BORN HULL 23RD JUNE 1872. ONLY CHILD OF CARL AGUSTAF CRISLIP ROJAHN (1840-1871) AND HARRIET BARBER (1840-1915), OF 4, YORK TERRACE, BARNSLEY STREET, HULL (1911 CENSUS). HIS REAL SURNAME WAS ROJAHN (CWGC RECORDS), BUT HE SERVED AS BARBER. (SOLDIER’S DIED RECORDS).
A BOER WAR VETERAN AND HULL DOCKER. DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT, 9 INCHES TALL, BROWN EYES, DARK BROWN HAIR, TATTOOS OF SAILOR HOLDING A UNION JACK ON LEFT ARM, WOMAN HOLDING A BASKET ON RIGHT ARM,, MOLES ON BOTH TEMPLES (POLICE GAZETTTE RECORDS).
HE ENLISTED IN THE 12TH EYR (HULL PALS). ACTED AS A SNIPER. HE WAS KILLED AT SERRE, ON 13/11/1916, AGED 44. LISTED ON THE THEIPVAL MEMORIAL, SOMME, FRANCE.
HIS ARMY EFFECTS WERE LEFT TO HIS WIDOW MINNIE (BORN 20/4/1882), AT 3, ETHEL GROVE AND 12, LILLIAN TERRACE, BARNSLEY STREET, HULL.(1911 CENSUS & WAR PENSION ADDRESS). SHE WAS AWARDED A WEEKLY WAR PENSION, OF 36 SHILLINGS AND 3 PENCE, ON 7TH JULY 1917.
THEY HAD FIVE CHILDREN (JOHN ALBERT ROJAHN (BORN 9/3/1909); FREDERICK ALBERT (B.13/8/1910); WILLIAM EDWARD (B. 19/11/1911); THOMAS ROJHAN (B. 16/10/1913); CHARLOTTE MAY (B. 18/1/1915) AND TWO STEP DAUGHTER (LILY PRATT (B. 7/3/1903) AND MABEL PRATT (B. 7/4/1905).
HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN HULL DAILY MAIL, 16/11/1917 & 23/11/17.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE JOHN ALBERT BARBER 12/382. Born John Albert Rojahn on 23rd June 1872 the only child of Carl and Harriet Rojahn. A Dock Labourer by trade he lived with his common law wife Minnie at 12 Lillians Terrace, Barnsley Street, Hull. The couple had seven children- John, Frederick, William, Minnie & George (both died in 1912), Thomas and Charlotte. Enlisting at City Hall in September 1914, John joined the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, 3rd Hull Pals; and no doubt with his children in mind and faced with an uncertain future, he married Minnie in April 1915. She was Minnie Barber, and he appears to have adopted her maiden name to join up, possibly to avoid the more Germanic-sounding ‘Rojahn’ singling him out for ‘special attention’. John was killed in action on the Somme on 13th November 1916 and his body was never recovered; his name is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial. He was 44 years old.
