BORN HULL 1880. SON OF JOHN PAGE GASCOIGNE (1855-1912) & ANNIE LOUISA STUBBINS, OF 14 BLENHEIM TERRACE, WORSLEY STREET, HULL. ONE OF EIGHT CHILDREN. HIS BROTHERS FRED, SID & SAM ALSO SERVED. SISTERS ELSIE PENROSE AND ELEANOR HARROP. HE MARRIED FRANCES EMILY MACE IN 1904 AND HAD A DAUGHTER, CLARA. HE WORKED AS A DOCK LABOURER, AND LIVED AT 26 RAYWELL STREET, HULL (ARMY ADDRESS), WITH HIS UNOFFICIAL SECOND WIFE AND HOUSEKEEPER, MRS ISABELLA CARROLL, AND TWO DAUGHTERS, CLARA (FROM HIS FIRST MARRIAGE) AND FLORENCE MAY. RAYWEEL STREET WAS DESCRIBED AS ONE OF HULL’S POOREST STREETS. HOWEVER BY 1916, 77 MEN HAD ENLISTED AND SEVEN HAD BEEN WOUNDED.
JOHN ENLISTED IN HULL, ON 23/03/1915, AGED 35. DESCRIBED AS 5 FOOT, 6 INCHES TALL, 147 LBS WEIGHT, 36 INCH CHEST. SERVED IN GALLIPOLI FROM 25/08/1915 AND THEN IN FRANCE, AS PRIVATE, 17566, 6TH EAST YORKSHIRE PIONEERS. HE WAS KILLED AT THE SOMME, ON 24/09/1916, AGED 36. A WIDOWER.
HE WAS RECORDED AS KILLED ON THE RAYWELL STREET, ROLL OF HONOUR (Hull Daily Mail 22 November 1916)
HE LEFT TWO CHILDREN. HIS MEDALS WERE LEFT TO HIS SISTER ELEANOR HARROP, TO BE GIVEN TO HIS DAUGHTER CLARA, WHEN SHE WAS OLDER. HIS SECOND WIFE ISABELLA, WAS EXCLUDED. TO COMPOUND HER LOSS, THEIR DAUGHTER FLORENCE DIED IN 1917.
JOHN’S BROTHER, PRIVATE, SAMUEL ROY GASCOIGNE, ALSO OF THE 6TH EAST YORKSHIRE REGIMENT WAS KILLED TWO DAYS LATER, ON 26/09/1916, AGED 31. BOTH BROTHERS ARE COMMEMORATED ON THE THIEPVAL MEMORIAL TO THE MISSING AT THE SOMME. THEIR DEATHS WERE REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 05/10/1916, WITH THEIR PHOTOGRAPHS. *
