Driscoll, John Joseph

BORN MANCHESTER 1885. LIVED IN HULL. ORIGINAL HULL PAL. KILLED IN ACTION. ARMY ADDRESS.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE JOHN JOSEPH DRISCOLL 14/209. Born in Manchester in 1885, John was the son of Patrick and Mary Driscoll both of whom were deceased. He came from a large family of 6 brothers and sister and four half-brothers and sisters, though they had all emigrated to the United States. He worked as a Fireman before the war and lived at 5 De La Pole Street, Hull before attesting on 25th January 1916 and joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment in the trenches on 16th April. He went out on a night raid in No-Man’s Land and never came back, being listed as ‘Missing Believed Killed’ until a letter confirmed his death. His body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial; he was 31 years old. Now here I have my interest piqued. He went missing on the same day as Private Willie Wells from Day 637, on very probably the same raid. Both men were firemen by trade and lived not too far from one another, it is conceivable that they knew one another in civilian life.