rural District in Essex records his birth year as 1888 and confirms his wife’s name.  His birth year of 1889 has been used because it is also consistent with the Birth Index which records that his birth was registered in the fourth quarter of 1889.  [6] For details of 1^st Suffolks’ movements see War Diary [WO 95/2277/3], for details of the action see Murphy, Lieutenant-Colonel C. C. R. The History of the Suffolk Regiment 1914-1927 [London: Hutchinson and Co, 1928], pp.49-55.  [7] For Harry’s POW records see ICRC website [file refs: PA2090, PA4291, PA7319 and PA7862].  [8] Soldiers’ Documents, First World War ‘Burnt Documents’ [WO 363], Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329], and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  [9] Henry’s birthplace and unit are taken from the UK Census for 1901.  [10] For details of 3/4^th Royal West Kents’s movements at the time of James’s injury see War Diary [WO 95/2013/2], for details of 6^th Royal West Kents’s movements at the time of his fatal injury see War Diary [WO 95/1861/6].  See also his Soldiers’ Documents, First World War ‘Burnt Documents’ [WO 363], Service Medal and Award Rolls 1914-1918 [WO 329] and Service Medal and Award Rolls Index Cards 1914-1922 [WO 372].  [11] Commonwealth War Graves Commission record and British Army Registers of Soldiers’ Effects, 1901-1929 file [ref: 656910].  [12] Baptism Register 19.1.1900, St Matthews Church, Ipswich.  [13] Recorded as an Able Seaman at baptism of daughter see Baptism Register 1.11.1925, Holy Trinity Church, Long Melford.  See also his Royal Navy Registers of Seaman’s Services [ADM 188/805] and Medal and Award Rolls [ADM 171/113 and ADM 171/150].