Guardsman John William Walton

Coldstream Guards, Service no. 27609

Born: 20^th June 1897.  Died: 21^st March 1951.

Story

John was the son of Joseph William Walton (1871-1938) and Myra Bleasby (1872-1914).  The family lived at Mount Pleasant, Kippax, and John was baptised on 7^th July 1897.  He worked at Allerton Bywater Colliery, as a coal miner, and enlisted with the Army on 9^th December 1915, under the Lord Derby Scheme.  He was 5ft 7½ inches tall, and did not get called up until 24^th April 1918, by which time, John had married Sarah Elizabeth Banks in Castleford on 20^th May 1916, and moved to 41 Denton Terrace, Castleford.  The couple already had a daughter, named Myra, after John’s late mother, on 14^th July 1916, and a son Geoffrey, who would be born 7^th January 1919, was on the way when John went for training with the Coldstream Guards in Caterham, Surrey (pictured below) on 26^th April 1918.  John did not serve abroad, and after the War, the couple had three more children: Reggie in 1922, who passed away the following year, Granville in 1924, and Peter on 16^th June 1928.  John’s wife Sarah passed away in 1931, at the age of 33, so John moved back to Kippax, living at 37 Sandgate Terrace where he continued working as a coal miner.  He passed away at the age of 53, and was buried in Kippax on 24^th March 1951.

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