BORN NORTH NEWINGTON, HULL, 1894. A HULL PAL. ALSO KNOW AS “DICK” FARNILL. SON OF WILLIAM HENRY & MARY E. FARNHILL, OF 82 , GLENCOE STREET, HULL. HE WAS UNMARRIED AND LIVED WITH PARENTS. HIS FIANCEE WAS POLLY CHAPMAN, WHO LIVED IN EDINBURGH STREET, HULL. BEFORE THE WAR HE WORKED FOR THE HULL & NETHERLANDS SHIPPING COMPANY. DICK’S DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL WITH HIS PHOTOGRAPH ON 14TH JUNE 1916. *
Hull Pals Memorial Post: Born in January 1894, John was the fifth of nine children to William and Mary Farnill of 82 Glasgow Street, Hull. A Checker on the Fish Docks by trade, he enlisted at Hull City Hall on 7th October 1914 joining the 10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Commercials’, 1st Hull Pals.
John trained in Hornsea, Beverley and Ripon throughout 1915 and served in Egypt over Christmas before leaving Alexandria for Marseilles in late February. He contracted influenza and was hospitalised for the first week of May 1916 before returning to the line on the 9th. He was five feet seven and a half inches tall with brown hair and blue eyes, and had less than a month to live.
John was killed in action on 4th June 1916 during the 70 minute bombardment which claimed the lives of so many of his fellow volunteers, men who just a few weeks earlier had been crowned the ‘Lucky 10th’ for their ability to survive sustained shellfire unscathed. No-one called them that now. John Richard Farnill is buried in Sucrerie Military Cemetery; he was 22 years old. He is commemorated on the ww1 Memorial, at St John The Baptist Church, Newington, Hull. Three other young soldiers from Bean Street, Hull, died in the same bombardment and are commemorated nearby on St Matthews Church, Boulevard, Hull.
