Crombie, John Brown

BORN HULL 1886. SON OF EDWARD & MARY HANNAH CROMBIE. MARRIED 1914. WIFE BLANCHE MARY CROMBIE ABOVE. HIS NAME IS RECORDED ON ALL SAINTS CHURCH MEMORIAL, HESSLE.
Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE JOHN BROWN CROMBIE 33051. Born September 1886, the only son of Edward and Mary Crombie of 1 Spring Terrace, Hull. John had a younger sister, Mary, but he lost both her and his parents as a child and was adopted by William and Sarah Hardy of 66 First Lane, Hessle. He married Blanche Mary Mockett in Hull in July of 1914, just days before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the series of catastrophic events which spiralled out of control and led to war. John and Blanche had a son, Richard, in 1916 but by then his course was set. He was killed in action in the small hours of the morning during a trench raid on German positions around La Becque Farm, and his body was lost out there in the dark and never recovered. His name is commemorated on the Ploegsteert Memorial; he was 32 years old. John Brown Crombie’s Will was read in York on 29th November 1920, in it he left the sum of £170 to Blanche. She lived the rest of her days a widow, dying in Beverley in March 1976, 58 years alone. Richard Crombie lived until 1986, with only stories and a couple of medals where a father should have been.