BORN HULL 1887. SON OF JOHN WILFRED & ALICE JOHNSON, OF 10, TELFORD STREET AND 94, BARMSTON STREET, HULL. ONE OF FOUR BROTHERS TO DIE IN THE GREAT WAR. A BRICKLAYER (1911 CENSUS). HE BECAME A PAINTER BY TRADE AND SERVED HIS APPRENTISHIP WITH J.W. NEWLOVE, OF WALMSLEY STREET, HULL. AT THE TIME OF ENLISTING HIS ADDRESS WAS 16 POPLAR STREET, HULL. HE SERVED WITH THE HULL PALS. WAS KILLED IN ACTION, ON 16/04/1916, AGED 29. THE ENEMY THREW A BOMB AT HIS POST DURING AN ATTACKE. HIS PARENTS MOVED TO, 5 GELDER TERRACE, BRIDGE STREET, BRIGG. HIS DEATH WAS REPORTED IN THE HULL DAILY MAIL, ON 26/04/1916. *
PRIVATE HAROLD JOHNSON 12/838. Born in Hull, Harold enlisted in September 1914 joining the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Sportsmen’, 3rd Hull Pals. Details are sketchy, but he trained throughout 1915 at barracks in Hornsea, Beverley and Ripon before leaving Devonport bound for Alexandria, Egypt on 8th December. The battalion formed a garrison posted to defend Suez from potential attack by the Turks, but their only combat was with the twin evils of disease and the cruel desert nights. They left Port Said for Marseilles on 29th February 1916 and from there caught the train north to the trenches of the Western Front. Harold was killed in action on 16th April 1916 and buried in Sucrerie Military Cemetery.
THE FOUR JOHNSON BROTHERS, LOST IN THE WAR WERE:
PRIVATE, HAROLD JOHNSON, 12/838, 12TH EYR, KILLED ON 16/04/1916, AGED 29, OF 94 BARMSTON STREET, HULL.
PRIVATE, ARTHUR JOHNSON, 13/446, 13TH EYR, DIED OF WOUNDS, 10/09/1917, AGED 24 – 152 FOUNTAIN ROAD, HULL
STOKER, WALTER JOHNSON, ROYAL NAVY, HMS ‘MARMION’, DIED AT SEA, 21/10/1917, AGED 19 – 81 LEE STREET, HULL
PRIVATE, JOHN WILFRED JOHNSON, 3/7268, 3RD EYR, DIED IN HULL, ON 01/12/1918, AGED 33, OF 5 HARDY STREET, HULL
